Mike Phillips

The Executive Director of the Turner Endangered Species Fund, Mike is a leader working to restore gray wolves to the Southern Rockies Ecoregion of western Colorado. Prior to his time with the Turner Endangered Species Fund, Mike served in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the leader of historic efforts to restore red wolves to the southeastern United States and gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park. From 2014 through 2020 he founded and led the successful citizen-initiated ballot measure to establish a state law that mandated reintroductions begin by December 2023.  It was the first time in history that direct democracy – voting by the people – had been used to secure a restoration mandate for an endangered species.