Jeff Gleason

Executive Director

Jeff Gleason is the Executive Director of 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.

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.

I am so proud and honored to be leading the Southern Environmental Law Center at this time in the organization’s history and in the history of this country. Our talented staff is capable of taking on the most important environmental threats facing our region and our country, and winning, as we have demonstrated time and again over the years.

Jeff Gleason

Previous experience

• Former Deputy Director/Director of Regional Programs at SELC
• National expert in clean energy and air
• Union College with honors; University of Virginia School of Law