Speakers

VIRTUAL MEETING

Becca Welna is a Community Educator with Sojourner Project. For the past 40 years, Sojourner has been providing free and confidential support to those victimized by domestic and sexual violence in Western Hennepin County. As part of the Outreach and Education department, Becca enjoys sharing stories of survivor's resilience and raising awareness of the need for Sojourner's essential services. She finds particular joy in teaching SafeU, Sojourner's youth violence prevention education in local middle and high schools. She recently went back to school for a graduate certificate in content strategy and storytelling and loves working creatively to share the “on the ground” impact stories with the larger community. Prior to her current work, Becca was a youth counselor at a teen crisis shelter in San Francisco, focused on family reunification and stabilization. When not at Sojourner, Becca enjoys practicing and teaching yoga, hanging out with her nephews, and serving on the board of MN Peacebuilding Leadership Institute.

VIRTUAL MEETING

Dan Tranter is the supervisor of the Indoor Air Unit at the Minnesota Department of Health. He has been with the Indoor Air Unit since 2001 and has a Master of Public Health Degree from the University of Minnesota. The Indoor Air Unit conducts research, education, and outreach concerning indoor air quality, especially radon, mold, and carbon monoxide. Unit staff also regulate smoking in public places, air quality in enclosed sports arenas, and radon professional licensure.

Jeanne Weigum has served as the President of ANSR since 1980, though her path to leading the organization for nearly four decades has somewhat humble roots. The Association for Nonsmokers’ Rights, as it was called at the time, was in the midst of fighting for the nation’s first statewide clean indoor air law in 1975. Jeanne saw an ad in a local paper about the association’s work and decided to become a member, which only cost $1. After becoming a member, Jeanne soon joined the ANSR board and eventually moved her way up to the full-time President, a role for which she has never taken a salary. From ground-breaking smoke-free housing work to innovative approaches to preventing youth tobacco use, she has provided strategic direction for numerous public policy wins in Minnesota. She remains deeply committed to enhancing public health and her community. When not fighting the good fight at ANSR, you’ll find Jeanne baking in the winter, gardening in the spring and summer, and up to her ankles in rescue dogs year round.

David J. Willoughby is the chief executive officer of ClearWay Minnesota, which works to enhance life for all Minnesotans by reducing tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke through research, action, and collaboration. Willoughby also leads the Funder’s Alliance, a group of state foundation executive directors from across the country who work on tobacco control.

In 1975, ANSR helped pass the nation’s first comprehensive state clean indoor air legislation. Since then, ANSR has continued to play a leading role in shaping tobacco policy and has been involved in every major state-wide policy, such as the Freedom to Breathe Act in 2007 and raising the tobacco tax in 2013. ANSR helped Minneapolis and Saint Paul restrict the sales of flavored tobacco, including menthol, and also helped Edina become the first Minneapolis city to raise the tobacco sales age to 21.

The mission of ClearWay Minnesota is to enhance life in Minnesota by reducing tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke through research, action, and collaboration. They were created in 1998 and entrusted with overseeing 3 percent of the state’s tobacco settlement funds. ClearWay operates under the ongoing jurisdiction of the Ramsey County District Court. They use their portion of the settlement to help Minnesotans quit smoking and tobacco use, and to fund tobacco-related research, programs, and initiatives around the state. ClearWay Minnesota works to raise people’s awareness of the dangers of tobacco and to make Minnesota a healthier place.