Jeff Michael

Jeff Michael is Deputy Secretary for Natural Resources, managing the North Carolina Zoo, Division of Parks and Recreation, N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina Aquariums, and Division of Land and Water Stewardship.

Prior to coming to DNCR in 2021, Michael served for eighteen years as director of the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, an applied research center focused on public policy issues in the greater Charlotte region. He also previously served as executive director of the Wildacres Leadership Initiative, overseeing its signature statewide program, the William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations. Michael has been active in statewide conservation and historic preservation efforts, including his role as the founding executive director of both The Land Trust for Central North Carolina (now Three Rivers Land Trust) and the Yadkin-Pee Dee Lakes Project (now Central Park NC), and his service on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations and public commissions, such as the Conservation Trust of NC, Preservation North Carolina, and the NC Forestry Advisory Council.

Michael is a proud native of North Carolina, having grown up near Morrow Mountain State Park in Stanly County.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in regional planning, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a J.D. from the UNC School of Law.  He has been honored as a William C. Friday Fellow, and as a Marshall Memorial Fellow through the German Marshall Fund of the United States.