Teresa Homsi

My sister moved from Houston, Texas to Cheboygan two years ago. She’s no stranger to hurricanes and floods, but the “climate haven” that some boast about in the Midwest has not yet materialized for her. Since she’s moved, northern Michigan has been engulfed in wildfire smoke, ravaged by a terrifying ice storm and now, hit with record-breaking flooding. Call it bad luck or a coincidence, but the trends paint a different picture. Extreme precipitation has increased by 45% since 1958-2021 in the...

MiCCA Director Teresa Homsi shared the following testimony on Feb. 26, 2026 in Gaylord, Michigan as part of a series of "People's Hearing" events on extreme weather, in partnership with the Climate Action Campaign. Like many others living in northern Michigan last year, I couldn’t sleep the first Saturday night of the storm, kept awake by the sound of branches cracking and crashing to the ground. Wrapped up in blankets, I found myself bracing for the potential impact of a tree on my roof. At...

When I got my COVID and flu vaccines earlier this year, it didn’t just feel like a health-conscious choice, but a civic duty. Over the last decade, we’ve increasingly seen how the rise in mis- and disinformation on social media platforms have fueled political polarization and vice versa. This has made even small, personal decisions like getting a flu shot take on some weighty political significance. There are many factors contributing to the rise of the anti-vax movement, including a lack of...