Staff and Board

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Nick Algee - Florida 1Sky Organizer

Nick Algee was recently welcomed back to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in March 2008.  Based in St. Petersburg FL, Nick is working on the 1Sky Campaign, a national coalition building public support for comprehensive federal climate and energy policy.  

Nick's previous work with SACE involved several campaigns from protecting the Clean Air Act through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Campaign to organizing college and university students around clean energy initiatives on campuses throughout Tennessee.  Nick was an early leader and co-founder of the Energy Action Coalition and the Southern Energy Network.  

Nick previously served as Director of Community Relations for Renewable Choice Energy in Colorado where he saw the company through a crucial growth period. Nick is also a co-founder and on the Board of Advisors for Change of Atmosphere, an organization focused on experiential education at festivals and events.

Sara Barczak - High Risk Energy Director

Sara oversees our coastal office in Savannah, Georgia, which opened in March 2000 after the former Georgians for Clean Energy hired her in October 1999.

As safe energy director, Sara provides extensive support to concerned citizens and organizing partners, participates in legislative, state and federal regulatory forums on issues concerning nuclear energy, public safety, utilities and the negative impacts of power plants on the region's water quality. She participated in a U.S./Russian exchange with non-governmental organizations in Russia impacted by plutonium bomb fuel (MOX) programs, including travel to Russia.

Sara has worked for nine years in diverse environmental fields in the private and non-profit sectors: as an environmental consultant for Department of Defense facilities relating to hazardous waste and air quality issues and as a citizen's advocate, educator and consultant for two non-profit organizations.

Sara received a B.A. in Biology from Lawrence University.

Anne Blair - Diesel and Biofuels Program Coordinator

Anne Blair joined Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in 2003 as the diesel campaign coordinator in our Atlanta office.

Anne has spent the past four years working on several environmental issues. In 1999-2000, she worked on the Watershed Program at River Network in Washington, D.C. After leaving D.C., Anne worked as a field biologist for Americorps at Fire Island National Seashore in New York. She also worked as a field manager for The Fund for Public Interest Research Group in Atlanta. Following a 6-month trip exploring the United States, she worked in consumer affairs at The Coca-Cola Company before returning back to environmental work.

Anne grew up in North Carolina and graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Va., in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts in biology.

Brandon Blevins - Wind Program Coordinator

Brandon Blevins joined the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in March of 2007 as the Wind Program Coordinator. His responsibilities include coordinating the activities of the Tennessee Wind Working Group and working with a team to manage and operate Wind Powering America's Mid-Atlantic/Southeast Regional Wind Energy Institute (RWEI), a group that works to provide a toolkit for wind working group leaders throughout the region.

Before arriving at SACE, Brandon attended the University of Tennessee where he participated in numerous University programs, including a National Student Exchange semester in Hilo, HI in 2005. Inspired to bring wind energy to the Southeast, Brandon sought out SACE as a volunteer in December of 2005, and became a part-time employee in February of 2006. In addition to his wind energy focus, he published A Homeowner's Guide to Clean and Efficient Energy in East Tennessee, a project funded by the Alcoa Foundation in the Summer of 2006

Stemming from Mars Hill, NC, Brandon has always called the Southeast his home. Graduating with a B.A. In Environmental Studies in 2006, Brandon plans to continue his pursuit to remove the obstacles to wind energy development in the region while pursuing his Master's in Geography at the University of Tennessee.

John Bonitz - Farm Organizer and Policy Advocate

John Bonitz joined Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in April of 2007 to focus on farm outreach and agricultural-energy policy advocacy. His primary duty is to promote responsible policies that grow clean, farm-based energy in the region. In this role he will participate in state-level climate change policy developments throughout the region.

John's environmental profession began at his alma mater, UNC Greensboro, where he built an award winning recycling program. His work in solid waste management and pollution prevention was followed by graduate studies in global environmental policy at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. He also served at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), working on cost-effective renewable energy technologies. In 2006 he led a stakeholder input process concerning agricultural finance, on behalf of Self-Help Credit Union and the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI-USA), a farmer-advocacy organization.

As a native North Carolinian, John's passion for the environment, sustainable agriculture and community development took root and bloomed in Chatham County, NC. He helped establish the Piedmont Biofuels Cooperative and the Chatham Marketplace, a cooperative grocery emphasizing local foods. There in Silk Hope, his parents run a 20 year-old dairy, and are consumers of solar and geothermal energy. He enjoys reading, gardening, and cooking for friends.

