Healthy Ocean, Healthy People

About Our Speakers

Vanessa Kerry, M.D., M.Sc. is the co-founder and CEO of Seed Global Health (Seed), a non-profit organization focused on health systems strengthening and transformation through long-term investments and training of the health workforce. Under her leadership, Seed has helped educate more than 45,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives in seven countries, helping to improve health care for more than 76 million people.

In June 2023, Dr. Kerry was appointed WHO Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health. She has spoken and written about the effects of climate change on human health and health systems and the need to integrate a health-centered response into climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. Dr. Kerry supported the UAE COP28 Presidency to shape the first-ever COP Day of Health in December 2023 and continues to lead efforts globally to build advocacy around the impact of climate change on health and ensure equitable and just climate action.

Dr. Kerry is a pulmonary and clinical care trained physician and the Director of Global and Climate Health Policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is the mother of two children.

Vikki N. Spruill is President and CEO of the New England Aquarium, an ocean conservation organization that educates and inspires more than a million visitors a year on Boston’s Central Wharf; conducts applied research through its Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life; and rescues and rehabilitates threatened and endangered sea turtles in its Sea Turtle Hospital in Quincy, Mass.

Ms. Spruill previously served as President and CEO of the Council on Foundations, the largest association of philanthropic grant-making organizations, and Ocean Conservancy, a science-based advocacy organization dedicated to the oceans. She also founded the Trash Free Seas Alliance, was the founding director of SeaWeb, and helped found COMPASS, which empowers scientists to better engage in public discourse on environmental issues.

Ms. Spruill is on the Board of Directors of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce as well as the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Water Institute of the Gulf. She is a Trustee of the New England Aquarium and an active member of Boston’s Green Ribbon Commission and the Massachusetts Women’s Forum. She also serves as Co-chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Climate & Energy Leadership Council and as a member of M&T Bank’s Director’s Advisory Council.