Board Profile: Michele Barlow

by Nancy Debevoise

The second youngest member of the WOC board at 31, newly elected vice-president Michele Barlow thinks her main asset is the perspective of a Gen Xer. "Given the challenges my generation faces," she says, "I think the views of a young adult can help shape discussions within the board. I also hope my enthusiasm for the work is contagious."

"People my age are increasingly drawn to entrepreneurial careers and philanthropy," she notes. "I hope I can inspire other young people to serve on nonprofit boards and volunteer in their communities."

Michele’s father, Bill, was raised on the family’s 18,000-acre ranch west of Gillette, homesteaded by her grandfather. During college, Bill traveled to Cambodia with International Voluntary Service, where he helped start a water buffalo farm. There, he met Michele’s mother, Bernie, who is of French and Asian Indian descent. They married in the U.S. and soon returned to the ranch.

Michele’s interest in environmental protection was sparked by her life on the ranch with her conservation-minded parents, who helped found the Powder River Basin Resource Council.

"Council staffers often stayed with us during the summers and holidays," she recalls, "so I was raised in the trenches, learning about conservation issues as well as doing ranch chores. This combination led naturally to my interest in ecology and botany."

Michele pursued that interest, graduating from Colorado College in 1990 with a B.A. in biology, with an emphasis on botany. In 1996, she earned an M.S. in biology, with an emphasis on forest ecology, from the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

"When I came back home to Wyoming after graduate school," she says, "I jumped at the opportunity to join the WOC board." Michele has high praise for WOC’s staff. "Having two talented and dedicated lawyers enables us to pursue many complicated legal angles in protecting Wyoming’s environment," she says, "and the program and support staff are just outstanding."

Michele sees the main obstacles to progress in protecting Wyoming’s wildlife, wildlands and environment as "a fundamental resistance to change and a decreasing sense of community, which combine to thwart a sense of mutual responsibility for the natural world."

From 1996 through this summer, Michele worked as a research associate in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Botany, using satellite remote sensing techniques and Geographic Information Systems to analyze changes in plant communities over time and researching the historic vegetation of the F.E. Warren Air Force Base. She recently left the university for a part-time job with the Equality State Policy Center, where she researches campaign financing, bills introduced in the Wyoming State Legislature and the state’s tax system.

Michele is also an avid outdoors enthusiast. "I love to get hot, sweaty and grubby," she laughs, "backpacking, bicycling, skiing, vegetable gardening and galloping wildly across Pa and Ma’s ranch." Married in September to Phil Polzer, Michele says her favorite moments are "savoring a hoppy homebrew with Phil after a good hike or Ultimate frisbee game, and running for hours on the high-altitude prairie."

Asked about her personal and professional aspirations, Michele responds with typical self-effacing modesty: "I’d like to be the most responsible and giving advocate for the environment as I can be, both as a volunteer and as a professional."

Although she says she has "no particular high-falootin’ career goals," Michele’s fellow WOC board members are effusive in their praise for her dedication and talents. "Very knowledgeable about the science behind WOC’s work, bright, thoughtful and committed to the cause....WOC is fortunate to have Michele’s spunky, enthusiastic, energetic approach and willingness to dig in and get the job done....A dandy frisbee player and a whirling dervish of energy....Definitely a future board president!"