Mary Carr - Renewable Energy Coordinator

Mary Carr joined the Atlanta staff in March 2005 as a research associate. She works on issues concerning diesel pollution, nuclear power, and water quality and advocates for safe, clean energy policies to be implemented in the Southeast.

Prior to joining Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Mary worked as a legislative intern for the Tennessee House Government Operations Committee under State Representative Michael L. Kernell. Mary also worked at the University of Tennessee's Energy, Environment and Resources Center where she helped develop a workshop to assist K-12 teachers in developing energy education curriculum for the classroom.

Mary received a B.A. in 2004 from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville where she double-majored in Environmental Studies and Political Science.

Robert Del Bueno - Refuel Biodiesel Program Manager

Robert Del Bueno joined Southern Alliance for Clean Energy as the Refuel program director in January 2006 to work on small-scale distributed production of biodiesel in Atlanta, GA.

After graduating from Auburn University with a degree in Industrial Design, Robert decided to pursue the path of playing in a touring rock band instead of getting into the design field. After 10 years, Robert opened a recording studio in Atlanta, Georgia. One day an artist who toured in a van converted to run off waste vegetable oil came to record an album in Robert's studio. Robert quickly found himself somewhat obsessed with the possibilities of biofuels. He began making biodiesel for his own use, and eventually for a growing grassroots biodiesel community in the Atlanta area. This operation eventually evolved into Vegenergy, a small company providing biodiesel, and vegetable oil fuel conversion services.

This work, along with his work as staffer with the Sierra Club, eventually brought him into the community of environmental activists in Atlanta. Since 2002, Robert has been advocating biodiesel by legislative efforts, teaching biofuels classes, producing instructional dvds, forming Atlantabiofuels.org, and most importantly, providing biodiesel to the Atlanta area.

Jim Deming - Clergy Representative

Jim Deming began with Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light in April of 2007 to engage with the faith community in middle and west Tennessee on issues of environmental stewardship. He is working with individual congregations and ecclesiastical judicatories to raise the level of awareness of how faith, values transformation and creation care can positively effect global warming. Jim is an ordained United Church of Christ minister currently serving part-time as the interim minister at First United Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and is also the Tennessee course coordinator for the Northwest Earth Institute. He is a graduate of the University of North Texas and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Emory University and a Masters of Education degree in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University.

Jim has worked in religious publishing with Abingdon Press and Westminster/John Knox Press, served as a local church pastor in Ohio and Tennessee and counseled adolescents in mental health. His non-profit experience includes director of the Ohio Field Office for Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, director of the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (the state-wide support organization for legal aid), and director of the Kentucky/Tennessee Water Environment Association. Jim and his spouse Lynne Deming live in Nashville, Tennessee where she is the director of publishing for The Upper Room.

Rachel Grillo - Development Director

Rachel joined the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in 2006 as the development director, working out of our Asheville office. Her primary responsibilities are overseeing the overall development and fundraising functions of the organization, including soliciting foundation and government grants, cultivating major donors, helping to create messaging and materials to share Southern Alliance for Clean Energy?s work, and ongoing communication, cultivation and stewardship to our constituents.

Rachel has nine years of development experience and extensive experience fundraising in the health and human service sector, having most recently worked with United Way in Colorado. She is originally from Miami and has earned a bachelor?s degree in sociology from Florida State University.

Seth Gunning - South Carolina and Georgia Campus Organizer

Born in Richmond, Va, Grown in Omaha, Nebraska, Living in/around Atlanta, Ga; Seth's heart is in Bristol, Va. He attended Valdosta State University and majored in anthropology and psychology. Between several trips to Central America where he studied traditional mayan cosmologies as cultural resistances to western imperialism, he helped re-start an environmental organization at VSU, which was jostled into action by SEN's 3rd annual SSREC in Knoxville, Tn. He then joined the Southern Energy Network Steering Committee and now works to build youth power and is lucky and humbled to be the Georgia/South Carolina Campus Organizer.

contact: seth[at]climateaction.net or 404.434.9745

Doug Hunt - Tennessee Organizer

Doug Hunt joined the SACE staff in February 2008 as a federal issues organizer in Tennessee focusing specifically on the religious and agriculture communities. Doug is ordained clergy in the United Church of Christ and came to SACE from Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light where he was the East Tennessee Clergy Representative.

An experienced analyst, advocate, writer, organizer, and public speaker, Doug has nearly twenty years of non-profit organizing and advocacv experience. Doug has worked most recently for the University of Tennessee Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, Sierra Club, and International Center for Technology Assessment. Doug holds masters degrees in theology and computer science.

