Western Leaders Network

Western Leaders Network (WLN) and Appalachian Leaders Network (ALN) mobilize local, tribal, and state elected and appointed officials across the Interior West and Ohio River Valley to address the climate crisis, advance conservation initiatives, and protect democracy. By equipping officials with peer networks, strategic resources, and targeted engagement opportunities, WLN builds the collective capacity of more than 1,000 leaders across 11 states Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming to make an impact at the local, state, and federal levels. WLN focuses particularly on rural and extractive-industry-dependent communities in the Interior West and Appalachia that are often underserved by federal policymakers and disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It operates from the conviction that environmental protection and democratic participation are mutually reinforcing: when democracy is undermined, environmental progress stalls, and when communities bear the brunt of climate change without recourse, democratic institutions weaken. New Significant Program ServicesIn 2025, WLN meaningfully expanded its democracy program, raising dedicated funding and initiating the hiring of a new program coordinator to implement expanded democracy programming beginning in 2026. This expansion builds on candidate education work that began in 2022 and grew into a sustained program focused on supporting free, fair, and safe elections; helping local governments and election officials coordinate with state agencies; and addressing election interference and voter suppression. WLN also organized officials in both the Interior West and Ohio River Valley to submit public comments opposing a federal voter registration rulemaking that would have disenfranchised millions of eligible voters. Significant Changes to Existing Programs In June 2025, Liane Jollon joined WLN as Executive Director following the January 2025 departure of founder and long-time Executive Director Gwen Lachelt. Program Director Jessica Pace served as interim executive director during the transition period. Ms. Jollon brings more than 25 years of executive leadership experience in nonprofit and governmental organizations, including extensive public health sector leadership. WLN also expanded its board of directors, welcoming Pittsburgh City Councilor Erika Strassburger, who leads ALN's advisory council, and former Executive Director Gwen Lachelt as new members, deepening expertise and connectivity between the Western and Appalachian regional networks. In October, WLN convened an in-person board and staff retreat to plan programmatic expansion for 2026.Environmental ProgrammingWLN's environmental program engages local, tribal, and state elected officials across the Interior West and Ohio River Valley in climate and environmental policy advocacy at the federal, state, and local levels. The program organizes officials to participate in rulemakings, legislative campaigns, public comment processes, and media engagement; provides resources and peer connections to support locally driven environmental action; and amplifies officials' voices through its Western Leaders Voices and Appalachian Leaders Voices initiative, which helps officials publish opinion editorials and letters in regional and national news outlets.In 2025, WLN organized officials across both networks to engage in more than a dozen federal and state policy processes. In Colorado, WLN organized public testimony and submitted a letter signed by more than 40 state and local officials supporting a rule to cut methane from landfills the state's third-largest source of the greenhouse gas which the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) adopted in December 2025. WLN also organized officials to advocate before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which in December finalized a clean heat plan with 41% emissions reduction targets by 2035 for Xcel Energy and other utilities. Earlier in the year, WLN organized public comment in support of AQCC rules to phase out polluting pneumatic controllers used by the oil and gas industry, which were adopted in February 2025.In New Mexico, WLN engaged a coalition supporting the Community Benefit Fund and Innovation in State Government Fund, both of which passed the state legislature, and organized more than a dozen officials to make public comments on proposed bonding regulations requiring oil and gas companies, rather than taxpayers, to fund well cleanup and restoration. In Pennsylvania, WLN submitted a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection signed by 59 local and state officials calling for strong methane safeguards from the oil and gas sector, building the public record for a state rulemaking. And, in Utah and Wyoming, WLN led similar engagement on oil and gas bonding modernization and methane mitigation policy.At the federal level, WLN signed nearly 20 media statements and letters opposing attacks on the EPA's landmark 2024 methane rule, the 2009 endangerment finding, the Waste Emissions Charge, and IRA and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. WLN hosted two record-attendance webinars on defending federal investments and maintaining local climate progress. WLN's coalition advocacy opposing the Methane Emissions Reduction Program repeal was cited in Politico's Morning Energy newsletter.Through Western Leaders Voices and Appalachian Leaders Voices, WLN supported officials in publishing opinion editorials in outlets including Wyofile, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and the Denver Post on topics including methane mitigation as an economic driver, the consequences of federal disinvestment for vulnerable communities, and the importance of the EPA endangerment finding for local air quality and climate progress.In 2025, WLN sent 15 letters to federal and state agencies, members of Congress, and other decision-makers; issued 20 press releases and statements; and hosted 3 webinars in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund, National League of Cities, Center for American Progress, and others.