Tony Wilkin Gibart has led Midwest Environmental Advocates since 2019, guiding the organization’s legal, policy, and community-focused work to protect Wisconsin’s natural resources and strengthen environmental rights. While his role includes includes a wide range of responsibilities—setting strategic direction, supporting a talented staff, and building partnerships—Tony also stays closely connected to the issues that brought him to public-interest work in the first place.

 

At MEA, he has devoted significant time to hands‑on advocacy, including representing 15 Wisconsin young people in the state’s first constitutional challenge to Wisconsin’s contributions to climate change. He has also worked directly with parents of lead‑affected children, helping them navigate legal and policy systems to secure stronger protections for their families.

 

Tony is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School and earned his B.A. from the University of Chicago. Throughout his career, he has focused on ensuring that people most affected by legal and policy decisions have the tools and opportunities to influence those decisions. Before joining MEA, Tony held several leadership roles at End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, where he helped mobilize advocates and survivors to pass firearm safety and fair‑housing legislation and secure increases in funding for victim services.

 

A lifelong Midwesterner originally from the Milwaukee area, Tony now lives in Madison with his wife, Sarah. They enjoy long bike rides in the Driftless Region, summer evenings along Lake Monona, and discovering new corners of Wisconsin that deepen their connection to the state.