Integrity of Creation Conference

The Climate Crisis and Sustainable Global Health

March 22-23, 2027

Duquesne University | Power Center

This twelfth conference will focus on the Climate Crisis and Sustainable Global Health, emphasizing the relationship between health and climate. The interdisciplinary conference invites participants from different disciplines to engage in civil discourse on a different topic each year. The format of the conference includes workshops, presentations, and posters.

The IOC theme for 2027 is a unique opportunity for collaboration to benefit the hundreds of students who take interdisciplinary global health courses every semester. Offering the first officially approved interdisciplinary global health programs at the university since 2018, the Center for African Studies is happy to co-sponsor this conference to further understanding, research and publication in global health.

The conference series was commissioned by former President Charles J. Dougherty as an endowed academic event. Current University President, Ken Gormley, continues to inspire excellence in support of the Spiritan mission as the conference series develops.

The conference has three goals:

Provide a scholarly opportunity to engage established and emerging research on the conference topic
Foster interdisciplinary discourse on each topic, such as science, health, philosophy, religion, and policy
Enlighten public awareness and discussion of the conference topic

Conference Speakers

Dr. Erica Smithwick is a Distinguished Professor of Geography and Director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Penn State University. She is also an Associate Director of the Institute of Energy and the Environment. Smithwick leads the Penn State Climate Consortium that aims to bring together interdisciplinary researchers in partnership with society to innovate climate solutions. Trained as a landscape and ecosystem ecologist, her work aims to support sustainable land management decision-making under climate change, with particular focus on forest resilience to wildfire and natural carbon sequestration strategies. She has worked extensively across the U.S.,including in the Mid-Atlantic, the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and has many past or ongoing research projects in Africa. She also served as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in South Africa and a Charles Bullard Fellow at Harvard Forest Research Station. An overarching thread of this research is the use of trans-disciplinary partnerships to identify solutions to complex environmental challenges. She is currently the lead investigator of EFNet – the Eastern Fire Network – which aims to set a research agenda for wildfire in the East.

Presentation Date: March 22, 2027

Presentation Time: 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Presentation Title: Regenerative Solutions to New Climate Risks: Preparing for Wildfire in the Eastern U.S.

Abstract: Wildfire frequency and acreage are increasing in the eastern U.S., foreshadowing accelerated risks to infrastructure, communities, and ecosystems. In recent years, thousands of wildfires burned in novel settings across the southern and northern regions of the East. In the western U.S., it is well known that intensifying drought is associated with increase wildfire burned area and frequency, but it is unclear whether similar trends occur across the heterogeneous fire landscapes of the East. These novel wildfires in the East have few analogues and the resultant fire behaviors and impacts are unknown. The Eastern Fire Network (EFNet) was established to establish a research agenda to better understand the drivers and outcomes of wildfires in the East. We ask (1) what are the distinctive social, physical, and environmental characteristics that drive fire hazard, exposure, and vulnerability across the East, and (2) how have fire-relevant weather and climate changed across the eastern U.S. and are these conditions associated with recent fire events? In this talk, I review the state of the science for wildfire-climate relationships nationally and in the East, identifying priorities for future planning and decision-making. I also present a new initiative, Prepare PA, which is convening a network across the Commonwealth to develop cross-sectorial solutions to mounting hazards caused by a changing climate. Ultimately, meeting these challenges requires regenerative solutions rooted in the co-creation of values around thriving ecosystems and communities.

Mathieu Boulanger

Br Mathieu Boulanger: An agricultural engineer by training, Br Mathieu Boulanger worked in the food industry before he first met the Spiritans in 2007 in the Philippines, where he volunteered for two years. He eventually joined the Congregation in Paris in 2014 as a religious brother. After a Master in Development Studies and two years of Theology of Religions, he was sent to Pakistan in 2017. Involved in the JPIC animation team of the French Province for several years, he became increasingly conscious of the global ecological crisis. Appointed Integral Ecology Coordinator for the French Province in 2021, he is also community bursar and involved in a Spiritan guest house project.

Presentation Date: March 23, 2027

Presentation Time: 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Presentation Title: Global Health from a Local Perspective: A Spiritan Laboratory of Integral Ecology in Allex (France)

Abstract: The presentation explores the Spiritan community of Maison Saint-Joseph d’Allex as a local “laboratory” of Integral Ecology in response to the climate crisis. Inspired by Laudato Si’ and Spiritan commitments to mission and care for vulnerable people, with the help of the “Green Church” methodology, the initiative combines ecological practices—renewable energy, sustainable food, biodiversity protection, and ecological education—with hospitality and social inclusion. The experience suggests that climate responses are more sustainable when environmental action is integrated with human dignity, health, spirituality, education, and community participation. Allex thus offers insights into building healthier, more resilient communities through interconnected ecological and social action.

IOC Proceeding Books

Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Health as a UN Sustainable Development Goal. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2026, forthcoming.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Fostering Well-being as a UN Sustainable Development Goal. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Resilience in Ecology, and Health. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2023.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Strands of Sustainability. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Toward a Healthy Planet. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021.
Magill, G., L. Prybil. Governance Ethics in Healthcare Organizations, Routledge, 2020, Paperback, 2021.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. The Global Sustainability Crisis. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Cascading Challenges in the Global Water Crisis. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019. Paperback, 2021.
Magill, G., J. Potter, eds. Integral Ecology. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018. Paperback, 2021.
Magill. G., Aramesh, K., eds. The Urgency of Climate Change. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.