Mike Wilson
About Mike's Work
Dr. Michael Wilson is National Director for Occupational and Environmental Health at the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmental NGOs, where he leads the organization’s efforts to protect workers and vulnerable communities from industrial hazards, including in the emerging clean energy economy. Dr. Wilson previously served as chief scientist with the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), where he worked with DIR's legal and engineering team in drafting California's groundbreaking Process Safety Management (PSM) regulation for oil refineries. Cal/OSHA began enforcing the new regulation on October 1, 2017. Prior to his work at DIR, Dr. Wilson was director and principal investigator of the University of California, Berkeley, Labor Occupational Health Program; associate director of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry; and assistant research scientist with the UC Berkeley Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. His research and advocacy helped shape the California Green Chemistry Initiative and its ensuing legislation. He has served as an appointee to California’s Green Chemistry Science Advisory Panel; Green Ribbon Science Panel; and Biomonitoring Science Guidance Panel. He was recently appointed to Cal/EPA’s Consultation Group on implementation of AB 617, the state’s climate and environmental justice initiative. Dr. Wilson earned a PhD (2003) and MPH (1998) in environmental health sciences from UC Berkeley and a BA (1984) in biology with Thesis Honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a graduate of the Harvard Trade Union Program. He is a senior member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF). Before returning to graduate school, Dr. Wilson worked for 13 years in the emergency services as a firefighter, paramedic, and EMT, where he organized EMS workers with SEIU Local 250 and served as an officer of IAFF Local 1270. He served for seven years in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve as a rescue crewman and coxswain at Station Monterey, California, earning an honorable discharge, and for five years as a hazardous materials specialist with FEMA Task Force 4 at the Oakland Fire Department.
