Dr. Potter is deeply committed to planetary health education and movement building. She was the inaugural director of the Center for Planetary Health and Environmental Justice at the School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota. She is a board member of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, a member of the American Academy of Nursing Environment and Public Health Expert Panel, and she is a member of the Steering Committee of the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA). She serves on the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the US Health Sector. Her most recent work is partnering with the International Council of Nurses to promote Nursing for Planetary Health.

Mia McPherson, MPH, BSN, RN is an adult oncology and public health nurse in southeast Michigan. She is the Michigan Nurse Advocacy Coordinator at the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE). In this role, Mia focuses on advancing local/state clean energy policies to promote improved environmental health outcomes.

Professor Gemma Stacey is the Programme Director for the Nursing Now Challenge as well as the Associate Dean for Practice in the School of Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), where she leads strategic knowledge exchange and external engagement initiatives that translate research, education, and practice into real-world impact through partnerships and collaborative action. A Mental Health Nurse by background, she bridges academia, healthcare practice, and charity sector leadership, bringing deep insight to workforce development and healthcare transformation.

Lucy Brown is the Development Director for the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH), where she leads on partnerships, business development, and the Nursing Insights Project. She is an award-winning senior clinical leader and a registered Children's nurse with dual expertise as Head of Sustainability at Circle Health Group.

Cara Cook, MS, RN, AHN-BC (she, her) is the Deputy Director for the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. Her work focuses on elevating environmental health as a national priority by engaging nursing organizations and individual nurses in environmental health advocacy, education, and practice change. Cara has experience in critical care and public health nursing. She holds a Master’s in Community/Public Health Nursing through the University of Maryland.

ANHE Program Manager, Climate & Clean Energy | Chair ANA Advisory Committee: Planetary & Global Health | Fellow of the American Nurses Advocacy Institute.

Dr. Kruger is a National Clinician Scholar at the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and a Research Fellow with University of Michigan School of Nursing focusing her work in global health systems, particularly within the context of disasters and climate-related health emergencies. Her work aims to identify nursing’s role in developing more resilient health systems in the face of increasing climate and geopolitical crises. Her research is deeply informed by nearly 20 years of clinical experience in remote and underserved areas around the world. She currently maintains her practice as an Emergency Nurse Practitioner, while also serving on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Emergency Nurse Practitioners.

Melissa Vera, PhD, RN
Dr. Vera (Tsm'syen and Yaqui First Nations) is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University. Her research explores how Indigenous knowledge systems transform nursing, planetary health, and community wellbeing by reconnecting relationships between people, Land, and our more-than-human kin. Dr. Vera's scholarship includes Indigenous determinants of health, climate justice, food sovereignty, Land-based healing, and decolonized methodologies. She partners with Indigenous communities across the United States, Canada, and Aotearoa New Zealand to co-create research that honors Indigenous sovereignty and community priorities. Her work has contributed to international conversations on Indigenous approaches to planetary health through publications in The Lancet Planetary Health, Medical Teacher, Creative Nursing, and Environmental Research: Health, as well as invited presentations for organizations including the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the American Public Health Association, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, and universities across the United States and Aotearoa New Zealand. Dr. Vera is an Honorary Research Fellow with Ngā Wai a Te Tui Māori and Indigenous Research Centre of Excellence at Unitec in Auckland and serves as Senior Associate Editor for AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples.

Sue Anne Bell, PhD, FNP-BC, is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing and the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. Her work focuses on the health and well-being of older adults in the context of disasters and public health emergencies. Her research, funded by NIH, NASA and private foundations, examines how health system and policy decisions shape outcomes, and on the design of resilient care systems before disasters occur. She served as a 2024–2025 NIH Climate and Health Scholar, as a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Advisory Council on Seniors and Disasters, and recently completed a six-year term on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Advisory Council. Clinically, Dr. Bell is active as a nurse practitioner with the National Disaster Medical System and has deployed on more than a dozen federal disaster response missions.

Stephanie started as a new graduate nurse in the year 2017, as a transplant nurse, certified in transplant and med-surge, and promoted through the clinical ladder at Weill Cornell: NYP. She graduated with her MSN in Feb 2023 at Columbia University in Advanced Clinical Management and Leadership. She was awarded the Rising Star award of Nursing Clinical Excellence in 2019. She became the chair of the EBP/ Committee and Healthy Nurse of Operations, as well as Nursing Board representative for the enterprise prior to her nursing leadership role. Stephanie in her spare time is a transition to practice coach and lead for mentoring new graduate nurses. Her first leadership job was managing the hemodialysis/ Apheresis and inpatient acute rehabilitation center in Dec 2021. She completed several IRB studies and published a chapter in Nurturing Leadership Growth in a Millennial Clinical Nurse: A Blueprint Through Mentoring. In: Mentoring in Nursing through Narrative Stories Across the World. Stephanie also is a human centered nurse leader currently a co-lead for two Quality and Patient Safety Goals for the hospital and enjoys mentoring nurses and volunteering in the community on her spare time. Stephanie wished to take her experiences to the global world of nursing and joined the Nursing Now Challengers Committee in 2023.