Alexis Duran is a Registered Nurse with over a decade of experience in acute care, having worked across intensive care, emergency services, and medical-surgical oncology units. She has served for several years on the Leadership Council for California Nurses for Environmental Health and Justice (EHJ), where she has led advocacy and education initiatives to amplify nurses’ voices in shaping healthier environments for all Californians. A recent graduate of the Master of Public Health program at UC Berkeley, Alexis is transitioning her focus from acute care to preventative care, with an emphasis on environmental health. She currently serves as the Nurse Liaison for a state-funded project on Extreme Heat in San Joaquin County, supporting efforts to protect at-risk communities, advance health equity, and build local resilience against the escalating impacts of climate change.

Elise Wallis is the Manager of Health Partnerships for the American Lung Association. Her work focuses on mobilizing health professionals and health organizations around the Lung Association’s clean air and climate advocacy work in California. She is also responsible for coordinating the organization’s “Health Professionals for Clean Air & Climate Action” newsletter that goes out to thousands of health professionals around the country each month. Previously, Elise served as a Health Promotions Specialist at the American Lung Association where she trained health professionals across Southern California to lead smoking cessation classes, lung disease support groups and asthma education programs. Prior to her work at the Lung Association, she was a fundraiser for the Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland, one of the nation’s oldest free clinics. Elise holds a Master of Public Health in Community Health Sciences from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree from Baldwin Wallace University. She is based in Los Angeles, CA.