Image
back to all faculty
Michelle Martinez
Lecturer and Inaugural Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment
Environmental Justice
Climate + Energy
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
In the Media