Board of Visitors Biographies
Mike Allen, Sr.
Executive Director and Vice Chairman Lac du Flambeau Tribal Council (Lac du Flambeau)Mike Allen, Sr., has worked for nearly 30 years for the Lac du Flambeau tribe and for the Great Lakes Intertribal Council, providing leadership, social services, and tribal realty and natural resource management services. He is currently the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Intertribal Council (GLITC) and Vice Chairman of the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Council.
GLITC is a consortium of 12 federally recognized Indian tribes in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. Started in 1963, the Council's role is to assist and supplement the member tribes' capacity to deliver services such as the operation of health, aging and development programs to its members in reservations and rural Indian communities in Wisconsin. The strength of GLITC lies in the tribes' resolve to be independent among themselves, yet to come together in a unified forum to discuss, resolve and address those issues that require intertribal unity and attention. Political action, intergovernmental relations and policy decisions find an intertribal discussion forum through GLITC, but by long-standing custom, public comment and policy implementation is reserved to the member tribes through their elected representatives.
Allen is past chair of both the board of the Simpson Election Company and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. He has served in the U.S. Navy, attended Nicolet College in Rhinelander, and earned an Indian Law certificate from Judicare, Inc. Allen began his public service career with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in fish management.