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Bill Allred is a native of Ogden, Utah. He attended public school and Weber State College where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre.  He then went on to Penn State where he did three years working on a Master’s Degree in acting. Bill then pursued a career as an actor, finding work with the Long Beach Repertory Company; the State Theatre of Florida at Asolo; the Barn Dinner Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia; the Utah Shakespearean Festival: as well as work off-off-Broadway in New York City.  Bill’s acting has also included a role in Saturday’s Voyeur at the Salt Lake Acting Company, and as Pozzo in Waiting For Godot at the Rose Wagner Theater. Bill also played the role of Vicious in the Trent Harris film, “Delightful Water Universe.” Since 1980, Bill’s full-time job has been in Radio.  He worked at KJQ and has been with X96 (KXRK 96.3 FM) since the station’s inception.  At X96, Bill is part of the Radio From Hell Show, with Kerry Jackson and Gina Barberi, weekday mornings from 6  to 10 am. Bill is married to the talented graphic designer Jennifer Parsons.  He has four children: Old Little Bill and Old Little Mrs. Bill and Little Bill and Little Mrs. Bill. You can also catch Bill on The Let’s Go Eat Show Podcast!

Our featured guests will be:

UCAIR is a non-profit organization established to bring communities together with one goal in mind – improving Utah’s air. Thom has a diverse background, including work in the political and policy arena alongside international experience in professional sports. In the policy world, he has served as an elected official in New Jersey and has also worked on policy initiatives in New Jersey and Utah tied to health care and transportation respectively. Carter’s professional sports background includes growing Major League Baseball’s operations in Australia and helping to build a new indoor football league here in the United States. Now at UCAIR, Thom works diligently to bring partners together for collective impact in addressing Utah’s air quality challenges.

Jim Dabakis is an American politician from Salt Lake City, Utah. A Democrat, he served is a member of the Utah State Senate, where he represented the state’s 2nd senate district. Senator Dabakis started his political career when he co-founded the Utah Pride Center and Equality Utah. He works closely with both of these organizations. Dabakis was elected chair of the Utah Democratic Party in July 2011. He has made outreach to Mormons a focus of his tenure at the head of the party. In 2014, Dabakis stepped down as state party chair for health reasons and to spend more time with his husband, Stephen. Dabakis was appointed to the Utah Senate by Democratic delegates in December 2012, following the election of senator Ben McAdams to the mayoralty of Salt Lake County. Five candidates sought the Senate appointment, with Dabakis besting Peter Corroon, the outgoing mayor of Salt Lake County, by a vote of 67 to 61 in the final round of balloting. Senator Dabakis won reelection in 2014. Senator Dabakis has his own caucus, called the Dabakis Kakis. He holds weekly meetings to keep people updated on the legislative session. He also has a blog during the legislative session: dabakisdiary.wordpress.com. During the 2016 Legislative Session, Senator Dabakis served on the following committees: Senate Education Committee, Senate Revenue & Taxation Committee, Senate Rules Committee[10]. In October 2015, Dabakis started a TV show and an advocacy organization for liberals in Utah called “Utah Progressives“. Dabakis retired from the Utah State Senate in January of 2019 and announced his intention to run for Mayor of Salt Lake City.

Ashley Miller the Program and Policy Director of Breathe Utah and an attorney, originally from Lake Tahoe, CA. She came to Salt Lake City after graduating law school to spend the winter skiing at Snowbird, where she met her husband, Steve. She quickly grew concerned about the poor air quality and decided that she should stay in the area and use her background to make a difference. Her passions run deep in all things outdoors, like skiing and mountain biking. Ashley was appointed by Governor Herbert to the new Air Quality Policy Advisory Board and serves as the Vice-Chair. She is also a member of the Salt Lake County Health Department Environmental Quality Advisory Commission, and the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Plan Advisory Committee. Ashley writes the monthly air quality column in CATALYST Magazine.

