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Profile: Steve Wilcoxen

By Rebekah Oakes
January/February Issue, 2004

Steve Wilcoxen’s interest in science and ecology developed at an early age. “When I was growing up, I lived on a river that was declared dead when I was seven, and I always wondered why I couldn’t fish in it,” he explains. “I only lived two blocks from it, and you couldn’t swim in it or anything because it was very toxic, and it kind of piqued my curiosity.”

Steve Wilcoxen, Ecology Center board member, biochemist, devoted father, and environmental activist, made time in his hectic schedule for an interview with FTGU on a rainy December afternoon. A pleasant, endearing man with a disarming sense of humor, Steve sipped at his tea in the Ecology Center conference room.

“I also had a teacher in school with an ‘eco-tage’ alter ego of sorts,” he continues. “He was mild-mannered by day, but by night he’d collect buckets of sludge and take them to corporations that were pouring them out, and he’d dump them in their lobbies. He used to call this character ‘The Fox,’ but it didn’t take much to figure out that he was the guy.”

Steve’s interest in the Ecology Center began when he joined the EcoRide, the Center’s annual bike-a-thon fundraiser. After having biked in the event a few times, he spoke with Mike Garfield, Director of the Ecology Center, about ways he could become more active with the ecology community.

In 2003 Steve was elected Vice President of the Ecology Center’s board of directors where he continues his involvement with the EcoRide, “working on donors and businesses for sponsors, and creating routes that are not only interesting for people to see but also allow them to actually look at what’s going on in terms of land use in the area.” Although he doesn’t get a chance to bike the routes the day of the event, he makes sure to go over them the day before to make certain everything will run smoothly.

Steve currently works as a biochemist for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division of Internal Medicine at the U-M Health System, where he does research in animal models on pneumonia and increased levels of oxygen that could impact treatment of AIDS patients. Steve received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Illinois, although he was also fascinated by sociology. “At the time I’d rather have been a sociologist. I was much more drawn to the sociological aspects of how people interact with each other, and how they build up systems over time.” After doing “the tour of midwestern campuses,” Steve attended the U-M where he graduated with a Master’s degree in Environmental Health.

Steve is very involved in raising his two children, a 14-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. “They have a lot of things they’re inheriting in this world that they are trying to make sense of, and I’m trying to give them some perspective other than what they’re getting from the mainstream in school and the media; how there’s a different way to live your life in terms of using less resources. I’m instilling the idea that they don’t have to be excessive in consumption, that there are others that don’t have as much as we do and we need to be aware and thankful for the privileges that we have in this country.”

Rebekah Oakes is an editorial assistant for From the Ground Up and a junior at the University of Michigan.

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