Steering Committee

Co-Chair: Sara Tansey

Hey everyone!! I’m Sara Tansey and I am a sophomore at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Right now I am creating my own degree to prepare myself to be a social worker in gang prevention and intervention, and my motivation to action definitely lies in the faces of all the kids I work with in Columbia and in my baby sister's smile. I want to protect them all in every way possible, and I couldn't pretend to be doing so without defending their environment

Co-Chair: Mandy Hancock

Mandy is a graduate of Valdosta State University, with a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology. She has been actively involved with Southern Energy Network for nearly 2 years. Currently, Mandy is serving as Co-chair, or Co-facilitator of the Steering Committee. She also maintains active involvement with Georgia Students for Sustainability, and has an advisory role for the campus organization where she got her start, Students Against Violating the Environment. Now that she is a graduate, she hopes to attain a career working on environmental and social justice issues. In her free time, Mandy enjoys anything outside, dancing, and various creative endeavors.

Amy Ortiz

Amy is a second year student at New College of Florida, majoring in anthropology and environmental studies. She was the anti oppression and environmental justice chair for Power Shift 2007, and focuses her organizing around addressing the root causes of climate change and fighting for a clean, just energy future. She hopes to help to create a inclusive movement that can make the links between oppression, injustice and climate change and is strong enough to create real change. When she isn't organizing, Amy enjoys dancing, cooking and being outdoors.

Stephanie Powell

Stephanie is a founding Steering Committee member and served as the steering committee's founding co-facilitator. She is the Outreach Associate for the Gulf Restoration Network's Healthy Waters program. In her daily work at the GRN, she provides support and training for community members in Mississippi and Louisiana fighting water pollution and wetland destruction. She also coordinates a coalition of groups working to shrink the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

Stephanie is an alumna of Green Corps Environmental Organizing fellowship. During her Green Corps year she worked on a campaign for local ownership of water in Lexington, KY; on global warming in Knoxville, TN; and organized with Environment Georgia to protect the Chattahoochee National Forest. Stephanie has also worked with the Sierra Club on its I Will Evolve Tour, a media tour to raise the visibility of solutions to global warming, and on its Environmental Voter Education Campaign during the 2004 Presidential Election.

She currently calls New Orleans home, but grew up in North Florida and Georgia. She graduated with BA in Anthropology and Political Science from the University of Georgia where she was actively involved in environmental and social justice organizing. She also served as the captain of Classic City Chaos, the Athens radical cheerleading squad.

When she's not a clean water act mercenary, Stephanie enjoys writing bylaws, guidance documents, and fundraising letters for the Southern Energy Network. Stephanie also enjoys exploring the beautiful bayous, marshes, and black bottom creeks of the Gulf South. She looks forward to the day when there is clean air and clean water for all so she can retire to pursue her true passions: farming, basket weaving, and making homemade jam.

Josh Roosth

Josh is a graduate student at the University of Central Florida in Applied Sociology. He is into the environmental movement and student being an agent of social change. He is also currently involved with Focus the Nation and teaches yoga.

Russell is a senior at Valdosta State pursuing a degree in Sociology and Anthropology. He works in Georgia as a student and community organizer. Organizationally, Russell works as the Greenpeace Student network southeastern coordinator namely for Georgia, Georgia Students for Sustainability; a coalition focusing on energy usage and efficiency on campus, and is owner and operator of progressive-collective.org a super site soon to be focusing on action and education for all progressive minded people in the United States.

Jarrett Grimm

Jarrett Grimm is a junior at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. She is a journalism major in the advertising sequence and a
social entrepreneurship minor. Aside from being a member of the SEN steering
committee, she is also involved in the Carolina Environmental Student Alliance
(CESA), the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee (RESPC), and Focus the
Nation UNC. She is also the UNC brand ambassador for the KEEN shoe
company and works at part-time at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center as an educator & loves to do
work with environmental education. In her spare time, she likes to run, kayak,
skateboard, or knit (but hasn't been able to do all 4 at once
yet).

Colin Hagan

Colin is a 2007 graduate of Furman University in Greenville, SC where he studied Political Science and English. He has been on the SEN Steering Committee for 2 years and has enjoyed every minute of it. Colin still lives in Greenville, SC where he serves as the South Carolina Global Warming Research Fellow with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Upstate Forever. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, hanging out with his K-9 friend, Franklin, and spending time outdoors.

Reagan is a Junior at The University of Tennessee, where she

has been very active with UT's student environmental organization,

Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville(SPEAK) for the

past three years, and currently serves as Co-President. She has worked

on numerous renewable energy initiatives on campus, and recently headed

a campaign for a responsible coal purchasing policy, against the

purchase of surfaced mined coal, which has now been adopted by the

university. Beyond UT Reagan is involved with Tennessee Alumni and Students

for Sustainable Campuses (TASSC), which works for statewide renewable

energy policies. With TASSC she has also worked closely with Save Our

Cumberland Mountains, to continue to bond youths and community members

in the fight against MTR. From this work she served as a youth member with the Appalachian Coal Field Delegation at the 2006 UN Commission on Sustainable Development. Reagan also works as an intern for the Southern Energy Network coordinating for the Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference, as well as serving on the steering committee.