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Kyle Whyte is a faculty member at Michigan where he is George Willis Pack Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability and University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor. On campus, Kyle teaches in and coordinates the School’s environmental justice graduate specialization. He is founding Faculty Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment, Principal Investigator of the new Environmental Justice + Humanities Hub, co-Principal Investigator of the Global Center for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters, Faculty Associate of Native American Studies, Principal Investigator of the Secretariat for the Pathways Alliance for Change and Transformation, STRIDE Committee member, affiliate Professor of Philosophy, and Senior Fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows. Kyle’s research on environmental justice addresses moral and political issues that Indigenous peoples are addressing in the areas of climate change, conservation, and cooperative relationships with science institutions.
Kyle is co-Chair of the Continental Biodiversity and Climate Change Assessment. He is a member of the IPBES Indigenous and Local Knowledge Task Force, the National Academy of Sciences’ Resilient America Roundtable, The Nature Conservancy’s External Science Advisory Board, the American Museum of Natural History’s Advisory Committee, and the Christensen Fund’s Indigenous Leadership Program. He is Board President and a founder of both the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and the Global Land Restoration Fund, serves as a Trustee of Earthjustice, and sits on the Energy Equity Project’s Advisory Board and Climate United’s Advisory Council.
Previously, Kyle has served as a U.S. Science Envoy and as a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, the Department of the Interior’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science, and two environmental justice work groups convened by Michigan governors. He has been an author for U.S. Global Change Research Program, the IPCC Working Group II, and the Status of Tribes and Climate Change report. He is a certificate holder of the United Nations’ Training Programme to Enhance the Conflict Prevention and Peacemaking Capacities of Indigenous Peoples’ Representatives.
The National Science Foundation has been a major supporter of Kyle’s research and educational projects for over a decade. Supporters also include the NorthLight Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Builders Initiative, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Mellon Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Climate and Land Use Alliance, Christensen Fund, Swedish Research Council, Energy Foundation, Crown Family Foundation, Sustainable Michigan Endowed Program, McKnight Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Marsden Fund, and Health Research Council of New Zealand.
He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. His publications appear in journals such as Climatic Change, Weather, Climate & Society, Science, Daedalus, WIREs Climate Change, Environment & Planning E, and Sustainability Science.
Kyle has long term relationships with number of partners who advance Indigenous research and educational methodologies, including the College of Menominee Nation’s Sustainable Development Institute, the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, the Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Research and Development, the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe’s Consortium for Cooperative Ecological Resilience, Sustʻāinable Molokai, Molokai Heritage Trust, Indigenous Livelihood Enhancement Partners, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the Center for Environment and Development, the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago, the Red Lake Nation, the Christensen Fund, the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, the Bad River Tribe, the Climate and Traditional Knowledges Workgroup, and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.
Kyle has received the Superior Teaching Award from his School’s Student Governing Board, the Community Engagement Scholarship Award and Distinguished Partnership Award for Community Engaged Research from Michigan State, the Bunyan Bryant Award for Academic Excellence from Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, the Breaking Barriers Award from the Michigan Democratic Party, and the Forty Under 40 Alumni Award and Don Ihde Distinguished Alumni Award from Stony Brook. Kyle has served as Austin J. Fagothey Distinguished Visiting Professor at Santa Clara, Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Rudrick Distinguished Scholar at Waterloo, Patricia Sheffels Visiting Scholar at Colorado, Ottilie Timnick Chair at Michigan State, McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair at Eastern Michigan, Tatlock Fellow at Vassar, and Distinguished Visitor at the Max Planck Institute.
Kyle has given over 500 presentations and seminars, including plenary lectures for the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, International Indigenous Research Conference, IPBES 10, Alaska Forum for the Environment, Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, AAAS Annual Meeting, TNC’s One Conservancy Science Gathering, International Association for Environmental Philosophy, Cultural Studies Association, International Society for Environmental Ethics, and Society for Social Studies of Science. His lectures include the Gilbert F. White (National Academy of Sciences), John P. Bell (UBC), Rudrick (Waterloo), Walker-Ames (Washington), Tanner Humanities (Utah), Stafford Little (Princeton), Mellon-Sawyer (Georgetown & UCSB), George Link Jr. (Dartmouth), Don Ihde Distinguished Alumni (Stony Brook), Tatlock (Vassar), McAndless (Eastern Michigan), Beamer-Schneider (CWRU), Patricia Sheffels (Colorado), and Hausser (Montana State). Kyle has delivered master classes for Columbia, Auckland, and Penn State.