Leadership Contacts

Leadership

JoAnn Fleming

Executive Director; Acting Vice President & Spokesman

Email: grassrootsleadership@gawtp.com

A leader in the constitutional conservative movement for 29 years, JoAnn Fleming is the executive director of Grassroots America – We the People PAC, the largest all-volunteer constitutional conservative organization in Texas. She was the three-term Chair of the Texas Legislature’s TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee. In this unpaid role, she worked directly with grassroots leaders from across the state and with legislators to develop and pass constitutionally conservative bills and to kill “big government” legislation. Until the disastrous 86th session, she was a strong supporter and advisor to the Texas House Freedom Caucus. She publicly called for the disbanding of the Texas House Freedom Caucus after they abandoned their stated mission to represent the voice of the Texas conservative grassroots during the 86th Legislative Session.

JoAnn was appointed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to chair his Grassroots Advisory Board for the 84th legislative session. She was designated an honorary Inaugural Committee Member for the Lt. Governor’s first inaugural and for the 2018 inauguration of Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick. Fleming was honored with Empower Texans’ Conservative Leader Award in 2015 and their special Torch of Freedom Award in 2018.

An original member of the #CruzCrew, JoAnn campaigned with Sen. Cruz when he was polling at 1% in his first race for the U.S. Senate and played a key role in his come-from-behind victory. On July 28, 2015, Cruz appointed JoAnn his Texas Tea Party Chair for the 2016 Cruz for President Campaign. She organized 17 teams of Texans to go to Iowa to campaign for Senator Cruz. Many of the teams went on to New Hampshire and South Carolina. JoAnn served as an official surrogate spokesman for Senator Cruz throughout his Presidential campaign.

Fleming has collaborated many years with other statewide conservative leaders to inform the people of Texas about the legislative process and the conservative reforms needed to make Texas strong enough to lead a nation looking for answers. In 2013, she traveled Texas with the Life, Liberty and Property Coalition – a coalition representing every major conservative organization in Texas – Grassroots America, Texas Right to Life, Texas Eagle Forum, Empower Texans, Concerned Women for America/Texas, Texas Values, and the Texas Home School Coalition. She is a leader in the Lone Star Agenda Coalition, which authored the Save Texas 2020 Plan.

For the last six years, JoAnn has led the effort to build the statewide Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition (the premier project of Grassroots America) whose mission is to unite conservative independents and Republicans around first liberty principles and their effective application to legislation and public policy. The Coalition has grown 890% since its inception and is the only one of its kind in Texas and the nation.

JoAnn is a self-term-limited county commissioner; a sought-after public speaker; an unpaid political advisor to officials at the local, state, and federal level; a guest political analyst for local media, and a frequent contributor to state and national political commentary. Known for her unique style of delivery, one of JoAnn’s most pointed ways of defining her relationship with politicians is: “My endorsement is not a life- time commitment. I’ve been married to the same man for 42 years. Everybody else is subject to recall.” (She really means it.)

Through the years, JoAnn has earned the title of “local government subject matter expert” by having actively served on twenty-two local government boards, task forces, and committees. Mrs. Fleming’s consulting skills include public policy and organizational development, performance management, teambuilding, small business success, issues campaign strategy and messaging, candidate and grassroots training. She holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi. Her professional career was in Oil and Gas Accounting/Field Operations and small business consulting.

JoAnn says the Christian’s responsibility to be a faithful steward of liberty is what has driven her 29 years of activism as a constitutional conservative. A native Texan, she was born in Killeen while her father was in military service. Married for 42 years to her high school sweetheart, she and her husband have one son – a business graduate of UT-Tyler. Long, long ago when she had leisure time, JoAnn really enjoyed fishing.

Rick Eisenbach

President

Rick Eisenbach is a native of San Angelo, Texas and holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Texas in Austin. He was married to Kathy in 1971 and they have five children – four boys, one girl, and three grandchildren.

Rick served from 1968 to 1974 in the U.S. Army Reserves.

His work experience includes holding the position of President and Managing Partner of Clarklift of Wichita Falls from 1976 to 1985, and was the second youngest principal in the 79-year history of the Clark Equipment Company dealer network. He was honored with the President’s Award by Clark Equipment Company in 1982.

In 1985 he purchased a mechanical contracting business in Tyler, Texas and ran that company until organizing the company, along with a national group of 123 other mechanical contracting businesses throughout the U.S., into a conglomerate entity known as Service Experts, Inc., and participated in taking the 123 member conglomerate onto the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in 1998.

