Leadership Contacts

Leadership

JoAnn Fleming

Executive Director; Acting President & Spokesman

Email:  jafleming3@outlook.com

A leader in the constitutional conservative movement for 32 years, JoAnn is Executive Director of Grassroots America – We the People PAC, the largest all-volunteer constitutional conservative organization in Texas. She is also a self-term-limited Smith County Commissioner; an unpaid political advisor to officials at the local, state, and federal level; and a frequent contributor to state and national political commentary.

JoAnn served three legislative sessions as Chair of the Citizen Advisory Board to the TX Legislature’s Tea Party Caucus. This legislative caucus ended when Dan Patrick became Lt. Gov. in 2015.  Newly elected Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick appointed JoAnn to chair his 84^th Legislative Session Grassroots Advisory Board. JoAnn, with the support of Patrick, dissolved the advisory board when its volunteers were chastised for disagreeing with Gov. Abbotts’ push for a pre-kindergarten program, which the Republican Party of Texas had opposed in its platform for decades. “The Texas Conservative Grassroots Movement will not be a ‘fake.’  We are not professional political cheer-leaders, nor will we be used as window-dressing to bless Big Government expansion,” declared Fleming.

An original member of the #CruzCrew, JoAnn campaigned with Ted Cruz when he was polling at 1% in his first race for the U.S. Senate (2012). She  played a key role in his come-from-behind US Senate victory over Lt. Governor David Dewhurst in the runoff election. On July 28, 2015, Cruz appointed her as his Texas Tea Party Chair for the 2016 Cruz for President Campaign. Organizing 17 Texas teams to campaign for Cruz in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, she also served as an official surrogate media spokesman for Cruz throughout his Presidential campaign. Her service was 100% volunteer.

As a Women for Trump leader, JoAnn helped organize Texas events for President Trump.  She currently volunteers as a national strategic policy consultant in collaboration with authentic America First groups.

Since 2009, Fleming has collaborated with other statewide conservative leaders to inform the people of Texas about the state legislative process and conservative reforms needed to make Texas strong enough to lead a nation looking for answers.  A brief summary of Fleming’s liberty projects:

• 2013-2014: traveled across Texas with the Life, Liberty, and Property Coalition.
• 2015 – 2017: launched and built out the Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition; instituted quarterly statewide leadership Summits. The statewide leadership Coalition is now Grassroots America’s signature project.
• 2018: organized and traveled with the “Protect Your Vote Texas” statewide tour of subject matter experts, educating Texans about the many vulnerabilities of ballot security and election integrity; advocated for fully auditable ballot results.
• 2019: leader in the Lone Star Agenda Coalition, which authored the Save Texas 2020 Plan.
• 2020 – 2022: organized and traveled with the Texas Conservative Mamas Truth Tour to spotlight a failed legislative session where – in spite of a Republican majority – key conservative legislative priorities to protect children, stop classroom indoctrination, repel illegal border crossers, secure elections, and slash property taxes failed to pass. 
• 2021 – 2022: launched Conservative Senate District Coalitions.
• 2023: launched new activist tools through com, which drove just under 150,000 emails into the Capitol to help pass legislation and kill bad bills.  
• 2023: launched the Texas Legislative Transparency Tool, the only one of its kind, giving citizens the tools to find out exactly how their legislators vote – on every bill! From this tool, Fleming’s Accountability Project Team with creator Brett Rogers launched the com which gave Republican Primary challengers and activists irrefutable facts about incumbents – the WHY they should be fired at the ballot box. 
• 2024: launching GrassrootsPriorities 2.0 for enhanced accountability while the legislature is in session for the 89^th (2025) legislative session.

The conservative initiatives JoAnn and other grassroots leaders have championed across Texas for so many years are alive today in the Republican Party Platform, the State Republican Executive Committee, and in Legislative Priorities for each Session of the Texas Legislature.  These will be ongoing efforts.

The Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition

Since 2015, JoAnn has led the effort to build the statewide Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition (signature project of Grassroots America) whose mission is to unite conservative independents and Republicans around common faith in Judeo-Christian values and First liberty principles.  

The TCG Coalition’s mission is to unite around these common values, while reducing the focus on fickle political personalities and icons that come and go.  Focusing on these values and principles creates the environment for effective action and influence over state legislation and local public policy. The Coalition has grown more than 2000% since its inception in 2015 and is the only Coalition of its kind in Texas and the nation. Coalition leaders continue to build out the statewide effort with Senate District-level Coalitions. The Coalition is busy growing knowledgeable GOP candidates, SRECs, precinct chairs, and county chairs who will serve on the front lines to save Texas.

A sought-after public speaker known for her unique style of delivery, JoAnn’s most pointed way of defining her relationship with politicians is: “My endorsement is not a lifetime commitment. I’ve been married to the same man for 45 years. Everybody else is subject to recall.”

Through the years, JoAnn earned the title of “local government subject matter expert” by having actively served on more than twenty-three local government boards, task forces, and committees. She is a self-term limited Smith County Commissioner. Her consulting skills include public policy and organizational development, performance and project management, teambuilding, small business success, 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.

A Christian’s responsibility to be a faithful steward of liberty has driven JoAnn’s three+ decades of volunteer activism. A native Texan, she was born in Killeen while her father was in military service. Married to her high school sweetheart and best friend, JoAnn and her husband have one son – a business graduate of UT-Tyler, who is employed in human resources. 

Long ago when she had leisure time, JoAnn really enjoyed fishing!  

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, Chair, Annual Champions of Freedom Awards Dinner; Special Events Coordinator

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

Board Member, 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.