Announcements from the Board Chair

The Green New Deal Housing Board of Directors is excited to announce that we have promoted Melissa Hellerud to the Executive Director position. Melissa has been Program Director since June 2024. She has a long history of leading nonprofit initiatives including transitional housing, childcare, and construction programming. We are also hiring Ron Gurno as our first Construction Trainer. In his role he will lead our Construction Training programs. Ron is a general contractor who has managed his own construction company, and prior to that he led construction training programming at another nonprofit.

In addition to the staffing shift we are also excited to announce that we are have changed our organization’s name to Boreal Development.  The Board of Directors made the decision to change the name in order to better reflect the breadth of the organization’s work. We will continue to develop net zero energy housing, provide comprehensive construction training in addition to green construction techniques, and engage the community closely in our work.

Mark Plemel, Chair of the Board of Directors of Boreal Development, states, “Melissa has done a great job growing our community relationships while developing a comprehensive construction training program in partnership with the Building and Construction Trades Council. We are excited future projects in both kousing and workforce development under Melissa's capable leadership.”

Our work will continue to focus on sustainable housing, green construction training, and community engagement. Boreal Development programs will continue to be in service of communities that face inequity in employment, housing stability, and financial stability. We will be enrolling participants in our next construction training program soon, and we look forward to sharing more information.