Mike Matz grew up in Minnesota, and after graduating from Carleton College, he moved to Alaska and began his conservation career with the Northern Alaska Environmental Center in Fairbanks and the Sierra Club in Anchorage. After four years in Alaska, he transferred to Washington, DC, and then Salt Lake City, Utah, also working for conservation organizations. 

In April 2000, he began his current position as director of the Pew Campaign for America's Wilderness, which advocates for the permanent protection of wildlife habitat through designation of public land as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. 

Mike lives in Durango, Colorado, with his wife, Sally, nine-year-old son, Carson, and two-and-a-half year old daughter, Celia. His lifelong interest in hunting and fishing began on the lakes of Minnesota and the fields of Iowa and South Dakota and continued in Alaska’s premier wilderness areas. He hunts and fishes today in the high and wild San Juan Mountains.