Christine Irvine - Tennessee Campus Organizer

Christine has been organizing since the summer of 2006 when she spent ten weeks participating in the Greenpeace Organizing Term.  She returned to Elon University for her sophomore year and ran a successful Campus Climate Challenge campaign for carbon neutrality. She spent the following summer with the Energy Action Coaliton in Washington, DC as the New Media Fellow organizing for Power Shift 2007. By the fall, she'd decided to leave school and dedicate herself to the movement full time. She worked with Janie in North Carolina to establish the North Carolina Student Climate Coalition and moved back up to DC for some time before Power Shift to coordinate multimedia production for the conference. She's a recent transplant from North Carolina to Nashville, TN where she joins SACE to organize students throughout the state.

Christine feels privileged and honored to be working with the staff of SACE. She knows that we have big challenges ahead, but she looks forward to helping build youth power across TN for clean, safe, and just solutions to dirty energy and climate chaos.

contact: christine[at]cleanenergy.org or 704.813.3361

Rita Kilpatrick - Georgia Policy Director

Rita supervises a range of project activities to advance clean energy policies in Georgia and advocates on behalf of the public interest on energy issues in her current position with Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Her advocacy has included testifying in legislative and state and federal agency proceedings as an expert witness and panelist. She has participated in numerous public forums on nuclear safety and nuclear waste.

Rita was previously employed by the Vermont Department of Public Service where she devised energy and utility policies as part of a multi-regional growth management plan for the state of Vermont. She has taught college courses in energy policy and technology design. As a consultant, she oversaw various energy resource projects for developing countries.

Rita received an M.S. in Appropriate Technology and Energy Management from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Mathematics from DePauw University. She has worked for fourteen years in the energy industry as a consumer advocate, educator, and consultant. Rita served on Governor Barnes Energy Task Force, including the Electricity Demand and New Generation committees, during 2001.

Melissa Meehan - Florida Climate Organizer

Melissa Meehan joined the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in December of 2006 as the southeast coastal organizer. Her primary responsibility is to organize and educate business groups and homeowners about the impacts of global warming on the coastline, with the ultimate goal of more coastal voices speaking out for change.

Prior to joining Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Meehan was an account executive at Hill & Knowlton, an international public relations agency. At H&K Meehan handled public relations, media and consumer marketing for a variety of environmental, corporate, and public affairs accounts. In 2006 Meehan was named one of Tampa Bay?s top ?30 Under 30? young professionals by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Melissa was born in Ohio, but grew up in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. She graduated from Boston University magna cum laude with a degree in public relations and a focus in environmental science. While at Boston University, she had the unique privilege of interning at Harvard Medical School?s Center for Health and the Global Environment, a facility that educates legislators and the public on the connections between human health and that of the environment. During the summer of 2003, Meehan worked as a park ranger for the Cape Cod National Seashore where she met her fiancé, Jason Baldwin.

Gil Melear-Hough - Tennessee Director of Renewable Programs

Gil came to Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in April 2000 with years of non-profit and grassroots experience. Gil's main responsibility is coordinating the Million Solar Roof Initiative in Tennessee. Gil works to lower the barriers that keep solar power from expanding and develops grassroots support for clean energy in the region.

His past experience includes several years of peace and reconciliation work in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and work with Central American refugees seeking political asylum in the US. Previous to coming to Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, he worked for four years as a community organizer at Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) where he was the staff person on the Stripmining Committee and Forestry Committee.

Gil has Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from Grand Valley State University and is a graduate of the Southern Empowerment Project's 6-week Community Organizer training.

Jon Paul (JP) Plumlee - Tennessee Valley Campus Program Coordinator

Joining the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy staff in August of 2006, Jon Paul works as the Tennessee Valley Campus Coordinator. He collaborates with students across the Tennessee Valley to support campus based initiatives focusing on energy efficiency/conservation, clean energy production and purchasing, biofuels development and energy education.

Jon Paul received a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from the University of TN in 2005, where he worked closely with students, faculty, staff and administration to support clean energy. He sees the campus setting as ideal for technological innovation, and believes campuses have the ability to create the paradigm shift needed to ensure widespread sustainability for future generations.

Jon Paul was born and raised in Memphis, TN, where he now works with students and the public to bring renewables to our largest city in the state of Tennessee. He currently plays in the local Knoxville band Llama Train, and works to support sustainability with various musicians and artists.

