Healthy Nurses, Healthy Environments
National Nurses Week 2026
Join us each day at noon during National Nurses Week for a live Zoom webinar series! Each session explores the environmental health issues shaping the health of our communities — from toxic chemicals and extreme heat to air quality, plastics, and food and agriculture. All webinars are held at 12pm PST/3pm EST. Join live and receive FREE CE credits!
Meet Our Speakers
National Nurses Week 2026
Barbara Sattler, RN, DrPH, FAAN
Monday: Toxic Chemical in Our Everday Lives
Friday: Health Implications of Food and Agriculture
Dr. Sattler is Professor Emeritus at the University of San Francisco and an international leader in environmental health and nursing. She has been an advisor to the US EPA’s Office of Child Health Protection and the National Library of Medicine for informational needs of health professionals on environmental health. She is a founding member of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. Through her founding role with the California Nurses for Environmental Health and Justice she has been educating and involving nurses regarding a wide range of environmental health issues including climate-related extreme heat, storms, flooding, and fire-related human health risks; health risks associated with food and agriculture; Dr. Sattler is a Registered Nurse with an MPH and DrPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.
Alexis Duran, RN, BSN, MPH, PHN
Tuesday: Nurse’s Roles in Extreme Heat Events
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.
Will Barrett, AVP Nationwide Clean Air Advocacy, American Lung Association
Wednesday: The State of California’s Air
Will Barrett is the Assistant Vice President for Nationwide Clean Air Policy at the American Lung Association. Will oversees clean air and climate advocacy efforts within the Healthy Air Campaign, serving as a national spokesperson and coordinating campaigns among state and national health partners. Since 2009, Will has been leading and supporting Lung Association policy campaigns in California, while also supporting nationwide advocacy, research and educational efforts. In these roles he has served on federal, state and non-profit boards and committees focused on transportation and energy issues. Prior to joining the Lung Association, Will served as the program lead for the California Voter Foundation’s Campaign Disclosure Project promoting transparency in state-level campaign finance data. He previously facilitated stakeholder engagement in the HIV Services Planning Council’s allocation of federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related health services in the Sacramento region where he lives with his family. Will is a graduate of The Evergreen State College and Yale School of Public Health Climate Change and Health certification program.
Elise Wallis, MPH
Wednesday: The State of California’s Air
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.
Dr. Bridget Lee, MD
Thursday: Plastics and their Associated Health Risks
Dr Bridget Lee lives and works in Boston. She has been an emergency physician for over 25 years, and over the past years has immersed herself in sustainability in healthcare. Through this she has learned about both the dangers of our overuse of plastic, and the significant role that our healthcare industry plays in this. She is dedicated to educating other health professionals about plastic toxicity and why those of us in healthcare need to be leaders in reducing and finding sustainable ways forward.
