When Hannah Kelley, a Bonnie Reiss fellow and recent UC Berkeley graduate in Molecular Biology, began her fellowship at UCSF, she could not have anticipated how much it would change her outlook on healthcare, the environment, and her career trajectory.
Kelley was assigned to support environmental initiatives at the Labor and Delivery where she worked closely with Laura Weil, CNM, NP, MPH, is a nurse practitioner, midwife, and associate professor for Obstetrics and Gynecology & Reproductive Services.
“When I first started shadowing, on the first day, they were like ‘oh, your scrubs are over there’, I was like ‘scrubs?’, I thought I was just going to be in my business casual with a clipboard,” Kelley said. “That first day, I watched two c-sections; it was gory and intense, but also so beautiful. All the nurses were putting on their surgery caps, and they were like ‘we have to put on our birthday hats for the birthday party!’ and I was already hooked.”
After that, Kelley began to take a deeper interest in women’s reproductive health, working beyond her fellowship to shadow Weil at the Mount Zion clinic, where Weil provides a range of services including prenatal care, IUD implantation, and removal. Kelley also learned about the impact of climate change on reproductive health.
“Way more than ever, people are using IVF, not just because people are having children later, but also because of the environment. It all goes hand in hand,” Kelley said.
Kelley presents a research poster on waste reduction initiatives in the Birth Center.
In February, Kelley had the opportunity to represent UCSF at two national health and environment conferences, the 2026 Climate Health Equity Day Research Program and the Medical Students for a Sustainable Future (MS4SF) conference, where she presented a poster on the waste-reduction initiatives she helped steward at the Birth Center. These included changing guidelines on blood pressure cuff use and catheter disposal, adding landfill bins to the operating room, and collecting surplus medical supplies for donation.
“That was really fun because everyone was doing sustainability projects. Their topics were mostly about how climate change affects health, and mine was more about how health affects the climate.”
The conference brought attendees from across the country and even the world to share their research and personal experience at the intersection of human health and the environment.
“All the speakers were emphasizing that health is universal. Everyone worried about their health, and most people trust their health to their family members or their doctor. So, if you’re a doctor or a nurse, you have such a crucial role in your patient's life, and you are such a great person to educate them on climate change.”
Kelley stands in front of the United States Capitol, located in Washington, D.C, where she and other healthcare professionals met with representatives.
"A lot of the conversation was about how divided our country is and how it is such a major setback, but that doctors need to keep their heads down, just keep doing what they're doing, because it is making a difference.”
During the conference, Kelley joined other health professionals to visit with government staffers and share a healthcare perspective on EPA regulations that can benefit patients by reducing hospital visits and costs.
“I felt in the action, it made me want to do some kind of lobbying or policy work later in life, I was like ‘this is how you get things done’. It was really inspiring,” Kelley said.
Now, Kelley, who was previously on a pre-med track, is considering walking in the footsteps of the health professionals she worked with at Labor and Delivery to pursue a career as a nurse practitioner.
“Growing up, you’re thinking firefighter, doctor, lawyer, so I didn’t even really know that this was a role. I thought if you wanted to do healthcare, you had to be a doctor,” Kelley said.
“I think nurse practitioners play such a crucial role in women’s health. I’m excited to go back to the convention later in life when hopefully I am working and can bring back my own stories,” Kelley said.
For medical professionals looking to get involved, Hannah suggests checking out the free ECO America ambassador program, which provides training on how to raise climate change in conversations with patients.
“Something that I am definitely bringing back to my work and my fellowship is that in these hard times, not just hard times with the climate, but with everything that’s going on, it feels heavy to try to take the whole world on, but, no, keep going, the changes you are making don’t go unnoticed,” Kelley said.