Cameron Potter - Fiscal Director

Cameron, originally from Australia, joined Southern Alliance for Clean Energy as the staff accountant in our Knoxville office in February of 2006. He grew up on the Southern Coast of Australia surfing, playing Aussie Rules football and performing with local bands. He attended college in the US at Purdue University, Cumberland University and in Australia at Deakin University. He has a Bachelor?s degree in Accounting, an MBA and has extensive non-profit accounting experience. His passion for the environment makes Southern Alliance for Clean Energy a perfect fit.

Ulla Reeves - Regional Program Director

Ulla currently serves as the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy's regional program director based in Asheville, North Carolina. Her primary duties are to oversee the regional global warming programs that include North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia initiatives from the local to federal decision-making levels. Ulla opened up Southern Alliance for Clean Energy's Asheville office in 2004, and works on clean air, global warming and clean energy initiatives. Ulla is currently pursuing a professional Masters of Environmental Management from the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment.

Prior to joining Southern Alliance for Clean Energy's workforce, Ulla was the program manager for Peacework, a non-profit International Volunteer Program, to coordinate preparations for international volunteer groups. She has experience in non-profit program management, fundraising, volunteer coordination and training, web maintenance and design and media relations. She has also worked on minority educational initiatives in SW Virginia and held two consecutive positions as office coordinator for campus recycling services at the University of Oregon and Virginia Tech.

Ulla has a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Virginia Tech, is on the board of the Clean Air Community Trust and Peacework International Volunteer Programs. She is originally from California, is a dedicated yoga practitioner and occasional teacher, she loves traveling, dabbling with art, and enjoys hiking, swimming, and exploring with her Border Collie.

Jennifer Rennicks - Southeast Federal Coordinator

Jennifer joined the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy's Asheville office in 2006 as the federal policy coordinator. She serves as the primary liaison between SACE and Congressional offices in an effort to educate policy makers on the challenges the Southeast faces with global warming and the federal climate solutions that are needed.  Jennifer earned a Master of Science in Environmental Policy from the University of Michigan in 2000 and focused her master's research on collaborative management of protected areas in Belize.  She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Environmental Studies from Tufts University in 1993.

Jennifer's previous professional experience includes watershed project management, forest policy and watershed research, and ecotourism/community conservation project management.  After spending 6 summers teaching environmental education and leading hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina for hundreds of campers, Jennifer now enjoys sharing the joy of a creek hike or a mountain trail with her own children.

Ashley Simpson - Clean Diesel Program Coordinator

Ashley Simpson joined Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in August of 2007. Ashley has worked in a variety of organizing capacities for unions and community groups in the past ten years. In 1997 she helped form a student organization, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) that operates at over 300 universities across the United States. Ashley played an integral part in outreach and leadership in the Southeast for the organization, along with acting as a national spokesperson through 2002. Ashley also worked for the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), a flight attendants' union that represents over 55,000 Frontier and Delta flight attendants.

In 1998 Ashley was invited to travel to Central America with the National Labor Committee to investigate sweatshops in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. In 2002 the United Electrical Machine and Radio Workers of America (UE) invited Ashley to participate in an all women's delegation of students and rank and file union members to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. She has worked with the National American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to help promote voter registration and responsible candidate election in Georgia as part of their "Labor 2002" project.

A Georgia native, Ashley is committed to organizing in the South. She attended college at Georgia State University where she majored in Political Science and minored in History with a focus in African-American History.

Stephen Smith - Executive Director

Stephen A. Smith, DVM, has been executive director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy since 1993 and has actively worked with numerous non-profit organizations addressing energy, water, forest, air, nuclear weapons production and nuclear waste issues since 1982. Dr. Smith received a doctorate in veterinarian medicine from the University of Tennessee (1992) and a bachelor's of science in biology from Kentucky Wesleyan College (1988). In 2000, Dr. Smith's environmental passions led him to set aside his veterinary practice to devote himself fulltime to Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Currently, Dr. Smith serves as co-chair for the U.S. Climate Action Network board of directors and serves on the Advisory Board for the Alliance for Climate Protection. In April 2007, Dr. Smith was appointed by Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina to serve on the Climate, Energy and Commerce Advisory Committee, a group formed by an executive order to review global warming impacts in South Carolina and to formulate market-based strategies to address these impacts. He also serves on both the North Carolina Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change and the North Carolina Climate Action Planning Advisory Group. Additionally, Dr. Smith serves on TVA's Green Power Marketing Committee, where he chairs the Third-Party Certification workgroup, and Florida Power and Light's Green Power public advisory.

