Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs and Corporate Services
Michelle Freeark began her career with Arizona G&T Cooperatives in 2005 as an environmental planner and moved up to manage environmental, safety and health issues, and compliance. She was promoted to director of environmental services in 2011, and her role expanded to executive director in 2016.
Michelle supervises the cooperatives’ environmental, safety, security, land services, and resource planning departments. Much of the environmental, safety, and compliance issues handled by the division relate to air, waste, and water. In addition, Michelle’s team sites and permits new transmission projects in addition to wildlife issues along our transmission lines and other properties. A big part of Michelle’s job includes monitoring and commenting on proposed federal and state environmental regulations. Michelle’s team also manages the physical security requirements of our business locations.
Michelle was appointed to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advisory board, the Good Neighbor Environmental Board, in 2018. The board issues reports directly to the President of the United States on identified environmental issues. She’s chairman of the environmental subcommittee of the G&T (Cooperatives) Managers Association Technical Advisory Committee, chairman of the ACE Implementation Subgroup of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Environmental Policy Council, and president of the Western Energy Supply and Transmission (WEST) Associates. She earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Northern Arizona University.