Organized to Make Change

The Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), was founded in 2021 through gifts from The NorthLight Foundation and Dan and Sheryl Tishman. Kyle Whyte, the George Willis Pack Professor at SEAS, launched the early planning process for envisioning the Tishman Center, culminating in its first success: the hiring of Michelle Martinez as the Tishman Center’s inaugural director. Whyte and Martinez bring a combined wealth of experience in grassroots environmental justice leadership, public service, and innovation in education. Since then, the Tishman Center community has kept growing and working together to transform education and research at U-M toward the service of undoing inequality and securing justice in the face of climate change and the transition to renewable energy. The Tishman Center has innovated in creating a Climate Justice Education model in higher education for master students, creating cutting-edge professional development and leadership programming, and fostering empowering partnerships with nonprofit and grassroots organizations, while developing critical research focused in different environmental justice fields.  

Service and Leadership for Real Justice

The Tishman Center is committed to transforming higher education for the sake of social justice, especially as so many communities are both threatened by climate change and locked out of the benefits of the growing renewable energy sector. We believe that higher education should train leaders of the future with the skills and grit needed to achieve justice as climate and energy systems change. The Tishman Center is focused on the empowerment of leaders who are from the communities facing climate and energy inequality, bridging U-M students with community-based professionals working outside academia for immediate and genuine positive impacts.

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Indigenous Research Agendas

Indigenous Research Agendas

This summer, Tishman Center Faculty Director, professor of Environment and Sustainability and George Willis Pack Professor at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability Dr. Kyle Whyte, facilitated the Research Strategy Workshop for Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and Afro-Descendant Peoples in Brasilia, Brazil. 

(Left) Martina Guzman (Right) Cynthia Gutierrez

Growing Narrative Power

This summer, Master’s Student Cynthia Gutierrez will act as an understudy to acclaimed journalist Martina Guzman, learning the craft of community-based journalism. Cynthia will be practicing in her home community of SW Detroit where she’ll be studying community-based responses to the pervasive flooding after major rain events and catastrophic infrastructure failures. In addition, Cynthia will be working with Planet Detroit in their Neighborhood Reporting Lab rendering novel stories from the street level.

In December, Tishman Center staff met with teachers at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School on Detroit’s East Side to discuss the new environmental justice curriculum

Climate Justice Education in Detroit

In December, Tishman Center staff met with teachers at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School on Detroit’s East Side to discuss the new environmental justice curriculum. This year, the teachers are working on educational projects including lunch room waste reduction, composting, biking to school, a walking school bus and more. They are building on the years of place-based education in which students use their communities, places and spaces to engage the learning process. 

2026-2027 Catalyst Fellows: Julia Peters [left], Julianne Liu [center], Alexandrah Walker [right]

Announcing the Tishman Center 2026-2027 Catalyst Fellows

We are proud to share an update with you all on our Climate Justice Movement Catalysts Fellowship program. This program supports students through their master’s degree, offering full financial aid, and access to mentorship, professional development, and community building. Fellows will additionally implement community research-based projects by working with Midwest Environmental Justice organizations during their time in school. We are thrilled to announce our new 2026-2027 Climate Justice Movement Midwest Catalysts Fellows.

Sarah Allen, MS ‘26, gestures to a controlled burn behind her.

Tishman Center Catalyst Fellow Spotlight

Sarah Allen, Environmental Justice MS ‘26, spent the summer in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan working with her tribe's natural resource department. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is one of 12 federally-recognized tribes in the state of Michigan. Sarah worked with the natural resource department to help create community-based monitoring metrics for tribal land co-stewardship with the US Forest Service (USFS). 

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