Amanda Quintana

Amanda Quintana is a global environmental health professional with over seven years of experience in international health and development, program management, and implementation. Currently, Amanda is pursuing her Ph.D. in climate resilient health systems at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where she looks at the implementation of climate adaptation policy for health in South Africa. She has experience supporting international agencies, government partners, civil society, and country decision-makers around the world on global health activities and climate and health research priorities.

Quintana works at the intersection of climate and health, supporting the integration of climate change into health programs, climate and health strategy development, and broader stakeholder engagement in the intersecting area. To date, she has worked with projects—such as the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Abt-led Local Health Systems Sustainability Project in Colombia—to integrate climate change considerations into project activities.

Quintana previously worked for the USAID Global Health Bureau, supporting the delivery of maternal and child health and immunization interventions. There, she supported and led procurements of global health awards, managed polio and immunization projects and activities, and led and conducted environmental compliance and climate risk management for the Maternal Child Health and Nutrition Office.

While serving at USAID, Quintana was an Embassy Science Fellow at the U.S Consulate in Lagos, looking at urban climate resilience. In this role, she conducted research on urbanization and climate impacts on Lagos State to create a set of recommendations for Lagos’ government. She informed the U.S. Consulate’s engagement in Lagos’ resilience efforts, built linkages between science and policy, and met with several key stakeholders in government, private sector, and civil society organizations.

Quintana came from USAID to the U.S Global Change Research Program, where she served as Senior Climate and Health Specialist, Quintana led and coordinated the federal working group on climate change and human health.

Expertise

• Health Systems
• Climate Change and Health
• Immunizations
• Environmental Health
• Program Management

Publications

• Colin Quinn, Amanda Quintana, Tegan Blaine, Amit Chandra, Pete Epanchin, Shanna Pitter, Wassila Thiaw, Amalhin Shek, Geoffrey M. Blate, Fernanda Zermoglio, Elizabeth Pleuss, Hiwot Teka, Eduardo Samo Gudo, Gunawardena Dissanayake, James Colborn, Juli Trtanj & John Balbus. (2022). “Linking science and action to improve public health capacity for climate preparedness in lower- and middle-income countries” Climate Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2022.2098228
• Quintana, A.V., Venkatraman, R., Brandon Coleman, S., Martins, D., and Mayhew, S.H. (2021) “COP26: An opportunity to shape climate-resilient health systems and research”. Lancet Planetary Health. November 17, 2021. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00289-8
• Quintana, Amanda V., Clemons, Meredith, Hoevemeyer, Krista, Liu, Ann, Blabus, John. (2021) “A Descriptive Analysis of the Scientific Literature on Meteorological Factors and Air Quality Factors and COVID-19”. AGU Geo Health. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GH000367. 2021
• Jones Hunter, Quintana Amanda V., Trtanj Juli, Balbus John, Schramm Paul, Saha Shubhayu, Castranio Trisha, DiLiberto Tom, “Developing an Experimental Climate and Health Monitor and Outlook,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS). doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0054.1. 2020