Michael Dorsey

Michael Dorsey joined the Environmental Council’s board in 2019.

Michael is the chair and director of the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service, the planet’s first extension service for sustainability, based at Arizona State University. He is also an active investor, cofounder, and principal of Around the Corner Capital, an energy advisory and impact finance platform, and a limited partner in the Spanish utility-scale solar company IberSun.

Previously, Michael was a professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College and has been guest faculty at institutions around the world, from South Africa to the Netherlands. During a professorial stint at Wesleyan University he collaborated with former students to co-found the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led, climate change political action group.

Michael’s own educational experiences come from the University of Michigan, where he received bachelor’s degree and doctorate in natural resources and environmental policy; Yale, where he received a masters degree of forest science; and John Hopkins University, where he received a masters in anthropology.

At the Environmental Council, Michael works to fortify and strengthen the Environmental Council’s fiscal health. He also helps build its power, voice, and agenda setting at local, state and binational levels in forward-thinking and justice-based ways.

Outside of work and the Environmental Council, Michael serves as the inaugural board secretary of Black Owners of Solar Services and sits on the investment advisory committee of the William C Graustein Memorial Fund. He has previously served on the Sierra Club’s national board, as a member of President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development, on the EPA’s National Advisory Committee, and as an adviser to the United Nations on climate, energy sustainability, and small island developing states.

For his efforts, Michael was made a member of the Club of Rome and was named to For(bes) The Culture’s 50 Champions.

In his free time, Michael enjoys running the roads and trails of Michigan, especially in the Nichols Arboretum in Ann Arbor.