December 2021
Teresa Wicks, Billings MT
Assistant Professor, Montana State University College of Nursing Billings, Montana
Teresa Wicks teaches nursing at MSU – Billings. She’s been environmentally aware for many years but her year long battle with breast cancer in 2009 caused her to research far more the effects of environmental damage including air pollution to human health. In 2016, an acquaintance noted “there is no such thing as climate change”. She had to refute this comment as inaccurate, which led her to use her research skills to become even more educated on the topic of climate change and human health. Time in Red Lodge this summer showed her how close climate change is as the Robertson Draw fire raged for weeks, threatening her small cabin and many other homes.
Teresa, like many of us, asks “How can I use my professional voice in all of this?” She incorporates climate into her courses where students sometimes initially cannot make the connection. Teresa queries, “what if your patient is a young mom who is not breastfeeding and severe storms contaminate the water supply. How will she feed her baby?” She frequently sees the light go on as her students realize the interrelation.
“Everyone should have to do a stint of community health to really see the social disparities,” Teresa passionately states. She feels for those least responsible who are most affected. Those in sub-standard housing and in poorer and less green portions of our cities, where the effects of severe heat waves like Montana experienced this summer affects their health and threatens their lives.
Teresa is involved in the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment (ANHE). She is featured in their 2020 report: Nurses on the Frontlines: Unmasking the Influence of Air Pollution, Health Disparities, and Oil and Gas Development on COVID-19. She recently lobbied with other Montana ANHE nurses with one of our members of Congress.
Being involved in community, including protesting hazards to health and encouraging her students to vote, is just part of being a good citizen and a concerned professor to Teresa.
Teresa Wicks, Billings MT
Assistant Professor, Montana State University College of Nursing Billings, Montana
Teresa Wicks teaches nursing at MSU – Billings. She’s been environmentally aware for many years but her year long battle with breast cancer in 2009 caused her to research far more the effects of environmental damage including air pollution to human health. In 2016, an acquaintance noted “there is no such thing as climate change”. She had to refute this comment as inaccurate, which led her to use her research skills to become even more educated on the topic of climate change and human health. Time in Red Lodge this summer showed her how close climate change is as the Robertson Draw fire raged for weeks, threatening her small cabin and many other homes.
Teresa, like many of us, asks “How can I use my professional voice in all of this?” She incorporates climate into her courses where students sometimes initially cannot make the connection. Teresa queries, “what if your patient is a young mom who is not breastfeeding and severe storms contaminate the water supply. How will she feed her baby?” She frequently sees the light go on as her students realize the interrelation.
“Everyone should have to do a stint of community health to really see the social disparities,” Teresa passionately states. She feels for those least responsible who are most affected. Those in sub-standard housing and in poorer and less green portions of our cities, where the effects of severe heat waves like Montana experienced this summer affects their health and threatens their lives.
Teresa is involved in the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment (ANHE). She is featured in their 2020 report: Nurses on the Frontlines: Unmasking the Influence of Air Pollution, Health Disparities, and Oil and Gas Development on COVID-19. She recently lobbied with other Montana ANHE nurses with one of our members of Congress.
Being involved in community, including protesting hazards to health and encouraging her students to vote, is just part of being a good citizen and a concerned professor to Teresa.