Michael De Los Santos

Michael De Los Santos is the owner of Mike D’s BBQ, LLC, a Durham, NC based BBQ company with an award-winning line of sauces and dry rubs. Michael and Mike D’s BBQ were also featured on the I Quit reality docu-series on the Discovery Channel.

Michael also serves as the President of the North Carolina Specialty Foods Association, a non-profit with the mission of growing opportunities for food-based business in NC and beyond. In addition, he also serves on the Board of Directors for Reinvestment Partners, a non-profit who works to address the problems of poverty and social injustice in the areas of food, housing, community development, health, and financial services. Michael was previously the Deputy Director at Action NC for 9.5 years, a progressive organizing and policy nonprofit. He managed internal operations as well as affordable housing, economic justice, and monetary policy campaigns for the organization. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Southern New Hampshire University, and a Master’s Degree in Real Estate with a focus on Development from Georgetown University.

In August of 2011, Michael was appointed by the Durham City Council to serve on the Housing Appeals Board to hear appeals on housing code and building condemnation cases. He served until 2014. In 2012, he was named to the Insight Center for Community Economic Development’s Experts of Color Network for housing and economic justice.

Michael lives in Durham with his wife and two daughters.