Shawna Beese, PhD RN 
After a fulfilling 12-year career in hospital management and 20 years as a nurse leader, I returned to graduate school in 2019 to work towards a PhD in Nursing with a focus on population health. I wanted to transition my work to community-based health promotion. Currently, I serve as an assistant professor of rural health promotion for the Washington State University Extension through the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences. My program has three broad categories 1) research regarding neighborhood determinants of health and rurality; 2) resource needs assessments for rural residents and community-based project development; and 3) developing a transferable rural health promotion program. I also serve as the County Extension Director for Whatcom, WA.
Trey L. DeJong, PhD
Having a love for both people and math, I found my academic home in the world of quantitative psychology. I attained a PhD in Educational Psychology: Research, Measurement, & Statistics from the University of North Texas in 2021 and have since become the assistant director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Statistical Education and Research (CISER) at Washington State University. My role at WSU involves research and statistics consulting for researchers both internal and external to the university and teaching courses covering applied introductory and advanced statistics across various disciplines. This role has led me to many research opportunities that focus primarily on applying statistical techniques to real world problems, establishing best practice for statistical analysis, and teaching and training of statistics for applied researchers. My statistical areas of interest are those which consider the context of variable relationships such as hierarchical linear modeling and moderation effects.
Co-hosts of the EHRI-CNS Series:
Heide Cygan, DNP, RN, PHNA-BC
Dr. Cygan is an Associate Professor at the Rush University College of Nursing, in the Department of Community, Systems and Mental Health where she teaches public health nursing to graduate and doctoral students. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Michigan and her Doctor of Nursing Practice in Advanced Public Health Nursing from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dr. Cygan is a board certified advanced public health nurse. As a public health nurse, a main tenant of Dr. Cygan’s practice is understanding the reciprocal relationship between humans and their environment. Much of Dr. Cygan’s current scholarship is dedicated to advancing planetary health through nurses and other health professionals. She specifically focuses on innovative teaching strategies that develop nursing students as planetary health leaders.
Heidi Honegger Rogers, DNP, FNP C, APHN BC, FNAP
Dr. Honegger Rogers is a clinician educator – associate professor at the University of New Mexico (UNM) College of Nursing. She is the Director of Interprofessional Education for the UNM Health Sciences Center. Her advocacy and scholarship centers in climate change and health, equity and justice, nature connection, wellbeing, and planetary health. She leads the Planetary Health Task Force for the American Holistic Nurses Association, and she works with Nurses for Planetary Health, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, the Global Consortium for Climate Change and Health Education Nurses Working Group, and the Planetary Health Alliance. She is a facilitator with the Work That Reconnects and a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide. She is dedicated to bringing a Planetary Health Lens into our work as nurses and health professionals. Pronoun preferences: she/her/hers.
About the Focus on EHRI-NCS Series
The NIEHS funded EHRI-NCS grant (PI Jessica Castner, PhD, RN, FAAN) offers research, educational, and career-building opportunities for nurse environmental health scientists. In this series, two participants, Dr. Heide Cygan and Dr. Heidi Honegger Rogers interview other fellows about their studies and experiences. Join us for a fascinating journey of ideas!
About the Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast
Since 2017, Beth and other hosts have interviewed dozens of nurses across the globe, all of whom are working at the intersection of health and environment. The goals of the podcast are to spread the word about the fabulous work of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments – so we’re glad you found us! And, to highlight and share the amazing and leading work nurses around the world are doing to help protect our natural world in order to support health and healing.
Again and again, nurses are spearheading social change, climate action, environmental justice, and improving health for vulnerable populations, while using their valuable clinical skills, teaching, and caring. Nurses’ work can seem overlooked or taken for granted, and we are here to tell their important stories. We hope you enjoy meeting the nurses in the Nurses for Healthy Environments podcast!
Beth Schenk, Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast Host
Elizabeth Schenk, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a leader of environmental stewardship in healthcare, where she has been working to reduce
pollution from healthcare for 3 decades. Schenk is a former board member of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, and serves on the boards of Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate and Climate Smart Missoula.