In 2002, Rick started a consulting business in the field of power management working with commercial businesses throughout Texas in the area of natural gas and electricity procurement. He is currently engaged full time in this business with two of his four sons under the name Eisenbach Consulting, LLC.

Rick’s political and public service background includes volunteer service to the Tyler Special Olympics; Sunday School teacher: Faith Baptist Church, Wichita Falls, TX and Green Acres Baptist Church, Tyler, TX; volunteer – Gospel Village ministry; volunteer member of the Tyler ISD Strategic Planning Committee; volunteer Instructor – Ambassadors of Compassion; volunteer–East Texas Cornerstone Assistance Network ; member Tyler Half Cent Sales Tax Board; member – Smith County Republican Club; and delegate to three successive Texas State Republican Conventions.

Rick states that his personal convictions are strong and deeply held ….says Eisenbach “My driving convictions and deepest desires are to love and honor God in every part of my life, to love, protect and support my family and to do everything within my power to do my part in installing conservative values in every part of government, which translate to conservative policies in each segment of government: local, state and national.”

In recent years Eisenbach has been active as the Leader of the GAWTP TISD Watchdog Group—a group organized and chartered with the responsibility of holding the Tyler Independent School District, and their Board of Trustees, accountable to the district’s single responsibility of delivering a quality education to all of the children and young people within the district—an education that equips students for college or career and for society, and which delivers all of this efficiently and at a minimum cost to the taxpayers.

MaryAnne Aiken

Secretary; Assistant to Executive Director

Email: maryanneaiken@gmail.com

MaryAnne grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, attended Texas A&I College in Kingsville, Tx., now Texas A&M – Kingsville. She taught school in the Houston area and then she worked for a British Engineering Company, as Traffic Manager, shipping equipment domestically and internationally.  MaryAnne has also worked for Baker Hughes as Traffic Manager, shipping equipment all over the globe.

An entrepreneur, she owned her own business in East Texas for several years. She has served as a volunteer in various venues including the medical field and politics and has been with GAWTP since the beginning, 10 years ago serving where needed.

MaryAnn has been a poll watcher for True the Vote for several elections and served as a voting clerk for the Bullard ISD, performing in a watchdog roll.

Josh Machiavello

Treasurer

Josh is a Certified Public Accountant specializing in federal taxation. He received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Science in Taxation from the University of North Texas at Denton. Upon graduation in 2008, he accepted a position in the downtown Dallas office of a global accounting firm, where he worked in the Corporate Federal Tax group. In 2012, he returned “home” to Tyler, where he works for a regional accounting firm serving a broad range of clientele.

Prior to his career in public accounting, Josh interned for Representative Rick Green, and later worked in the Research Department of David Barton’s WallBuilders. In 2003, he was a member of the inaugural class of Patriot Academy, and attended for three additional successive years.

As a passionate advocate of constitutional conservatism, Josh has volunteered hundreds of hours for numerous local, state legislative, and congressional campaigns. He has also attended multiple Texas Republican Conventions as a delegate, and has been involved in several conservative and Republican organizations.

Josh is an active member of Tyler Primitive Baptist Church, where he serves as Assistant Clerk. He is also an avid supporter of the East Texas Youth Orchestra, for which he served as Treasurer for over three years. In his free time, he enjoys reading about theology, history, Constitutional theory, and free market economics. Otherwise, you can find him in the outdoors enjoying nature.

Sue Evenwel

Board Member, Texas Conservative Mamas & Dads Tour Scheduler; Senate District Coalition Leader

Sue Evenwel has been a citizen activist for over 40 years. Becoming interested in politics in high school as a Goldwater Girl, Sue’s enthusiasm escalated later as a young mother and homemaker as she became concerned over the sex education curriculum used in local schools where her children were enrolled.

Over the years, Sue has served in many Republican party positions in Illinois, Tennessee, and Texas.  She has served on local, state, and national Republican Boards and Committees, including the national exploratory committee for Fred Thompson’s Presidential bid.  She has also worked on many political campaigns – block walking, phone banking, stuffing envelopes and stamping mail for conservative candidates at all levels.  Conservative grassroots activism has always been a passion.

