Whyte formally served as the Timnick Chair in the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University's College of Arts & Letters.

[3] Upon graduating with his PhD in 2009, Whyte accepted a faculty position at Michigan State University (MSU) and began working with Chris Caldwell at the College of Menominee Nation's Sustainable Development Institute.

[4] As an associate professor of Philosophy and Community Sustainability at MSU, he encouraged collaborative work between politicians, climate scientists, environmentalists, and Indigenous peoples to address global warming.

As part of his efforts, Whyte also helped author the fourth National Climate Assessment, worked with the US Global Change Research Program, and served on various environmental boards including the National Indian Youth Council, the Pesticide Action Network, and the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science.

"[8] He later received an award from the National Science Foundation’s NSF INCLUDES program for his project "Integrating Indigenous and Western Knowledge to Transform Learning and Discovery in the Geosciences.