Michelle Martinez is a Latinx-Mestiza environmental justice activist, writer, and mother born in Detroit. Since 2006, she has worked in local communities of color to build power to halt climate change, and the detrimental effects of pollution in post-industrial Detroit. Working across issues of race, gender, and nationality, she has built and led coalitions using art / media, land-based programming, popular education, voter engagement, and corporate accountability tactics to shape policy solutions against environmental racism.
Currently, she is the Statewide Coordinator for Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, which advocates for demonstrable quality of life improvements for communities disproportionately impacted by environmental toxins. Her consulting work through Third Horizon Consulting focuses on primarily on equity in the environmental movement through storytelling, strategic planning, and collective decision-making. Her clients include the National Wildlife Federation, United Hispanic Workers, Wayne State University, Black Lives Matter Detroit and more. She is a 2017 Equity Fellow at Wayne State University Law School’s Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. She has a MS from the University of Michigan School of Nature Resources and Environment, and BA in English Literature.
