Add HTML in Portfolio Exceprt

Hi everyone, I think the manual bullet points I’ve added are confusing everyone so I’ve removed them. To circle back, this is the problem:

I need to add bullet points on each line item on the portfolio excerpts that are being displayed via the masonry gallery on my homepage.

The portfolio excerpt:

<ul>
<li>Supply & Exhaust Air Volumes</li>
<li>Room Pressure Differential</li>
<li>Pressure Gauges & Monitors</li>
<li>Air Changes Per Hour</li>
<li>Incubators & Scales</li>
<li>Refrigerators & Freezers</li>
</ul>

I’ve added these suggested codes to the functions.php:

/*enable HTML in portfolio excerpts - option 1*/
function my_avf_masonry_loop_entry_content($loop_excerpt, $entry) {
  $loop_excerpt = strip_tags( ($entry->post_excerpt) , '<br><p><ul><li>'  );
  return $loop_excerpt;
}
add_filter('avf_masonry_loop_entry_content', 'my_avf_masonry_loop_entry_content', 10, 2);

/*enable HTML in portfolio excerpts - option 2 --- this just added extra space between each line item which isn't what I want*/
add_filter( 'avf_masonry_loop_entry_content', 'avf_masonry_loop_entry_content_mod', 10, 4 );

function avf_masonry_loop_entry_content_mod( $loop_excerpt, $entry, $entries, $key ) {
    if ( ! empty( $entry->post_excerpt ) ) {
        return $entry->post_excerpt;
    }

    return $entry->post_content;
}

I don’t believe this affects this issue, but I do have this in my CSS as well so just wanted to share this visibility:

/*Remove masonry gallery links
.av-masonry-entry {
    pointer-events: none !important; 
}
*/

/*Equal height for masonry gallery*/ 
.av-inner-masonry-content-pos {
    min-height: 235px !important;
}

When adding this to the functions.php file, the portfolio excerpt text disappears so I did not include it:

add_filter( 'avf_masonry_entry_content', 'avf_masonry_entry_content_mod', 10, 3 );

function avf_masonry_entry_content_mod( $content, $entry, $config ) {
    return $entry->post_excerpt;
}

This is what it currently looks like: https://imgur.com/mzZlgLJ