Who We Are
Leadership Bios
Staff
Dorothy Barnett
Executive Director
email: barnett at climateandenergy dot org
phone: (785) 424-0444
As Executive Director of the Climate + Energy Project, Dorothy Barnett is leading the effort to address the Heartland’s energy future. Grounded in an approach based on common ground solutions, Barnett has been successful in convening diverse voices in a conservative region of the country. Barnett has coordinated winning campaigns to protect the Kansas Renewable Portfolio Standard from special interest groups attacks during four legislative sessions, allowing the wind industry to grow to 40% of the state’s power generation in just a decade. Mrs. Barnett has been recognized with national media attention, including MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and is frequently invited to speak on a range of clean energy topics including a presentation at Yale for a public forum of “The ‘C’ Words: Addressing Climate Change Without Talking About Climate Change – a Regional Perspective.” Barnett provides expert testimony at regulatory proceedings and has been published in the Electricity Journal. In 2014 Barnett received the Advocacy Leadership Award from the U.S. Clean Energy, Education and Empowerment (C3E) program, run by the U.S. Department of Energy and the MIT Energy Initiative.
Prior to her position as Executive Director, Barnett served for 4 years as CEP’s Director of Energy and Transmission. This work put Dorothy on the ground in energy policy work at the local, state and regional level. Under Barnett’s leadership, CEP continues to innovate and reach new audiences with projects like WEALTH: Water, Energy, Air, Land, Transportation and HEALTH, Climate + Energy Voters Take Action, the Kansas Environmental Leadership project and the Clean Energy Business Council, a multi-sector business group focused on the advanced energy economy.
Barnett got her start in wind energy with the Reno County Wind Energy Task Force, which was awarded the Governor’s Energy Award for Energy Education in 2008. Dorothy attended Friends University.
Sarah Dehart Faltico
Program Director
email: faltico at climateandenergy dot org
Sarah Dehart Faltico is a Program Director for Climate + Energy Project focused on building community power. She worked at CEP for nearly two years until she stepped away in mid-2019 to have her second child. During her prior tenure, she managed CEP’s Integrated Voter Engagement work and organized the Environmental Leadership Summit, providing leadership training to environmental leaders across the state. Although Sarah planned to return the following year, the pandemic re-routed her trajectory until June of 2021.
Sarah has quilted a myriad of professional experiences prior to joining Climate + Energy Project. She began her career in the corporate world as an Account Executive in advertising, working in industries that made visible the connection between our food, our environment, and our health. From there she pivoted to focus on local food systems, both as an organic vegetable grower and in the nonprofit world. Just before her time at CEP, Sarah worked at Cultivate Kansas City both as an organic vegetable farmer and as Program Manager of the Double Up Food Bucks Program, where she forged multi-sector partnerships to strengthen access to local foods in underserved communities. Working with growers, farmers markets, community organizations, and governmental agencies she helped expand and operationalize the program across Kansas and Missouri. During her time there, Sarah really began to see the intersection between food, environmental stewardship, community health, and racial and environmental justice.
Sarah’s experience in both the corporate and non-profit sectors developed her capacities in project management, communications, grant writing, leadership development, volunteer coordination, community engagement and advocacy. She has two undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and Latin American Studies and a minor in International Business. She participated in CEP’s 2018 Environmental Leadership Summit, and is an alum of the Kansas Leadership Center and ReAmp/Human Systems Dynamics Institute Systems Thinking Academy (2018). When she’s not working with future generations in mind, she enjoys working in her garden and enjoying the outdoors with her family.
Jessica Travis
Program Director
email: travis at climateandenergy dot org
Jessica Travis is a Program Director at the Climate + Energy Project with a focus on building community-driven pathways to Energy Justice and Climate Resilience. An advocate for equity in outdoor recreation, natural resources, and water conservation for nearly 20 years, Jessica has led the state of Kansas in building community partnerships for outdoor recreation, creating aquatic education programs for urban families, reducing the impacts of agricultural production on water resources, and achieving the designation of the Arkansas River in Kansas as a National Water Trail by the National Park Service. She lives in Pratt, Kansas and calls the Arkansas River Watershed and Ninnescah River Valley home.
Allison Thomas
Program Director
email: thomas at climateandenergy dot org
Allison Thomas is a Program Director at the Climate + Energy Project with a focus on wind and solar energy outreach. In 2017, Allison received a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations with a concentration in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at Kansas State University. There, she combined her knowledge of both areas of study to co-found and manage a student organization, Wildcats Against Sexual Violence, which provided education and outreach regarding Title IX investigations on campus. Allison discovered a passion for advocacy and outreach work through this experience.
