Photo by Ken Schles
Kim Fraczek,
Director (she/her)
Kim leads our team and handles the day-to-day running of Sane Energy Project. Please contact Kim if you have an event, sign-on letter, or alliance you would like Sane to participate in.
Kim has been with Sane Energy Project since 2012. With a background in corporate creative production and social justice, she has an unusual range of experience and perspective. Her integrity, creative talent, and positive energy lend to Sane’s distinct brand of activism and high regard in the movement community.
Prior to leading Sane, Kim co-founded the allied group Occupy the Pipeline, which was active from 2012 through 2014, and produced street performances, art and music-filled rallies and marches, and direct actions that garnered significant media attention against the Spectra NY-NJ Expansion pipeline.
Kim continues to spearhead imaginative strategies in all our campaigns and to instill activism with a spirit of community and joy. She is committed to using art as a tool for social engagement, and has brought a wise and considerate hand to all of our ongoing work.
Hennessy Garcia,
Community Organizer (she, they)
Hennessy is an Afro-Puerto Rican queer organizer. She will be obtaining her Bachelors in Environmental Science in May 2025. Climate justice to Hennessy is intersectional. There is no climate justice without racial, reproductive, or social justice. Hennessy believes that climate justice is deeply rooted in the fight for collective liberation and struggle not only for people, but for the planet.
Hennessy has been in coalition with different organizations such as NY Renews, Public Power NY, Renewable Heat Now, Sixth Street Community Center, and the No North Brooklyn Pipeline Alliance. As Hennessy grows into her new role at Sane Energy, she looks forward to committing deeply to the No North Brooklyn Pipeline Alliance and helping push to shut down National Grid’s poisonous LNG facility in Greenpoint.
On her own time, Hennessy also organizes in the reproductive justice space as a clinic defender, and enjoys cooking nourishing food for mutual aid.
Elliot Figman,
Senior Advisor (he/him)
Elliot Figman (he/him) is a resident of the neighborhood immediately affected by the Spectra pipeline. Elliot was an early supporter of Sane Energy Project and later joined the leadership team. As the Executive Director Emeritus of Poets & Writers, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization serving creative writers, Elliot has brought his experience to bear in helping Sane grow and flourish.
Michael Paulson,
Associate Director (he/him)
Michael Paulson is a climate organizer, educator, and life-long New Yorker committed to collective action to win the world we deserve.
He has worked on campaigns throughout New York State to advance an agenda of 100% publicly owned and democratically controlled renewable energy.
Before joining the Sane team he led Sarahana Shrestha’s victorious New York State Assembly campaign in the Mid Hudson Valley, which helped place the Build Public Renewables Act at the center of the Albany climate agenda.
He has also served as a lead organizer and strategist for the Public Power New York coalition in New York City.
Before becoming a fulltime organizer Michael taught writing and literature at Columbia University, where he helped organize SWC-UAW, the union for student workers. He holds a Ph.D. and B.A. from Columbia in English and Comparative Literature.
JK Canepa,
Coordinator (she/her)
JK Canepa grew up in Pennsylvania (a place she grieves over for the devastation she saw as a child in the strip mining of coal and now re-experiences as fracking poisons the state). She moved to New York, which always felt like home. As a recovering computer programmer, she jumped into activism a while back and later learned how much fun and life-enhancing that can be when we throw our hearts into it, and how, with our loving energy, we can stand and fight for life on Earth. As John Seed says, “It’s the only game in town.” During the time of the legendary actions to save NYC’s beloved and threatened community gardens at the turn of the millenium; she was arrested in the Coqui, a giant (puppet) frog in Esperanza garden in Loisaida. El Coqui’s death by developers galvanized the city and resulted in protection to hundreds of community gardens. JK also joined a group of imaginative tricksters and we got NYC to stop purchasing tropical timber for boardwalks and park benches, a tragic choice that made our city the biggest end-user of rainforest wood in North America. Now she happily works and plays with Sane Energy Project on encouraging offshore wind and other renewables, fighting pipelines, and supporting community voices and power. She’s a denizen of the East Village, a Deep Ecologist, a member of the Eco-Logic collective on WBAI-FM, a community gardener, a cat lady, a cyclist, a dancer, a writer of strange things, a yoga practitioner, an advocate for adult home residents, and a grandmother.
Marianne Waldow,
Facebook Guru (she/her)
Marianne Waldow is a New Yorker at heart. Even more her heart knows sharing wins over accumulating. Marianne has been a member of Occupy the Pipeline working to spread the word about dangers of fracked and all natural gas, particularly in the Spectra Pipeline.
Now she is volunteering with Sane Energy Project to win with renewable energy and close the book on fossil fuels, including sharing on social media, and volunteering with NY Common Pantry to help distribute food to New Yorkers in need.
Jeanne Bergman,
Director of Thermal Energy Networks (she/they)
Jeanne Bergman came to environmental justice and climate activism after two decades in HIV/AIDS policy, advocacy, and non-profit management work in New York City. She holds advanced degrees in cultural anthropology and sustainability management. Jeanne's unwavering commitment to a just transformation of our energy system aligns perfectly with our mission to shift from fossil fuel dependency to community-held, renewable, and clean power. Her work focusses on thermal energy networks as the fastest way to get off gas and into healthy, affordable, renewable heating and cooling at scale. As a long-time ally of Sane Energy, Jeanne values our unique blend of technical analysis, direct action, and joyous community art in driving systemic change.
Photo by one of our incredible Sane Energy family members, Joan Beard.
Claire Lebowitz King,
Operations Associate (she/her)
Claire is an actor, writer, director, and teacher. Originally from Upstate New York, she has recently relocated back to NYC from the UK and is excited to fight for a sustainable future. Claire's creative work explores themes of social justice and systemic change.
Her most recent play, Outside The Gate, which she both wrote and performed in, explored the challenges of raising children in an age of impending climate doom in an atmosphere unfriendly to foreigners. The play received high praise at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was selected by the festival for discussion with teachers in Scotland.
Claire has taught theater, civics, writing, and speaking to students around the world, including those in Afghanistan, India, Ethiopia, and the UK. As an artist and organizer with Occupy Wall Street, she established many connections and social justice networks that continue to enrich her life today and led her to the Sane Energy Project. Currently, she is an initiate in the Dogon Mystery School at the Earth Center, where she is learning to decolonize her education and worldview and live more harmoniously with nature.
Meaghan Burke,
Volunteer (she/her)
Meaghan began volunteering with Sane Energy Project in early 2016. She was born and raised on Long Island. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from SUNY-ESF, a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University, and a Project Management Certificate from NYU. By day, Meaghan mostly focuses on the NYC stormwater system. She enjoys bringing art and music to environmental activism with her Sane Energy family.