Michel has been A leader and senior manager in government, academia, advocacy, and business. He has worked for environmental justice since the field and the movement's very first days and on climate change for over three decades. He has extensive experience building new institutions and driving social and technical innovation in the private, public, & non-profit sectors. Michel is presently the inaugural Executive Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Justice, and advises Google X (the Moonshot Company). His private sector work includes the founding of Cooler (a company whose mission is to connect every consumer purchase to a solution for global warming) and BuildingEnergy.com. He served as Chief Green Officer for Hara, the leading enterprise energy and environmental management software startup, acquired by Verisae.Beyond business, Michel also has a long history in research and teaching, policy, and advocacy. He has been a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley and presently serves on the Boards of New Energy Nexus, Ceres, and co-chairs the Green Leadership Trust. He led Redefining Progress in designing the world’s most aggressive climate legislation (AB32 -- signed into California law in August of 2006), was a Congressional Black Caucus Fellow with the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, Director of Environmental Quality for the City of New York, and founding director of the Environmental Policy Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He also served as Issues Director for Mayor Dinkins'​ campaign for Mayor of New York.Michel earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D at U.C. Berkeley (where he wrote the first dissertation and taught the first-ever class on environmental justice) and is an alumnus of Deep Springs College. Michel holds two provisional patents for dynamic carbon footprinting and is the author of a number of academic and popular articles including "The Soul of Environmentalism". He is an avid father and wilderness backpacker.