Following graduation, Allison worked as a full time tutor and mentor to youth in the KC metro area with City Year Kansas City. During her time at CYKC, she made the decision to pursue a master’s degree in social work at the University of Kansas (Edwards Campus) in order to expand her skill set in working directly with clients in nonprofit settings. After graduating with her MSW in 2020, Allison continued her career in trauma counseling at Sheffield Place in Kansas City. Through her direct work with clients, Allison continued to find fulfillment in nonprofit work and eventually realized her interest in combining the knowledge gained through her variety of experiences on micro and macro levels. Allison found a balance in her interdisciplinary skills through her work at CEP and is passionate about social justice, relationship building, and honoring the dignity and worth of individuals and communities.
Outside of work, she loves to cook, travel, and spend time with her dog.
Julie Jones
Program Associate
email: jjones at climateandenergy dot org
Julie Jones is a Program Associate at the Climate + Energy Project. In June of 2022, Julie graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Studies. Her studies were interdisciplinary in nature and spanned topics ranging from the scientific processes driving environmental degradation, to the importance of ethical care in today’s rapidly changing world and the connections between global migration, race, and climate. In her final year at Dartmouth, she completed a Geography independent research study on urban exclusionary landscapes and the potential social impacts of modern streetcars as development-oriented transportation regimes, which earned the Bob Huke Award for geographical understanding.
While at Dartmouth, Julie was involved in the Dartmouth Sustainability Office where she was an intern focusing on waste for several years, with a particular emphasis on diverting student-generated clothing waste from landfills. In the 2021-2022 school year, Julie took on a leadership role as a First Year Program manager; in this role, she worked to mentor freshmen enrolled in the Sustainability Office’s First Year Program, integrating them into the broader sustainability community and teaching them how to make tangible change on campus through project design and implementation.
Julie is excited to pursue her passions for environmental and social justice, equitable climate action, and community advocacy and engagement.
Consultants
Jessica Lucas
Legislative Consultant
mail: jessica at j-sq dot com
phone: (620) 931-7161
Jessica Lucas is a business communications graduate of the School of Journalism at Kansas University and melds her public relations acumen with government affairs. In advocating for policy changes, Jessica understands it involves more than just knowing how things work under the dome. Today’s government affairs work demands the use of earned media, grassroots engagement, and digital advocacy, and these are tools she effectively employs to meet our clients’ objectives.
Recognizing the importance of a trained workforce, she successfully executed a campaign in her rural hometown to build a community college geared toward technical education degrees in aviation manufacturing, information technology, and agricultural studies. She’s represented Fortune 500 companies in crisis communications work, served as spokesperson on statewide policy initiatives, and established herself as a trusted, hardworking lobbyist.
Outside of work, she commits her time as a member of the Topeka Capital-Journal Editorial Advisory Board and serves as President of the Friends of Cedar Crest Association, the 501(c)3 organization that supports the Kansas governor’s mansion.
Board
Brandi Nelson
Government Information Specialist, National Records Center
email: brandimnelson at gmail dot com
Terms: 2020-2020
Brandi Nelson is a Government Information Specialist with the National Records Center in Lee’s Summit, MO. A Kansas girl, Brandi was born and raised in Salina, KS. Starting with a fascination for Brazil’s rainforests as a child, curiosity grew in her high school biology class. She went on to receive a B.S. in Political Science, and Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from Kansas State University in 2002. As a McNair Scholar, she was encouraged to go to graduate school, and so, she went to the University of Michigan. Her focus was on change in water management happening in Brazil at the time. In the (then) School of Natural Resources and Environment, she studied with leading figures in the Environmental Justice field, including Dr. Bunyan Bryant and Dr. Dorceta Taylor.
Brandi returned to Kansas State University in 2011 to lead the Kansas Environmental Leadership Program. She later became a Conference Coordinator and after three years of planning events for as many as 1300 participants. She moved to Kansas City to pursue a Paralegal Certificate aspiring to use that body of skills on an environmental organization’s policy team. Since arriving in Kansas City, KS in 2018, Brandi has looked for ways to return to formal environmental work. Her particular interests include environmental justice and water resource protection.
Bill Roush
Retired from Black & Veatch
email: billroush at gmail dot com
Bill Roush is retired from the Black & Veatch Renewables group. While at B&V he participated in several regional renewable energy assessments. He also was the utility scale solar plant warranty manager. In addition, he was project manager for the engineering team assisting utility scale solar project developers with interconnection applications.
Currently, he serves on the Mainstreet Credit Union board and supervisory board.
Steven Corbett
Senior Chronic Disease Epidemiologist, KDHE
email: steven dot corbett at ks dot gov
Steve Corbett, M.A., Ph.D., is a Senior Chronic Disease Epidemiologist at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).
