Kelly Thayer

Kelly Thayer is a Senior Policy Advocate at ELPC. He coordinates a broad effort to establish new wilderness in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan and advances efforts to transform Michigan’s retired coal plants into parklands, solar generation, and energy storage opportunities. Before joining ELPC, Kelly served as a consultant to environmental nonprofits, as deputy director of Great Lakes legal nonprofit FLOW, and in public interest positions in civil legal aid and community organizing, including service with his wife in the U.S. Peace Corps. Kelly and his family live in Frankfort, Michigan, not far from Lake Michigan and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

WHAT’S A PLACE YOU LOVE IN THE MIDWEST?

I love the communities, forests, rivers, rugged slopes, and Great Lakes shore of Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula.

WHAT DRIVES YOU TO DO THIS WORK?
I love Michigan and the Midwest and hope to contribute to a healthier natural world for all of us.