Dr. Liv Yoon is an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology at UBC. Her research is at the intersection of climate change, social inequities, and health, with a focus on community engagement and participatory methods. Her PhD training in social sciences and socio-cultural kinesiology informs her to think about bodies in sociopolitical contexts, provoking thought about how some bodies are considered more ‘dispensable’, and in turn, rendered more vulnerable to climate-related risks and pollution. Her research considers taking climate change as an opportunity to challenge the status quo and promote structural changes that alleviate social inequities that both led to, and are exacerbated by, the climate crisis.

Prior to joining UBC, she worked in public service as a policy analyst at Health Canada’s Climate Change and Innovation Bureau (CCIB). She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Earth Institute and Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, where she worked on projects related to climate and environmental justice, household energy insecurity, just transition, extreme heat, and health. She continues to serve on the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) and Columbia’s Environmental Justice and Climate Just Cities Network (EJCJC). Throughout her PhD studies at UBC, she was an active member of the UBC Climate Hub.