Staff, Board, and Partners
staff
Liane Jollon is the executive director at Western Leaders Network. She joined WLN in 2025, bringing 25 years of executive leadership experience primarily with governmental organizations dedicated to protecting and advancing public health. In these roles, she worked closely with elected officials and built cross-sector partnerships to transform community health systems.
Most recently, she served as executive director of the Health District of Northern Larimer County in Colorado. She was previously executive director of San Juan Basin Public Health, where she orchestrated an innovative, multi-agency COVID-19 pandemic response and led the department in navigating the health impacts of the 2015 Gold King Mine spill in southwest Colorado.
In 2019, she was appointed by Governor Jared Polis to serve on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission as the commission implemented a sweeping mission change to prioritize public health. In this role, Liane demonstrated her ability to integrate her public health expertise with environmental regulation and community protection.
She holds an associate’s degree in nursing from Pueblo Community College in Durango; a bachelor’s degree in arts, history, and sociology from Columbia University; and a master’s degree in security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. In 2022, she was named a Gates Family Fellow as a Senior Executive in State and Local Government at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University.
Jessica Pace is the program director at Western Leaders Network, overseeing the organization’s programs and communications and engaging local, tribal, and state officials in critical climate, conservation, and democracy issue campaigns. As the program director, she played a leading role in building a bipartisan network of 1,000 elected officials across 11 states and has worked with leaders across the Interior West and Ohio River Valley region to advocate for federal and state methane safeguards; reforms for the hard rock mining industry and oil and gas sector; initiatives to protect democracy; national monument designations; and other federal protections for public lands, air, and water.
In 2025, she served as interim executive director, guiding Western Leaders Network through a leadership transition while maintaining organizational operations, programs and issue campaigns, and major donor and stakeholder relationships.
Prior to joining WLN, she worked as a news journalist for publications in Colorado and Tennessee, covering issues including county government, the state legislature, public education, water policy and infrastructure, the energy industry, tribal issues, and real estate.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Elise Jones is a former two-term Boulder County commissioner, first elected in 2012 and reelected in 2016. She spent 13 years as executive director of Colorado Environmental Coalition in Denver, and prior to that worked as a Senior Legislative Assistant for Rep. Elizabeth Furse (D-OR), directed the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund in Boulder, and was a project coordinator for National Wildlife Federation.
She is currently executive director of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.
Lauren Pagel is the policy director at Earthworks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the adverse impacts of mineral and energy development. Lauren joined Earthworks, then Mineral Policy Center, in August 2002, after previously assisting with their 2001 campaign to stop the Bush administration from rolling back important rules to protect public lands from mining. Before joining Earthworks, Lauren helped the Union of Concerned Scientists organize their campaign to reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock.
Before her time at UCS, Lauren was a part of the legislative team at Friends of the Earth, working on a variety of issues ranging from the Farm Bill to trade issues. Prior to Friends of the Earth, she worked on the field team at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. During her time at Earthworks, Lauren has testified in front of Congressional committees, represented Earthworks on the steering committee for the Western Mining Action Network, and been quoted in publications such as the New York Times and Time Magazine. Lauren graduated from Vassar College in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science.
Don Schreiber and his wife, Jane, run the Devil's Spring Ranch in northwest New Mexico's Rio Arriba County.
In 2008, they pioneered the Open Space Pilot Project with BLM, industry, and Holistic Management International to cut the numbers of new oil and gas well locations on and around the ranch by 90% and to apply advanced construction and rehabilitation practices to all of the 122 oil and gas wells existing within the project area.
Juanita Vero is a Missoula County Commissioner and fourth-generation partner of the E Bar L Ranch in Greenough, Montana. In addition to running her family business, she has served on numerous community conservation-focused boards and committees, including as chair of Montana Conservation Voters, Missoula County Open Lands Committee, Big Blackfoot Chapter Trout Unlimited, Swan Valley Connections, and Sunset School Board. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
She enjoys horses, snowboarding, and backcountry wandering after game with her husband and his llamas. She used to play lacrosse, rugby, and ultimate frisbee but is now relegated to spending more time on her yoga mat. In June 2019, Juanita was appointed to fill the remainder of Nicole Rowley’s term, which ended December 31, 2020. She ran and won the open seat in the November 2020 election.
Shelly Fyant is Bitterroot Salish and resides on the Flathead Indian Reservation in what is now western Montana. In 2024, she was elected to serve the 91st district in the Montana House of Representatives.
Prior to the Montana State Legislature, she served on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council for eight years, most recently as the chairwoman from January 2020 to December 2021. During her tenure, CSKT’s water compact passed through the state and federal processes and was the largest settlement at $1.9 billion after nearly four decades of negotiations. It included restoration of the former National Bison Range to tribal hands.
Shelly graduated from the University of Montana in 1989 with a B.S. in business administration. Her spare time is spent in the mountains with family, which includes four adult sons, seven grandchildren, and one great- granddaughter. She is resuming her food sovereignty work focusing on increasing access to locally grown, healthy foods in the Jocko Valley.
Erika Strassburger is a member of Pittsburgh City Council, proudly serving the residents of the City’s 8th District. She is the first woman elected to this seat. Before her election, Erika served as Chief of Staff for her predecessor, former-Councilman Dan Gilman. Prior to that, she worked for nearly a decade advocating for clean air, clean water, and a clean energy future at the state and federal levels.
Since being sworn into City Council in April of 2018, Erika has passed trailblazing legislation to guard against employment discrimination for pregnant workers and their partners throughout Pittsburgh; led the charge to overhaul and modernize Pittsburgh’s municipal waste and recycling code; passed policies to prevent against discrimination based on gender identity and expression citywide; pursed a comprehensive lead safety law to keep dangerous toxins out of our homes and community centers; and secured passage of a landmark ban on single-use plastic bags at checkout which takes effect in 2023.
Erika has been an outspoken advocate for policies promoting clean water and air, equitable and diverse communities, safe and complete streets, and a transparent, and responsive government. She is passionate about offering new ways for her constituents to be informed & involved in city government.