Description:
How can nurses turn local advocacy into broader environmental health change? This episode explores the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments’ Regional Forums, including how they connect nurses across states, strengthen grassroots advocacy, and help local policy successes build momentum elsewhere. The conversation also looks at efforts to prepare more nurses to speak out on toxic chemicals, environmental health policy, and issues affecting their own communities.
Jason Kirchick, MPH, MSN, RN, CNL, OCN, MEDSURG-BC
Jason Kirchick is an oncology nurse and environmental health advocate whose work sits where clinical care meets climate and environmental policy. He was a member of the original cohort and a 2019 Fellow of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, an experience that shaped how he connects the bedside to the broader environmental determinants of health.
Much of his advocacy centers on the environmental drivers of cancer and chronic disease. This past year he helped pass legislation in Vermont establishing the first statewide ban in the nation on paraquat, a dangerous herbicide linked to cancer and Parkinson’s disease, and worked to build a coalition of nurses, conservation groups, and legislators behind it. He also serves with the Region 1 New England Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, part of the national Children’s Cancers and the Environment Program, which works to expand the exchange of information among health professionals about the environmental triggers of childhood cancers.
His clinical and community roles keep that policy work grounded. Jason is a practicing oncology nurse and serves as Advocacy Director for his local chapter of the Oncology Nursing Society and as Ambassador Constituent Team Lead in Vermont for the American Cancer Society. He is also an elected Justice of the Peace, now serving his fifth term. Across each of these roles he carries the same conviction, that nurses hold both the credibility and the responsibility to shape the policies that protect their patients and communities from preventable environmental harm.
Tom Engle, MN, RN
Tom Engle is mostly retired. His past work history includes County Health Director, County Mental Health Director, and Community Liaison Director Oregon Health Division. He was the chair of the organization of county health departments in Oregon for 10 years. He is on the board of the Oregon Public Health Association, Co-Chairs the Oregon Action Future of Nursing group, is on a County health department advisory board and the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health advisory board. He is on the APHA Governing Council. He has been on the board of the Association of Public Health Nurses. He facilitated passing the first local tobacco ordinances in Oregon. He was an early chair of the Oregon Breast and Cervical Cancer Coalition, and was an early scholar of the National Public Health Leadership Institute.
Guest Hosts:
Sarah Bucic, MSN, RN, PMHCNS-BC
Sarah Bucic (she, her) is a Policy Analyst with the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. In her work at ANHE, Sarah focuses on outreach to current administrative officials and legislators around ANHE’s climate policy initiatives. Sarah has been a RN since 2001 with her advocacy grounded in her local community. She formed a grassroots citizen air monitoring group in her fenceline community which performed independent air monitoring and has also worked on successful state level legislation centered on lead poisoning prevention in children. Sarah has taught undergraduate nursing students both in the classroom and in the community, holds a Master’s in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a Post Master’s from University of Maryland in Community/Public Health Nursing.
Hannah Noel, DNP, RN
Hannah Noel (she, her) is a public health nurse, Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) – Health Innovation and Leadership, and the Director of Member Engagement & Professional Education for the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. She supports the organization’s staff and nurse members, who are working in communities around the world to promote healthy environments. Hannah directs the development, planning, implementation and evaluation of ANHE’s professional education programs including the Nurses Climate Challenge, School of Nursing Commitment, Nurses Drawdown, and the learning site and leads organizational initiatives designed to cultivate ANHE membership. Prior to joining ANHE, Hannah has worked in school nursing, cardiac/telemetry and research nursing. After participating in ANHE’s inaugural Environmental Health Nurse Fellowship program, Hannah continues to build relationships and work with local communities to better understand, prepare for, and mitigate the negative health effects of climate change and polluted air, soil, and water.
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
ANHE’s Fall 2026 Regional Forum Roadshow
About the Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast
2026 marks the 9th season of the Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast. Since 2017, Beth and other hosts have interviewed dozens nurses across the globe, all of whom are working at the intersection of health and environment. The goals of the podcast are 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, and to spread the word about the fabulous work of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. We’re glad you found us!
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.
