Welcome to the Policy & Advocacy Forum!
The Policy & Advocacy Forum meets to discuss current policy issues and the critical role that nurses can play in advocating to protect public health and the environment at all levels of government. The Forum’s rich discussions lead to actions that elevate the voice of nursing on some of the most pressing issues of our time including climate change, environmental impacts, and toxic chemical pollution. Nurses are the most trusted profession and we must use our collective voice to advocate for health protective laws and regulations. The Policy & Advocacy Forum will help you to get involved in doing just that! The Forum meets on a monthly basis.
Sign up for our forum listserve so you can stay up to date with our activities: Sign up and learn more below!
For more information about the ANHE Policy & Advocacy Forum, please contact info@envirn.org.
Policy-Advocacy Forum Co-Chairs
Kathy Curtis
Kathleen Curtis, LPN, Team Leader of the Cumulative Impacts/Mandatory Emission Reductions team at Coming Clean, has 35 years of experience in the environmental health movement and is a widely recognized national leader whose policy expertise is in high demand. Her leadership has guided enactment of several local, state and federal policies regulating toxic chemicals. She is a founding Board member and co-coordinates the Policy and Advocacy Forum of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. She is Founding Emeritus Executive Director of Clean and Healthy New York. She was Senior Development Consultant at Healthy Building Network, co-coordinator of the JustGreen Partnership. co-leader of the Coming Clean Collaborative’s Policy Workgroup, and Executive Director at Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, where she was an author of Building Green without Going in the Red. Previously, she was Outreach Director at Environmental Planning Lobby (now Environmental Advocates of NY) and worked as a nurse.
Kathy is the recipient of Health Care Without Harm’s 2015 Charlotte Brody Award, Coming Clean’s Outstanding Leadership Award, and the Children’s Environmental Health Champion Award from the NYS Children’s Environmental Health Centers. She is an author of numerous reports, including Is It In Us? Toxic Trespass, Regulatory Failure and Opportunities for Action; and Hazardous Chemicals in Health Care – A Snapshot of Chemicals in Doctors and Nurses. She is on the steering committees of the New York Sustainable Business Council, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, and Rotterdam Conservation Advisory Council.
Atenas Mena
Atenas Mena has been a nurse for five years and holds a certification in pediatric nursing. Atenas holds a bachelor of science in nursing degree from Avila University and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in nursing leadership at Missouri Western State University with a planned graduation date of December 2019. Atenas currently works as a nurse environmental health coordinator at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.