Jeff Gleason

Advisor to the Executive Director

Jeff Gleason is the Advisor to the Executive Director at the Southern Environmental Law Center. He began his SELC career in 1991 heading the newly formed Energy Program and later became SELC’s Deputy Director & Director of Regional Programs for nearly two decades, overseeing hundreds of cases and significant legal and policy victories. He served as Executive Director from 2019-2022, successfully leading SELC through the organization’s transition from Founder Rick Middleton and leading a strategic planning process that laid out an ambitious plan for the organization’s next ten years.

Jeff is proud to have played a leadership role in the transformational change in energy policy that has occurred in the South over the past three decades, including the first utility-sponsored energy efficiency programs, the retirement of over one-third of the coal-burning power fleet across the region, and a dramatic increase in solar power. Reductions in pollution from coal-burning power plants have led to substantial improvements in air quality. In the Shenandoah National Park, where Jeff grew up hiking and camping, days violating federal air pollution health standards have dropped from 45 summer days a year in the 1990s to zero days in recent years.

Jeff is a past recipient of the EPA’s Clean Air Excellence award and the James S. Dockery, Jr. Southern Environmental Leadership Award, and was named Clean Air Conservationist of the Year. A native of Charlottesville, Jeff earned his law degree from the University of Virginia and a B.A. with honors from Union College.

Previous experience

• Former President and Executive Director of SELC
• National expert in clean energy and air
• Union College with honors; University of Virginia School of Law