Mike Strigel

Mike Strigel (Madison, Wisconsin) is the assistant deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, Consumer Protection (DATCP), a role he began in July 2023. Strigel supports DATCP’s external affairs and strengthens relationships with stakeholders.

A Wisconsin native, Strigel is a graduate of Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in communication and the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a master’s degree in land resources from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. His previous field experience with The Prairie Enthusiasts, the International Crane Foundation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other organizations has taken him through the prairies, savannas, forests, and wetlands of Wisconsin and the Midwest as well as stints in the forests of southern Oregon and northern California.

Before his position at DATCP, he was president and executive director at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Monona, Wisconsin, where he led efforts to instill Leopold’s conservation legacy in more than 50,000 visitors per year. He also served as executive director of Gathering Waters: Wisconsin’s Alliance for Land Trusts and spent eight years at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, where he was executive director. At the academy, Strigel directed a national conference in 1999 celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, one of the personal highlights of his career. He is a former chair of the Nelson Institute Board of Visitors.