Pacific salmon start their lives in freshwater lakes and rivers, swim hundreds of miles to the ocean, then turn around and return to spawn in the very spot they were born. The professional journey that led Midwesterner Michael Meneer, SOC/MA ’04, to the Vancouver-based Pacific Salmon Foundation has been equally winding and just as purposeful. A trained journalist who broke into acting at age 40, Meneer has always loved a good story. And he has one—as do the keystone species he strives to preserve and protect as the foundation’s president and CEO.
1973: Born in Akron, Ohio, to two schoolteachers.
1982: Watched the “big three”—Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather—on the nightly news.
1983: Began listening to his dad, longtime coach of Central Hower High School’s championship-winning basketball team, give interviews to the Akron Beacon Journal and other media outlets. “He was something of a local celebrity and was very good with reporters.”
1988: Read the morning announcements, emceed pep assemblies, called basketball games, and acted in musicals at Firestone High School. “I’ve always loved a microphone.”
1990: Visited Washington, DC, for the first time with his high school classmates. “There’s an energy and a dynamism to DC that I felt drawn to.”
1992: Enrolled at Ohio State, pursuing a bachelor’s in history. Met then presidential candidate Bill Clinton at a campaign rally on campus.
1995: Joined AmeriCorps— the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, created by Clinton—while still in college, teaching first graders to read. Met his future wife, Elizabeth Marshall, through the program.
2000: Moved to DC to work as executive director of AmeriCorps Alums.
2003: Enrolled in SOC’s yearlong public communications program, specializing in broadcast journalism. Worked for CNN’s Wolf Blitzer as part of his practicum.
2004: Hired by WJLA, Washington’s ABC affiliate, as an assignment editor.
2006: Welcomed daughter Maisie.
2007: Moved to Vancouver, where Marshall, a professor of children’s literature, landed a position at Simon Fraser University. “Vancouver is very cosmopolitan; it also has the mountains and the ocean in our backyard.”
Offered commentary on American politics for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
2009: Named vice president of development, communications, and marketing with the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF), an environmental nonprofit that works with First Nations, government, and other stakeholders to restore declining populations of the keystone species, which play an important role in maintaining ecosystems. “Salmon are very resilient, very adaptable. If we manage the landscape and improve our water quality, we can save them.”
Visited for the first time Haida Gwaii, a remote archipelago off the west coast of British Columbia, which is home to bears, bald eagles, fishing lodges, and a thriving Indigenous community.
2013: Took up acting and voiceover work at a friend’s encouragement. Landed a role—the first of more than 50—as a newscaster in the CW’s short-lived The Tomorrow People. “Vancouver is known as Hollywood North.”
2019: Named president and CEO of PSF. “I’m proud of how we’ve worked collaboratively and respectfully with many of our 210 sovereign First Nations to reconcile the past and ensure a better future for salmon.”
2022: Played a reporter in the first season of Hulu’s award-winning Yellowjackets. “I wanted to be a news anchor growing up, and now I get to play one on TV. It’s been a great way to continue using the broadcasting skills I learned at AU.”
2023: Returned to Akron to attend his father’s induction into the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame. “He taught me how to tell a good story.”