Graduate School
Boston University School of Public Health

Undergraduate School
Tufts University

Mentor
Vivien Li, Rappaport Institute Advisory Board Member

Agency
City of Boston, Boston Public Health Commission

Supervisor
Courtney Grey, Director of Disaster Behavioral Health, Office of Public Health Preparedness

Description of Fellowship
Yareliz Diaz spent her summer at the Boston Public Health Commission’s Office of Public Health Preparedness (OPHP). There she had the opportunity to attend the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s annual conference and learn from industry leaders across the country. She also got certified as a national weather spotter! Her work over the summer surrounded conducting research on the increasing suicide rates for young Black men across the country and culminated in a literature review and report with findings and preliminary recommendations for future preventative interventions. OPHP also received a Barr grant that focuses on climate resilience in the city and will create Community Resilience Networks (CRN) in different neighborhoods across Boston. Yareliz developed the initial survey for the members of the CRN in order to gather baseline data and understanding of what are immediate community needs and what they are already doing in their own neighborhoods to support each other during times of climate related emergencies.