Dr. Smith is a frequent speaker at public events on topics of energy policies and issues and has been trained by Vice President Al Gore through The Climate Project to present on the topic of global warming. Some of Dr. Smith's experience includes testifying before the Georgia Public Service Commission to advocate for the development and regulatory approval of a Georgia Power and Savannah Electric accredited green power program; testifying before Great Smoky Mountain Congressional Caucus on air quality problems at the national park; testifying on the operations of the Tennessee Valley Authority before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Public Works and Transportation and the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight; serving two terms on TVA's Regional Resource Stewardship Council, a federal advisory panel to make recommendations on TVA's management of the Tennessee River watershed; and serving on the U. S. Department of Energy, Tennessee Valley Electric System Advisory Committee. Dr. Smith also served on the national governing board of the Center for Resource Solutions' National Green Power Accreditation.

Abhaya Thiele - Florida Federal Organizer

Abhaya joined the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in December of 2007 to work specifically in northern Florida and is based in the Gainesville area where she will work in conjunction with both traditional and non-traditional allies to increase the visibility of clean energy issues and to build support for federal climate protection legislation.  

Her background most recently was as an organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia with the People's Alliance for Clean Energy (PACE) working to support renewable energy legislation in Virginia and to increase grassroots opposition to two new nuclear reactors being proposed for the state.

Prior to that, Abhaya worked at Greenpeace on dioxin-related issues (working to close the WTI incinerator and to bring public awareness to the toxics involved in the production of PVC). She also participated in the delegation that the Physicians for Social Responsibility sent to Stockholm, Sweden for the United Nations Persistent Organic Pollutants Treaty and she worked in conjunction with the Center for Health Environment and Justice to oppose the siting of new solid waste incinerators.

Before moving to Florida, Abhaya lived in an ecumenical yoga community, which has as its center the LOTUS temple, dedicated to the unity underlying all faiths. She was assistant editor of its publications department and also organized holistic health retreats.

Jennifer Todd - Fiscal Administrator

Jennifer Todd joined Southern Alliance for Clean Energy as the Accountant at the Knoxville office in July 2007. She handles accounting and human resources for the organization. Jennifer is a Knoxville native with 17+ years of extensive experience in the hospitality and finance arenas throughout the United States. Her career has placed her in some major cities (Honolulu-HI, Portland-OR, Atlanta-GA, Tampa-FL) where she has served as Vice-President, Corporate Controller and General Manager for multiple hotel companies and one engineering company.

Her past five years included positions as The General Manager for the world-renowned Blackberry Farm Hotel Company, and the Corporate Controller for an engineering company headquartered in Knoxville, TN. She received numerous accolades and recognition for her previous roles. Jennifer is excited to be a part of SACE, where she can utilize her experience for an organization with shared values and perspectives.

Liz Veazey - Regional Campus Coordinator

Liz came on staff in the spring of 2006 and is based in the Knoxville office.  She coordinates the Southern Energy Network, a project of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy that is a regional, campus-focused energy and global warming program. The project is part of the national Campus Climate Challenge campaign.

Liz graduated with highest honors from the University of North Carolina in 2004 with a Bachelors of Science degree in Environmental Science. While at UNC, Liz led one of the first successful campus renewable energy campaigns in the southeast and won the Morris K. Udall scholarship for future leaders in environmental fields in both 2002 and 2003. She organized the first Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference (SSREC) April 2-4, 2004, to engage other southern schools beyond UNC in energy and global warming work. In the summer of 2004 she became a co-founding member of Energy Action Coalition, which she has been actively involved with since then. She is now co-chairing the Energy Action Coalition Steering Committee. She has been an integral leader and organizer in the development of the Southern Energy Network, which is now a project of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and is a member of the Energy Action Coalition. In late fall 2005, she attended the UN Climate Negotiations in Montreal where she was involved in the youth actions and organizing and helped start the youth climate and energy blog: www.itsgettinghotinhere.org.

John Wilson - Research Director

John joined Southern Alliance for Clean Energy's Asheville office in March of 2007. As research director John is producing technical information on global warming for the organization including the "North Carolina Roadmap" which will detail the technological and policy opportunties for reducing global warming pollution in North Carolina.

John is an environmental policy analyst with 15 years of experience working on a range of environmental issues. Prior to joining the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) as its Director of Research, Mr. Wilson was the executive director of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP). At GHASP, Mr. Wilson focused on ozone smog, air toxics, environmental enforcement and transportation issues, and was particularly noted for his understanding of issues specific to chemical plants and refineries. Mr. Wilson holds a BA in Physics and History from Rice University and a MPP from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Other highlights from his work experience include consulting on "smart growth" transportation projects, research for the Florida Legislature on a wide range of issues, and climate change research in Texas and for the US EPA.