Scholars@Duke
Ashley Ward

Ashley Ward

Area Director, Nicholas Institute for En
Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability
ashley.ward2@duke.edu
2111 Campus Drive, Durham, NC 27708

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

Climate Change and Disparities in Extreme Heat Exposure for Socially Vulnerable Areas in the Contiguous United States

Journal article Earth S Future · February 1, 2026 Socially vulnerable communities within the contiguous United States (CONUS) face disproportionate heat exposure, yet how these disparities will change under future warming remains unclear. Although socially vulnerable communities already experience higher ... Full text Cite

Intersecting Risk: Heat and Substance Use in Rural Communities.

Journal article Substance use & misuse · January 2025 BackgroundExtreme heat has a direct impact on health and can exacerbate substance use. Rural communities are at high risk given higher rates of hospitalizations for heat related illness and the disproportionate effects of substance use. This comme ... Full text Cite

The Climate Change Burden on Immune Health: Are Persons Living with HIV More at Risk?

Journal article AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses · October 2024 Climate change poses one of the most significant modern threats to overall human health,especially for vulnerable populations including persons living with HIV (PLWH). In this perspective, we specifically explore the concept of immune resilience in human h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Higher Temperatures in Socially Vulnerable US Communities Increasingly Limit Safe Use of Electric Fans for Cooling.

Journal article Geohealth · August 2023 As the globe warms, people will increasingly need affordable, safe methods to stay cool and minimize the worst health impacts of heat exposure. One of the cheapest cooling methods is electric fans. Recent research has recommended ambient air temperature th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Running on climate change: Lessons learned from the campaign trail

Journal article Journal of Climate Change and Health · August 1, 2022 Full text Cite

Influence of growing season temperature and precipitation anomalies on crop yield in the southeastern United States

Journal article Agricultural and Forest Meteorology · September 15, 2020 This study investigates the spatiotemporal relationships between growing season precipitation, maximum temperature, and minimum temperature anomalies on yield for corn (Zea mays), soybean (Glycine max), cotton (Gossypium), peanut (arachis hypogaea), and sw ... Full text Cite

The impact of heat exposure on reduced gestational age in pregnant women in North Carolina, 2011-2015.

Journal article International journal of biometeorology · December 2019 Research on the impact of heat on pregnant women has focused largely on outcomes following extreme temperature events, such as particular heat waves or spells of very cold weather on pregnant women. Consistently, the literature has shown a statistically si ... Full text Cite