Arriving in Texas in 1998, Sue: 

• Has been elected twice as a Texas delegate to the Republican National Convention
• Has served as a delegate to every Texas Republican State Biennial Convention since 2000
• Was named in 2011 as one of the “10 Outstanding Republican Women” in Texas
• Was elected to serve on the State Republican Executive Committee from 2012 – 2020
• Has served in Titus County as a Republican Election Judge, Precinct Chair, and as an officer in the Republican Women of Northeast Texas organization
• Has served as the Titus County Republican Party Chair since 2008
• Served on the 2020 RPT Priorities working group for Election Integrity
• Currently serves as a Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition Leader and an SD 1 Coalition leader for Grassroots America
• Currently serves as coordinator/scheduler for the Texas Conservative Mamas & Dads Truth Tour and as an SD Coalition Coordinator for Grassroots America
• Was named a 2020 Grassroots America Champion of Freedom Honoree
• Was named Grassroots America’s 2021 Outstanding Servant Leader
• Was named a 2021 Texas Conservative Leader by Texas Scorecard.

Toni Fabry

Board Member, Senate District Coalition Leader; GOTV

Craig Licciardi

Board Member

Craig Licciardi has been a Texan since 1975.  He has broadened his political activism over the last 10 years, beginning with work on local option elections, local candidate races, then by becoming a Smith County Republican Precinct Chair in 2014.  He has served as a delegate to the Texas Republican Party Convention three times and as a National Republican Party Convention Delegate once.

Being much more focused on principled policy rather than party, Craig has served on resolutions committees, testified at convention committees, and has testified in Austin at several legislative committee hearings.

Craig is passionate about God, following the US Constitution, and preserving the original American experiment in liberty and self-government.  Craig’s favorite founding father quote (among many) is from John Adams: “This constitution was made only for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Jim Speiran

Ex-Officio Board Member; Co-Chair Volunteer Action Committee; GOTV

Jim Speiran is a retired businessman and a charter member of Grassroots America – We the People PAC where he has served on the Board of Directors and as a valued member of their highly-respected candidate vetting team for many years.  Jim has chaired the organization’s Get Out the Vote committee for many years and trained many block walkers. Jim currently co-chairs Grassroots America’s, Volunteer Action Committee.

Jim is a Smith County Republican Party Precinct Chair and a financial advisor to his church and community association.

Tom Fabry

Chairman, Local Government Watchdog Committee; Senate District Coalition Leader; Candidate Vetting Team Member

Email: tcfabry@yahoo.com

Tom Fabry served his country as an officer in the US Army.  He began his civilian career at Dun & Bradstreet, a world-leading resource for commercial information and business insight, where he managed business process re-engineering teams.  In 2000, Tom joined EDS as Managing Consultant leading engagements on business strategy, operations, and enterprise support models.  When Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) merged, Tom led the design, construction, and operation of a global network of six engineering and Research & Development labs across four continents for HP and their global clients, a position he held until retiring. 

Along with his wife, Toni, Tom led the Frisco Tea Party from 2010 – 2020. In 2016, they were honored by Empower Texas with the Conservative Leader Award and with Grassroots America’s Champions of Freedom Award.  

In 2020, Tom and Toni moved to Tyler and joined the statewide constitutional conservative organization Grassroots America – We the People, where Toni serves as a Board Member and Tom serves as Chairman of the Local Government Watchdog Committee and as a member of the candidate vetting team.

Tom’s experienced and specialized focus has been in school and local government finance – analyzing budgets and bond issues, pushing for the defunding of CSCOPE, defeating Tax Ratification Elections (TREs), shedding light on Texas Association of School Board funding, and pushing financial transparency. 

Tom and Toni also serve in leadership in Grassroots America’s signature projects – the Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition and the Conservative Senate District Coalition Initiative, unique conservative action networking projects that are now being promoted in other states.

Dee Chambless

Co-Chair, Volunteer Action Committee; GOTV

Dee Chambless is a proud Native Texan whose ancestors arrived in Texas just after the Civil War. She graduated from UT Tyler, is an avid runner, cyclist, cross-trainer and loves to hunt.  Dee frequently deploys as a Disaster Relief worker to assist in the aftermath of natural disasters in the U.S. She is also a member of the Texas Border Volunteers.

Having recently wrapped up a successful 30-year career in the energy business, Dee has been serving East Texas by organizing, training, and working side-by-side with volunteers dedicated to preserving our Christian conservative values. She and her husband have been married for 33 years and are the parents of two boys.

Dee currently co-chairs Grassroots America’s Volunteer Action Committee with longtime GAWTP leader Jim Speiran.

Jimmie Taylor

PAC Treasurer

Not on GAWTP Board, but designated as PAC Treasurer for state and federal reporting purposes.