About

Jane Kleeb, Founder and Executive Director  Jane is an experienced grassroots organizer, author, manager, political strategist, and nonprofit entrepreneur. She founded Bold in 2010 with the goal of bringing together rural and urban Nebraskans to change the political landscape of the state. After stopping the Keystone XL pipeline, Bold Nebraska grew to the Bold Alliance. In her work, Jane protects property rights while building an engaged base of citizens who care about the land and water. For her years of work in rural communities, Jane was named a Climate Breakthrough awardee in 2023, the highest honor in the climate change field. Jane is setting out to create a new project called Energy Builders that works with rural communities to change the economic model of large-scale clean energy projects to benefit the people who live on the land that is creating America’s next 100 years of energy. (Email: jane@boldalliance.org)

More About Jane

Malinda Frevert, Chief of Staff  Malinda has over 15 years of experience building up scrappy teams to win big fights — starting with her first job organizing farmers, ranchers, and city folks against the Keystone XL pipeline with BOLD Nebraska. She’s led teams at national political organizations, including EMILY’s List, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as well as hosted panels on effective management to standing-room-only crowds at national conferences. But she also believes most in the power of small local organizing, which is why she’s trained over 1,000 organizers on digital best practices. As someone who was a vegetarian for 16 years AND is the proud granddaughter of a Nebraska cattleman, Malinda loves crossing divides to build unlikely alliances. (Email: malinda@boldalliance.org)

Mark Hefflinger, Communications Director  Mark is Bold’s Communications Director, publishes the daily “Extracted” email newsletter and manages communications for all Bold projects, including the Pipeline Fighters Hub. Mark was born and raised in Omaha and received a Bachelor’s degree in English and Communications from Boston College. He worked as a journalist in California, covering the digital media industry, music, and LGBT issues, and more recently managing communications and digital operations for progressive causes. Mark worked on the No on Proposition 8 campaign in California in 2008, and afterwards with organizations including the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center on voter outreach on marriage equality, as well as on CREDO SuperPAC’s successful congressional campaign that ousted a 30-year conservative, climate change-denying Congressman in Northern California. (Email: mark@boldalliance.org)

Paul Blackburn, Attorney and Energy Policy Advisor  Paul Blackburn provides strategic, policy, and legal services on pipelines and renewable energy matters for Bold’s Pipeline Fighters Hub, Easement Acton Team, and Energy Builders projects. He has worked on crude oil pipeline issues since 2008, and also has experience in renewable energy policy and development. Paul represented nonprofit clients in the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission hearing on the Keystone XL Pipeline, and in the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission hearing on the expansion of Line 67, another Enbridge pipeline. He has provided policy analysis and strategic advice on a variety of pipeline matters and authored reports on pipeline safety and oil spill response. Paul started his legal career in Washington, DC, at the law firm of Van Ness Feldman, where he assisted clients in renewable energy and coal-fired power plant development, a variety of regulatory, legislative, and litigation matters, and Native American commercial law. After leaving private practice, he began a career in the nonprofit sector, including employment by the Sierra Club, the National Environmental Trust, and Oceana in organizing and media. He also has experience in community wind and solar energy development. Paul holds a B.A. in Biology from Macalester College and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. (Email: paul@boldalliance.org)

Justin J. Pearson, National Director, Movement Leaders  Justin Jamal Pearson provides strategic advice and training to local advocates across various Bold projects. He founded MCAP and helped protect landowners from eminent domain. Rep. Pearson was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives representing the 86th district, covering parts of the city of Memphis, in January 2023. When he was sworn into office at the age of 28, Pearson became the second-youngest lawmaker serving in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Pearson and fellow state representative Justin Jones were expelled on April 6, 2023 for participating in a gun reform protest inside the state capitol to lift up the voices of parents and young people who were grieving the loss of kids and school staff at the Covenant school shooting. Pearson was reappointed by a unanimous vote of the members present at the Shelby County Board of Commissioners on April 12, 2023. (Email: justin@boldalliance.org)

Emma Schmit, Organizing Director  Emma works across multiple states to coordinate and support organizers fighting the proposed buildout of CO2 pipelines with our Pipeline Fighters Hub and Easement Action Teams projects. Emma is a lifelong rural Iowan based in Calhoun County. After graduating from Iowa State University in 2018, Emma went to work for Food & Water Watch where she organized activists, impacted community members, and elected officials around meaningful policy solutions to address consolidation within our food and farm system. In 2021, Emma leaned on her experience fighting the Dakota Access pipeline to help build a broad opposition movement to a series of hazardous carbon pipelines proposed for the Midwest. (Email: emma@boldalliance.org)

Tom Genung, Landowner Organizer  Tom Genung and beloved late wife Cathie were a fixture at Bold Nebraska’s events since the founding of the organization. Tom serves as President of Bold’s board and is an organizer with Bold Nebraska and the Nebraska Easement Action Team, which were both instrumental in stopping the Keystone XL pipeline. Tom is now organizing landowners in Nebraska and across the Midwest region who are opposed to the risky carbon pipelines. He also volunteers with Nebraskans for Peace and the Nebraska Farmers Union. (Email: tom@boldnebraska.org)

Shelli Meyer, Nebraska Director  Shelli Meyer is the Nebraska Director for Bold Alliance, managing work in Nebraska for Bold’s Energy Builders project while also working closely with Tom Genung for the Nebraska Easement Action Team, the co-op of Nebraska farmers, ranchers and landowners currently working in opposition to proposed carbon pipelines and eminent domain abuse. For the Easement Team, Shelli assists in coordinating events for landowners and scheduling agenda items for County Board meetings, tracks and updates landowner lists, and provides email updates from all states to Nebraska landowners. Her family has stewarded their land in Dixon County, NE — which is impacted by the proposed carbon pipelines — since 1924. (Email: shelli@boldalliance.org)