Deborah Balk

Deborah Balk is Professor of Public Affairs in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College and at the Graduate Center (in the Sociology and Economics Programs) and School of Public Health (Epi) at the City University of New York (CUNY). She is also Director of the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research (CIDR), from which she co-directs the virtual Center for Aging, Health and the Environment (CACHE). An expert on population-climate interactions, she has used a spatial demographic lens to study a wide range of demographic and health outcomes, poverty and vulnerability. She has published widely on the global, national, and local scales. From 2020-2024, she served as Co-Chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change’s 4th Assessment and was a member of Society and Economy Working Group of the New York State Climate Impacts Assessment, and more recently was a member of the Health Chapter for the 6th US National Climate Assessment. She also served as a member of the US Census Bureau’s Scientific Advisory Committee (and continues service now on the Independent-CSAC) and as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Population. She received her PhD in Demography from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Michigan.