Noah began at HEAL as an outreach intern and soon became a full-time staff member. Noah leads the outreach and lobbying for all our issues and ensures that HEAL maintains a strong grassroots presence among the concerned citizens of Utah.  Raised in Colorado, nature and the environment have a special place in Noah’s heart. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Western State Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado, and his Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Utah here in Salt Lake City, all the while clocking as many days snowboarding and mountain biking as possible and competing in Big Mountain Freeride events all over the United States. Most recently, Noah worked in State political campaigns helping to ensure common sense environmental policy has a voice at the legislature. Find Noah in the mountains, desert, seeing live music, or cheering for his beloved Denver Broncos. For all information on HEAL Utah’s grassroots organizing, community events, and volunteering, please reach out to Noah.

Brynn Mortensen is the Public Policy and Special Projects Coordinator at the Salt Lake Chamber, Utah’s largest and longest standing business organization. In this role, Mortensen manages many of the Chamber’s public policy initiatives including the Utah Housing GAP Coalition, which launched in May of 2018 to address Utah’s looming housing crisis. She coordinates all of the outreach, marketing and education efforts for the Housing GAP Coalition. Most recently, Mortensen has focused on visiting every city council across the Wasatch Front to discuss the challenge of housing affordability and how local government and the business community can collaborate and tackle this threat to our economic prosperity. Mortensen serves as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Housing Affordability and leads the marketing and education advisory group. She graduated from Weber State University with a degree in political science and technical writing and will graduate with her executive MBA from Utah State University in May.

Søren is an urban planner, architect, educator, community-builder and social entrepreneur. Over the past three decades, including 17 years of public service as an appointed and elected official, he has worked to create sustainable places and livable communities in Utah and the West. Søren earned a Master of Arts in Community Leadership at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, with an emphasis on organizational leadership, public policy, and community organizing. His research and thesis focused on sustainable cities and natural resource issues. He previously received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin, with an emphasis in environmental design, urban design, and community and regional planning. Søren is an accomplished professional and has received broad recognition for his planning, public policy, urban design, and advocacy work. He was recently elevated as a Fellow by the American Institute of Architects. Other honors include the AIA Utah Bronze Medal and four Best of State Gold Medals in Community Development. He has received numerous citations from the American Planning Association American Institute of Architects, American Society of Landscape Architects, and U.S. Green Building Council. He directed or contributed to 28 projects, plans, and initiatives that have received an Envision Utah Governor’s Quality Growth Award, including Parleys Trail and the Swaner EcoCenter. Søren was elected to the Salt Lake City Council in 2005, serving two four-year terms. He was Salt Lake City’s representative in the formation of the Jordan River Commission in 2010. Following his city council service, he was appointed as Salt Lake County’s “At-Large” member of the Commission from 2014 through 2016. He has served on numerous local and national boards and committees for professional and community organizations, where he has been a champion for social enterprise, urban design, active transportation, public health, ecology, environmental stewardship and resource conservation, arts and culture, and human rights. In his free time, Søren loves to hike, bike and paddle in Utah’s great outdoors. You can find him regularly riding and floating the Jordan River Parkway. There’s more information at the Jordan River Commission’s website.

Cherise Udell is the founder of Utah Moms for Clean Air (Facebook) and a Climate Activist with the U.S. Climate Action Network. Cherise is also the proud recipient of the Utah Excellence in Ethics Award and was inducted into Utah’s Enlightened 50. She holds a B.A degree from U.C. Berkeley in Cultural Anthropology and attended Yale University for M.S. graduate work in Environmental Studies and Ecological Anthropology. While at Yale she was also a teaching fellow in the Department of Anthropology.

Jonny Vasic has over ten years of experience working with non-profit organizations in various roles including International Director and Director of Media. He has lobbied in Sacramento and Washington D.C. with the Humane Society of the United States and was the International Director at Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, where he was part of the team that created the critically acclaimed hit show Whale Wars for Animal Planet. He is on the Board of Directors for Surfers for Cetaceans and he is the producer of the award-winning documentary film Minds in the Water. Before Jonny’s non-profit work, he was an Executive in Charge of Production at a Los Angeles based TV production company. He was founder and president of Evergreen Oasis Entertainment, which specialized in communication with a conscience. Jonny grew up in Salt Lake City and has a keen interest in living in an environment with clean air, water, and soil. His life long passion for the outdoors, a healthy environment and his love of animals combined with his experience in multi-media, has led him to work with groups that are making a real difference in people’s lives. As Executive Director for Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, he is excited to continue that pursuit.