  We present the validation of two planets orbiting M dwarfs, TOI-1696b and
TOI-2136b. Both planets are mini-Neptunes orbiting nearby stars, making them
promising prospects for atmospheric characterization with the James Webb Space
Telescope. We validated the planetary nature of both candidates using high
contrast imaging, ground-based photometry, and near-infrared radial velocities.
Adaptive Optics images were taken using the ShARCS camera on the 3 m Shane
Telescope. Speckle images were taken using the NN-Explore Exoplanet Stellar
Speckle Imager on the WIYN 3.5 m telescope. Radii and orbital ephemerides were
refined using a combination of TESS, the diffuser-assisted ARCTIC imager on the
3.5m ARC telescope at Apache Point Observatory, and the 0.6 m telescope at Red
Buttes Observatory. We obtained radial velocities using the Habitable-Zone
Planet Finder on the 10 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which enabled us to place
upper limits on the masses of both transiting planets. TOI-1696b (P = 2.5 days;
R$_{p}$ = 3.24 R$_{\oplus}$; M$_{p}$ $<$ 56.6 M$_{\oplus}$) falls into a
sparsely-populated region of parameter space considering its host star's
temperature (T$_{\rm{eff}}$ = 3168 K, M4.5), as planets of its size are quite
rare around mid to late M dwarfs. On the other hand, TOI-2136b (P = 7.85 days;
R$_{p}$ = 2.09 R$_{\oplus}$; M$_{p}$ $<$ 15.0 M$_{\oplus}$) is an excellent
candidate for atmospheric follow-up with JWST.
