Skip to main content

Utility

  • Admissions
  • Exploring Grad School
  • Current Students
  • Community Impact and Engagement
  • Faculty + Staff
  • Alumni
Give
Intranet
Report Sexual Misconduct
Home

Main navigation

  • Academics
    • Master of Science
    • Master of Landscape Architecture
    • Doctoral (PhD)
    • Dual-Degree Programs
    • Graduate Certificate Programs
    • Undergraduate Program
    • Courses
    • Online Learning
  • Research + Impact
    • Sustainability Themes
    • PhD Profiles
    • Student Research
    • The Centers, Institutes + Initiatives
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Labs
  • Prospective Students
    • Why Michigan?
    • Application Information
    • International Students
    • Financial Aid + Tuition
    • Visit Campus
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Admitted Students
    • Exploring Graduate School
  • Student Services
    • SEAS and PitE Student Center
    • Career Services
    • Financial Aid
    • Academic Advising
    • Student Organizations
    • Student Development
    • Forms, Handbooks + Policies
    • Quick Links
  • News
    • Community Highlights
    • In the Media
    • Stewards Magazine
  • Events
    • Co-Sponsorship Form
    • Submit Event
    • Admissions Webinars
    • Gallery
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • SEAS Values
    • Collective Impact Committee
    • Leadership
    • Demographics
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Administrative Departments + Staff
    • Facilities + Locations
    • Community Impact and Engagement
    • Art & Environment Gallery
    • COVID-19
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • History
    • Email Sign-Up
Search search icon

Utility

  • Admissions
  • Exploring Grad School
  • Current Students
  • Community Impact and Engagement
  • Faculty + Staff
  • Alumni
Give
Report Sexual Misconduct
search icon Search

Faculty

Image
Faculty Group 2022
  • Academics
  • Research + Impact
  • Prospective Students
  • Student Services
  • News
  • Events
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • SEAS Values
    • Collective Impact Committee
    • Leadership
    • Demographics
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Administrative Departments + Staff
    • Facilities + Locations
    • Community Impact and Engagement
    • Art & Environment Gallery
    • COVID-19
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • History
    • Email Sign-Up

Main navigation

  • Academics
  • Research + Impact
  • Prospective Students
  • Student Services
  • News
  • Events
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • SEAS Values
    • Collective Impact Committee
    • Leadership
    • Demographics
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Administrative Departments + Staff
    • Facilities + Locations
    • Community Impact and Engagement
    • Art & Environment Gallery
    • COVID-19
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • History
    • Email Sign-Up
back to all faculty

Michelle Martinez

Michelle Martinez
Lecturer and Inaugural Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment
Environmental Justice
Climate + Energy
[email protected]

How to Apply to SEAS Graduate Programs

Explore Graduate School

About

Michelle Martinez is the inaugural director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at SEAS. She has 15 years of experience of practicing environmental justice in her hometown of Detroit. Most recently she served as Executive Director of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition; she is a founding member of the Coalition and continues to serve on the board. Michelle also serves on the Board of Directors of We the People Michigan, and is a contributing columnist to Planet Detroit, an online publication serving Detroit audiences with climate and environmental news. 

Publications

Martinez, Michelle. “Honoring Earth: Healing the Carceral Mind and Climate Crisis with Joyful Interconnectedness.” The Sandbox Revolution: Raising Kids for a Just World, edited by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann, Broadleaf Books, 2021.

Martinez, Michelle. “Environmental Justice and Detroit’s Long Shadow.” Gonna Trouble the Water, edited by Miguel De La Torre, PILGRIM PRESS, 2021.

Martinez, Michelle. “Opinion: Thank You Congresswoman for Your NO Vote.” Planet Detroit, 8 Nov. 2021, https://planetdetroit.org/2021/11/opinion-thank-you-congresswoman-for-your-no-vote/.

Martinez, Michelle. “Opinion: It's Time to Get to Work on Climate.” Planet Detroit, 12 Aug. 2021, https://planetdetroit.org/2021/08/opinion-its-time-to-take-get-to-work-on-climate/.

Martinez, Michelle. “We Need to Put Together a Plan That Honors People in This Place, on This Land.” A People's Atlas of Detroit, edited by Linda Campbell et al., Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 2020.

Martinez, Michelle. “Dispatch from SW Detroit: Seven Generations Seeking Good Home, Good Faith, Strong Will, Hard Working AKA Get Your Own Damn Holiday and Stopping Dressing up like a Fucking Mexican.” The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook, edited by Aaron Foley, Belt Publishing, Cleveland, OH, 2017.

Martinez, Michelle, et al. “Fishing on the Detroit River: Historical Pollution, Environmental Racism and the Scientific State.” Liberation Science: Putting Science to Work for Social and Environmental Justice, edited by Steven Howard Emerman et al., Lulu Press, San Bernardino, CA, 2015.

Education

MS Environmental Policy And Planning | University of Michigan | 2008

BA English Literature and Language, Anthropology Minor | University of Michigan | 2003

Deal Fellowship | Wayne State University Damon J Keith Center For Civil Rights | 2017

Tishman Visiting Scholar | The New School | 2022

Movement Leadership Fellow | Cuny School And Labor And Urban Studies | 2022

Affiliations

Planet Detroit | Board Member [2021-present]

We The People-MI | Board Member [2020-present]

Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition | Board Member [2022-present]

Sierra Club Ej Action Group | Member [2018-2019]

Swimming In The Detroit River Story Collective | Founder/Member [2016-2018]

Mira Radical Art Collective | Founder/Member [2011-2018]

Beware Of The Dandelions Cohort | Member [2016]

Northend Woodward Community Garden | Board Member [2008-2010]

Centro Obrero Workers Center Detroit | Volunteer [2008-2013]

Friends Of The Detroit River | Board Member [2008-2009]

In the News
SEAS dedicates Bunyan Bryant Memorial Classroom
January 29, 2025

SEAS dedicates Bunyan Bryant Memorial Room

The late University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) Professor Emeritus Bunyan Bryant was hailed as a visionary and a man of “humility and...

SEAS launches new scholarships to provide environmental justice opportunities to students, funding to community organizations
November 17, 2022

SEAS launches new scholarships to provide environmental justice opportunities to students, funding to community organizations

The University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) announced a new $1 million award to catalyze the field of climate justice in the Midwest. Led...

New environmental justice hires
July 12, 2022

SEAS continues to grow the Environmental Justice program with new expertise, community organizers

The U-M School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) is growing its Environmental Justice (EJ) program with some exciting hires, bringing new expertise and courses...

In the Media
03/04/2025
Michelle Martinez
Tishman Center Director Michelle Martinez receives American Association of Geographers Powershift Award
11/18/2022
Michelle Martinez
Democrats in control: Advocates want action on justice, climate and “stronger leadership” from Gov. Whitmer (Great Lakes Now)
seas logo
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability
Dana Building
440 Church Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
(734) 764-6453
Email us
facebook
twitter
instagram
linkedin
youtube
flickr
planet blue global impact logo

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Intranet
  • Contact Web Team
  • Email Sign-Up

© 2025 The Regents of the University of Michigan | Privacy Policy

Produced by Michigan Creative