Massachusetts taps its first heat resilience officer as extreme heat risks rise

As summer temperatures climb, Massachusetts is adding a new climate post to address heat risk.

Here's what to know

Massachusetts has its first heat resilience officer, a position announced by Gov. Maura Healey. According to The Boston Globe, only Arizona has previously created a dedicated statewide role focused specifically on heat.

The appointee, Katie Schlick, worked with the U.S. Climate Alliance and served in the Biden administration as a special assistant to the national climate adviser, the Globe reported. Earlier in her career, she held an environmental planning role at a regional council in Connecticut.

Her new job is to shape a statewide plan for reducing the health dangers and infrastructure problems linked to extreme heat.

That threat is becoming harder to ignore. According to the Globe, the state has warmed by nearly 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the early 1900s, and days above 90 degrees could double or triple the historic average by midcentury.

The effects are already showing up in hospitals. Between 2017 and 2021, heat stress led to an average of about 750 emergency room visits each year.

As Schlick described it, meeting that challenge will take a "whole-of-government, whole-of-community" approach, per the Globe.

More background

Heat is often described by experts as the deadliest form of extreme weather, even if it does not always leave behind the same visible destruction as floods, wildfires, or hurricanes.

In places with housing, transit, and public infrastructure that are not equipped for high temperatures, the danger can be great.

Patricia Fabian, an environmental health professor at Boston University, told the Globe that residents of generally cool states may face greater risk in extreme heat than others because people's bodies may be less acclimated and buildings and public systems may not be designed for long stretches of high temperatures.

The risks go far beyond discomfort. High temperatures can worsen asthma and other illnesses, increase hospital visits, and strain the electric grid as air conditioning use rises.

During a roundtable at Clark University, officials and advocates pointed to rising nighttime temperatures, which can disrupt sleep and affect children's ability to perform well in school.

"Actual people, individuals, are left to pay the price of this pollution," Melissa Hoffer, the state's climate chief, said, according to the Globe.

What's being done?

A major part of Schlick's job is to help agencies and communities work together.

The newspaper reported that she'll set up a council spanning multiple agencies that will build an action plan to shield vulnerable residents, critical infrastructure, and natural resources from worsening heat.

The position will report to both the state climate chief and the Department of Public Health commissioner, which reflects that Massachusetts is treating extreme heat as both an environmental and public health issue.

The role carries a $90,000 salary and is fully funded for at least two years by The Boston Foundation.

That outside funding has raised concern among advocates, who said the role's impact could depend on whether the state commits permanent support of its own.

"Hopefully, it turns into something that the state sees as a necessity," Marissa Zampino, climate organizing manager for the Mystic River Watershed Association, said, per the Globe.

Heat preparedness is becoming a larger part of climate planning, including coordination around cooling access, emergency response, and public health protections, especially for children, unhoused people, older adults, and others who are most vulnerable when temperatures surge.

Public health experts say part of the challenge is cultural: getting people to recognize the danger before it becomes a crisis.

Fabian said she often hears the same reactions when she studies heat in Boston: "It's always cold," adding, "People don't think about northern states as having a heat problem."

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