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Neil Singh Bedi MPH ’25, Zuckerman Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership, is reimagining leadership at the intersection of climate, health, and justice.

In this personal reflection, he explores how today’s crises demand not just clinical skill or policy expertise, but the courage to build systems rooted in equity, resilience, and the pursuit of wellness for all.

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I’m a California native, now training in Boston. In the Summer of 2020, just before starting medical school, I stood in San Francisco as the sky turned orange behind the skyline, thick with wildfire smoke. It felt like both a warning and a reckoning.

A few years later, I returned to California—not just to visit home, but as a clinician with a passion for climate and health. Driving through the scorched valley where the Oak Fire burned in 2022, I saw melted cars, collapsed laundry machines, and the steel scaffolds of trampolines. As the wind moved through blackened ridges and splintered tree trunks, I asked myself: How did we end up here?

Three thousand miles away in Boston, as a medical student advocating for human rights, conducting health equity research, and coming to understand the realities of the American healthcare system, I encountered dozens of moments that led me to ask the same question: How did we end up here?

At the time, these moments seemed disconnected—climate disasters, systemic injustices, dysfunctional healthcare policies—but they stemmed from the same root: broken systems. 

Recognizing this root cause, meaningful change must happen at the scale of systems. As author Donella Meadows wrote, we need the courage to restructure how we design, deliver, and sustain the frameworks that shape daily life. I entered the realm of systems thinking and problem-solving from a unique vantage point: as a Californian who grew up evacuating from wildfires, as a physician-in-training in the world’s healthcare capital, and as a Punjabi Sikh, born into a culture rooted in equity and justice.

Over the past year as an MPH student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Zuckerman Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership, I’ve carried these lessons into every room I enter. Our systems are only as strong as their weakest link. And our generation cannot afford to merely inherit them—we must reimagine them.

Today’s crises, especially those at the intersection of climate change and health, are outpacing the capacity of existing systems. Some of these systems are simply outdated; others were deliberately designed to exclude, marginalize, and cause harm, and in many cases, they are working exactly as intended. We are at a stage where emerging leaders must move toward designing, aligning, and bridging systems. Leadership in this era demands the ability to diagnose systemic failures and the courage to co-create something better. We need systems that are resilient, inclusive, rooted in community values, and globally connected.

My year at the intersection of public health and public leadership has taught me that lasting impact doesn’t come from working harder within broken systems—it comes from rethinking the systems themselves. Among my colleagues and mentors at ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø and beyond, there is a shared mindset: we are responsible not just for identifying what’s broken, but for designing something better.

This mentality of powerful cross-sector collaboration was omnipresent at , where I had the privilege to serve as Rapporteur for the Health Track. Leaders from government, medicine, labor, and civil society came together to confront extreme heat and climate risk in the Global South—not in silos, but through interdisciplinary collaboration. That shared commitment to co-creating solutions, rooted in urgency and equity, reflected everything I’ve come to value through the Zuckerman Fellowship and my time at HSPH. During that same trip, I made a pilgrimage to Sri Harmandir Sahib—the Golden Temple—in Amritsar, Punjab, the most sacred site in our culture and faith. My time in Punjab and New Delhi underscored a simple but powerful truth: across geographies and sectors, there is a shared humanity—and a global common ground on which solidarity and solutions can be built.

Effective leadership also necessitates the humility to see problems from new vantage points and to recognize that no single perspective holds the complete solution. This came into focus during our annual CPL Fellows Field Experience in New Mexico, where we engaged with community leaders, policymakers, and government officials on sustainable economic development. They wrestled daily with the challenge of balancing health, economic wellbeing, and environmental priorities—approaching each with a mix of realism and optimism.

My time as a Zuckerman Fellow, in these real-world, on-the-ground experiences, fundamentally reframed how I understand my responsibility as a servant leader, and the importance of integrating diverse lenses to inform better decisions and stronger systems design at scale.

Climate change is the great systems test of our generation. The question now is: how will we rise to the challenge?

I am far from having a complete answer—but I know this much: we won’t solve it alone. Grounding our work in justice and humility, building common ground, fostering cross-sector collaboration, and meeting the needs of our communities are all essential parts of the path forward.

With the guidance of two of my mentors,  and , I had the opportunity to help develop a framework inspired by this vision. In partnership with  and the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, we co-authored . By 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. In the face of accelerating climate impacts, cities and health systems can no longer afford to operate in isolation. We developed a framework for understanding their deep interdependence—and a path forward grounded in collaboration. Health care institutions have the potential to serve not only as sites of care but as resilience hubs and anchor institutions, safeguarding the health of communities amid compounding climate-responsive threats. Likewise, cities can shape environments that protect people and the systems that serve them through intentional policy, infrastructure, and data-sharing practices. At its core, the piece is a call to recognize that resilience doesn’t reside in any one institution—it lives in the strength of the connections between them.

Even amid regional, national, and global uncertainty, meaningful progress is still possible, especially when grounded in community values and the relationships we build. Community-rooted action, guided by shared purpose and strategic partnership, remains one of our most powerful tools for climate resilience.

Though I was born and raised in California, my roots as a Punjabi Sikh have always shaped how I see the world—and the path forward. At the heart of our tradition is the principle of sarbat da bhala—wellness for all—which remains the clearest expression of the future we must build, together. My experience as a Zuckerman Fellow—and within the broader Harvard ecosystem—has only deepened my clarity about the kind of leader I hope to become: one who serves communities by designing resilient systems rooted in sustainability, equity, and compassion. Leadership in the climate and health arena demands that we become architects of systems we may have never imagined—but urgently need. 

As I prepare to return to clinical training, I carry these lessons with me—more committed than ever not just to treat symptoms at the bedside, but to heal systems at scale. And I have full faith that together, we can create a world where all people can truly be well.

Author’s Note: None of this work has been mine alone. I’m deeply grateful to the mentors across institutions [Boston Medical Center (especially the Departments of Medicine and Trauma and Acute Care Surgery), Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston University School of Public Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership] who have challenged, guided, and believed in me—and to my family and ancestors, whose sacrifices and values continue to shape the path I walk.