STAFF
Our staff are responsible to implement programs, provide day-to-day management, and work directly with program participants. Our team is talented, dedicated, and passionate about our mission.
Melissa Hellerud
Executive Director
Ron Gurno
Construction Manager
Christine Ley
Fractional Finance Director
Katherine Mueller
Fractional Development Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Our mission is advised and advanced by our Board of Directors, a diverse group of skilled and experienced advocates for system-wide solutions. Our Directors are people who are making good change in this world despite the barriers present in it.
Leila Wise
Chair
Jeff Frey
Director
Deyona Kirk
Director
David Schutt
Director
TaKeesha Coon
Vice Chair
Richard Howell
Director
Dane Larson
Director
Andrew St. Croix
Director
Andrea Crouse
Secretary
Jenika Keup
Director
Mark Plemel
Director
OUR HISTORY
In the spring of 2019 local attorney, housing advocate and former city councilor Greg Gilbert joined forces with green building expert and climate justice advocate Rachel Wagner to address the community's compounding problems of a persistent housing shortage, systemic wealth inequities, and the need for much more action regarding the climate crisis. Recognizing that these problems were not mutually exclusive, they began to discuss mutually inclusive solutions. They found common ground in the tenets outlined in the proposed Green New Deal, and utilized this concept to devise an integrated, community-wide, equitable approach to housing development, economic opportunity and climate mitigation.
Boreal Development is a Minnesota State nonprofit corporation.
Co-Founder
Greg Gilbert
Greg Gilbert is an attorney and former Duluth City Councilor. For more than 30 years he has advised community organizations, the non-profit sector and small businesses. He is committed to creating nimble and innovative solutions to remedy entrenched systemic problems facing communities, especially those with historic disinvestment.
Co-Founder
Rachel Wagner
Rachel Wagner is a designer, educator, and social entrepreneur who has worked in the area of green building for over 20 years. An acknowledged “building energy geek,” she is recognized for her expertise in sustainable housing. She now applies her skills to the intersections of design, education, climate change mitigation, and social justice.