The focus of much of his work has been on the social determinants of health and health disparities, particularly among vulnerable populations. With a focus on chronic diseases, Dr. Corbett has contributed to articles on cancer burden, historical disease trends, medicinal plants, health disparities, and the health impacts of climate change. Working with the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas in 2014, he developed a grant-funded climate change adaptation plan for Kansas Tribes through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In 2018, he participated in the Climate + Energy Project’s Kansas Environmental Leadership Summit, facilitated by Kansas Leadership Center and Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education. Dr. Corbett received his Ph.D. in biomedical anthropology from the University of Kansas.
Mary Fund
Retired Executive Director of the Kansas Rural Center
email: ksrc at rainbowtel dot net
Mary Fund, retired from the Kansas Rural Center, a non-profit research, education and advocacy organization for a sustainable agriculture and food system in March 2020, where she worked on natural resource issues for most of KRC’s 42 years. She served as Executive Director from January 2015-March 2020 and directed KRC’s early water policy work, writing extensively on Kansas water issues, and managed KRC’s Clean Water Farms Project from 1995-2012, working with a network of over 300 farmers and ranchers on whole farm planning and farming practices that protect water quality.
She has served on numerous task forces and advisory teams for organizations or state entities. She was editor of KRC’s newsletter, Rural Papers and its Legislative Weekly E-Update Policy Watch. She served on the Kansas Center for Sustainable Ag and Alternative Crops Advisory Team, and represented KRC for many years in the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, serving as co-chair for several years. She served on the board of directors of the national Organic Farming Research Foundation from 2010-2017, serving as chair of the board her final year. Currently she serves on the Delaware WRAPS advisory team.
She and her husband, Ed Reznicek, own and operate a 400-acre certified organic crop and livestock farm. Mary was an outspoken supporter of a local wind farm development in her county.
Laura Lombard
President/CEO, Kansas Global Trade Services, Inc.
email: laura dot lombard21 at gmail dot com
Laura Lombard is a businesswoman, politician, and environmental activist. She is the new President/CEO of the Kansas Global Trade Services, Inc. and the CEO at Sunflower Strategies, LLC. Prior to these professional roles, Laura ran for the U.S. Congressional seat in the 4th District of Kansas in 2020.
After moving home to Wichita in 2017, she was hired as the CEO of ImEpik, a market-driven and research-based online training company. Laura joined ImEpik to expand the company’s presence in the food safety industry and other industrial sectors. The company tripled its revenue two years in a row under her leadership and became a recognized leader in food safety training. Laura also worked as a consultant for the Climate and Energy Project as the Development Director of the Clean Energy Business Council. In this capacity, she worked on membership services, event planning, fundraising, and public affairs campaigns.
Before moving home to Wichita, Laura lived in Washington, DC, for seven years. After graduating from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), she worked as a consultant and media relations coordinator at The Cohen Group (TCG), a DC-based consulting firm founded by former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen.
After leaving TCG, Laura was the founding President and Executive Director of the Middle East & North Africa Consultants in Washington, DC. She formed MENA Consultants in 2013 along with twelve other consultants interested in promoting increased trade relations and commerce between the United States and Middle Eastern countries. She also provided strategic consulting for non-profit organizations, small-to-medium-sized companies, public-private partnerships, and Fortune 500 firms.
In addition to her Master’s Degree in International Relations & Economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS, Laura has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Kansas. She enjoys traveling, painting, Latin dancing, and basketball. She is also the proud mom of a red-headed little boy.
Greg Murphy
CFA, CPA – Managing Director, Head of Impact of TortoiseEcofin
email: gmurphy at ecofininvest dot com
Greg Murphy serves as Managing Director, Head of Impact for TortoiseEcofin, LLC a Leawood, KS-based asset manager with over $8B of investments focused on energy and social infrastructure including investments in renewables, waste-to-energy, water, sanitation, education, and healthcare. As Head of Impact Mr. Murphy oversees the firm’s responsible investing and ESG initiatives; reports on the positive impact these investments make to society beyond their financial returns; and works closely with other investment industry professionals to help define industry standards around reporting responsible investing, ESG, and impact.
A third-generation Kansan, Mr. Murphy grew up in Prairie Village. After high school, he attended Trinity University in San Antonio, TX where he graduated with honors and a double major in Economics and Business Administration. While at Trinity his college work study was in the athletic department working as an athletic trainer for the Division III sports teams. While he has not taped an ankle in years, he can still apply ice bags to his own knees after a run.
Mr. Murphy returned to Kansas in 2000 to take a job at a predecessor to TortoiseEcofin and has worked for TortoiseEcofin or affiliates ever since. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Kansas in 2002. He enjoys woodworking, live music and running. He lives with his family in Leawood.
John Shively
NGO Liaison for the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth to the United Nations
email: jshively at scls dot org
John Shively is a Kansas native and was born and raised in Coffeyville, KS. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Washburn University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Marquette University.
After completing his graduate program in 2018, John moved back to Kansas to work for the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth in their Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation. In that role, he works to educate and advocate on a wide variety of social justice issues such a climate justice, poverty, homelessness, and immigration. He is also the NGO Liaison for the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth to the United Nations and serves on the steering committee for the Justice Conference of Women Religious (JCWR).
In his free time, John enjoys gardening, volunteering, and going on walks with his newly adopted dog, Sadie.
Matt Kleinmann
Program Manager, Health Equity Task Force at Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, KS
email: matt dot kleinmann at gmail dot com
Matt Kleinmann is a Ph.D. candidate and community health designer. Matt uses design to collaborate with communities and improve health outcomes in the built environment. In 2014, Matt co-founded Dotte Agency at the University of Kansas, an international award-winning public interest design collaboration.
Matt recently joined the Public Health Department at the Unified Government of Wyandotte County as the Program Manager for the Wyandotte County Health Equity Task Force, where he uses mapping, storytelling, and community organizing to increase access to COVID-19 resources for underserved communities. Matt and his wife Sangeeta live with their two dogs in Kansas City, Kansas.
Jill Westra
Senior Manager of Sustainability, Boston Beer Company
email: jillington at gmail dot com
Jill Westra is an environmental scientist with a 20-year career in environmental consulting and corporate sustainability management. Originally from mid-Missouri and having spent the majority of her career working internationally, Jill relocated to Northeast Johnson County, Kansas, in 2015. She holds a Masters of Science degree in Environment and Society from the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and a Masters of Science in Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety Management from the University of Portsmouth (UK). Ms. Westra is currently the Senior Manager of Sustainability for the Boston Beer Company, a role she accepted after a decade of experience working in the consulting engineering, mining and construction sectors. She is an Associate Member of the international environmental practitioners’ professional association (IEMA) and a member of the Manufacturers Alliance where she sits on the Sustainability Council. Jill is also a member of the Brewers’ Association, an American trade group of brewers, and an elected board member of WaterOne, Johnson County’s water utility.
In her spare time she enjoys camping, hiking, walking her two dogs and just about any other opportunity to get immersed in nature. She also takes pride in volunteering with Missouri River Relief and Folk Alliance International, local animal rescue shelters, and playing music in several local bands. Jill is a single mother to a 13-year old daughter attending middle school in the Shawnee Mission School District.
Jeff Severin
Program Manager, Environmental Finance Center at Wichita State University
email: jrseverin at gmail dot com
Jeff’s interest in the connections that exist among human and natural systems is reflected throughout his career as an informal educator and sustainability professional. His experience spans watershed education, waste reduction, energy conservation, multimodal transportation, landscape restoration, community wellness, food insecurity and social justice. He has coordinated strategic planning and project implementation to address a range of environmental and social challenges in higher education and in the broader community, and has collaborated with students, researchers, natural resources professionals, educators, and outdoor enthusiasts as well as local governments and state agencies to foster community action and effect cultural change.
Jeff is a program manager for the Environmental Finance Center at Wichita State University. Prior to joining the EFC in 2021, he served as the first director of the Center for Sustainability at the University of Kansas. He has also served on the Board of Directors for the Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education (KACEE), including 2 years as president, and on the leadership team for LiveWell Douglas County. Jeff graduated from the University of Kansas with a BA in Environmental Studies and a Master of Urban Planning, and he earned his Certified Climate Change Professional (CC-P) credential in 2021.
Interns/Volunteers
Daniela Velazquez
Program Support Intern
email: intern at climate and energy dot com
Daniela is a current intern at the Climate + Energy Project.
Daniela Velazquez is a Program Support Intern for the Climate + Energy Project through the EDICT summer internship program. A proud Chicana born and raised in New Jersey, she is a rising sophomore at Columbia University currently pursuing degrees in both Computer Science and Film & Media Studies.
Daniela is passionate about the intersection between technology, film, and advocacy. She currently works for an organization focusing on minority communities as a video director, where she also creates promotional content. Her growing interest in environmental justice is fueled by her determination to champion equitable and sustainable solutions, safeguarding our planet and fostering universal access to a healthful environment.
Outside of her professional commitments, Daniela immerses herself in the world of music, enjoys watching movies, and loves spending time with her nephew. Grateful for the chance to explore civic engagement and climate resiliency, among many other subjects, she eagerly looks forward to embarking on this new learning experience.
Jenny Vicente
Marketing and Communications Intern
email: intern at climate and energy dot com
Meet Jenny (she/her), a marketing and communications intern at CEP. As an undergraduate student, she actively supported civil rights and food justice campaigns, with the goal of making vegan food more accessible and affordable.
She is eager to apply her research experience to support CEP’s mission of advancing clean energy solutions and climate action. During her internship, she will focus on examining the misinformation surrounding solar and wind energy campaigns and producing science-based written communications.
Among her hobbies, Jenny enjoys live music, baking, and traveling. She is excited to continue pursuing her passions for energy equity, environmental justice and community engagement.