Wildfire expert Toddi Steelman, the first permanent executive director at the , has been selected as the
Steelman, who earned her PhD in environmental and resource policy from the Nicholas School in 1996, will follow Jeffrey Vincent, Clarence F. Korstian Professor of Forest Economics and Management, who has been serving as the interim dean since the departure of former dean Alan Townsend last year.
鈥淚 am delighted to welcome Toddi Steelman back to Duke,鈥 says Duke President Vincent Price. 鈥淪he has a rare combination of scholarly achievement and successful leadership in environmental education and research that will only accelerate the Nicholas School鈥檚 great momentum in focusing on perhaps the defining issues of our time. And as a Duke graduate, she has a special understanding of our culture of collaboration, ambition and action.鈥
Prior to serving from 2012 to 2017 as executive director at SENS, Steelman spent 11 years on the faculty in the and four years in the
Her policy research spans many environmental and resource management issues, including forest management and planning, water security, open space protection, and climate change, but she is best known for her work on community adaptation to wildfires and how communities and agencies can interact for more effective wildfire management.
In 2016, she was part of a faculty team that received a $77,800,000 grant from the to fund a multi-year interdisciplinary study, 鈥淕lobal Water Futures: Solutions to Water Threats in an Era of Global Change.鈥 The grant represents the largest investment in water research funding in Canadian history.
Steelman also is the recipient of research funding from the , the , the and the
A prolific researcher, she has published four well-known books and 59 peer-reviewed papers or book chapters鈥攊ncluding widely cited studies in Sustainability Science, Conservation Biology, Policy Sciences, and the Journal of Forestry. She also has published 24 technical papers and contributed to scientific reports for the Royal Society, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the . She sits on the board of directors for the , and was selected as a in 2008.
In addition to holding a PhD from Duke, Steelman holds a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Studies from West Virginia University.
A: I was born and raised in West Virginia in a small coal mining and timber town. I spent a lot of time outside hiking, paddling whitewater and biking.
Coming from a rural, natural resource-dependent community has given me a powerful perspective on many issues. Mining caused enormous environmental damage in our community and state, but it also provided a social identity and livelihood for my family and many others. Our ability to find approaches that integrate or balance social, economic and environmental interests sustainably is very personal for me.
A: As a policy scholar, my research has always been very problem-oriented and I have worked on a variety of issues鈥攆orest management and planning, water security, open space protection, climate change, and most recently wildfire response and management.
I try to work where the problems are and with the people who experience them, and this has taken me all over the United States as well as South Africa, Brazil and Canada.
Like many people, I want to make a difference and serve a larger purpose. We are only put on this planet for a short time and by virtue of our education and wealth, we have an obligation to figure out how we can help others. We create science and other forms of knowledge in universities, and I firmly believe we need to put that knowledge in service of society.
A: Over the years some of my best ideas have come from listening to students, and this an example of that.
In 2001, when I was on the faculty at NC State, a professional master鈥檚 student walked into my office and asked if I did any wildfire research because that was what she wanted to work on. At that time, wildfire was not yet a major issue on the national or international environmental policy agenda. I told her I didn鈥檛 have any interest and she should go find someone else on faculty who did, because that would be a better fit.
But she was persistent and came back a week later and asked if I would reconsider. So, we sat down and started a discussion about how we could approach the topic from a perspective that would be novel enough to suit her master鈥檚 project needs and fit into my broad policy and scholarly interests鈥攁nd here I am, all these years later, still working on wildfire.
A: At the time, the Nicholas School was one of the few programs that offered an interdisciplinary focus, and that was where my passion was. My advisor, Bob Healy, gave me a lot of leeway to pursue my interests and I thought that was fantastic. I was keen to have disciplinary depth that I could marry with interdisciplinary breadth to integrate knowledge from diverse fields.
I roamed broadly across Duke and took courses in the Sanford Institute, the Department of Political Science and the Department of Economics, as well as the Nicholas School. That broad but focused approach has led to a career of amazing collaborations and the chance to explore some of the most pressing problems today with wonderful colleagues across multiple disciplines.
I think these qualities remain true today. Our school provides students the freedom, the academic resources, and the access to faculty and staff expertise they need to pursue their interests. That鈥檚 critical for training future environmental leaders.
A: My friends and I would take weekend trips down to the Marine Lab. Beaufort is terrific and the folks at the Marine Lab have created a special community that was nice to experience. Duke Forest also holds a special place in my memory. I lived in a house in the forest for two years and walked along New Hope Creek every day with my dog, Coby.
A: It feels like a homecoming and makes me proud to be an ongoing part of the Nicholas School鈥檚 tradition. I was among the first generation to graduate from the school. My classmates, many of whom have remained close friends, have gone on to do amazing work shaping the environmental trajectory of our nation and planet. When I consider that we now have more than 5,000 alumni out in the world, all doing important work, the prospect of leading a school with such a huge potential for impact is thrilling.
A: I am highly collaborative and a good listener, but am not afraid to make a decision. Also, I can be bribed with chocolate.
A: When I was a student, we were one of only a few graduate environmental programs in the United States. Now there鈥檚 much more competition, so we have to think harder about who we are, what we offer and what makes us special. The Marine Lab and Duke Forest are integral to our identity and we need to get students out in the forest and onto the water to experience these resources firsthand.
Embracing complexity in our research and teaching is also paramount. Complexity is the combination of uncertainty and conflicting value demands, and it鈥檚 a defining feature of many environmental issues.
At a time when we鈥檙e so deeply divided as a society and issues seem to grow more contentious daily, we can no longer treat environmental issues as solely scientific or technical problems. We have to wade into the complex values choices that are at the heart of policy decisions. Science will always be a central and essential input into the decision-making process, but policy decisions require choices. And choices reflect values.
We need to remain on the forefront of research and scholarship, while at the same time becoming much more skilled in engaging in the conversations that are at the heart of the values divide.
A: We are at a curious place in modern history. There is a lot to worry about, but at the same time, we are seeing a reinvigoration of many institutions that are critical to democracy鈥攋ournalism, activism, people running for office, and people educating themselves about what it means to be a citizen. I find this very heartening.
Also, while people may despair at the state of national or federal leadership, we are seeing an exciting new generation of leaders emerge at the local and state level. They are our future. Our school is poised to shape this next generation to be effective environmental leaders who contribute to a country and planet of which we can all be proud.
Last but not least, Generation Z and Millennials have a greater environmental ethic and literacy than the generations before them. My daughter and her friends, at age 15, know more about climate change than I did as an undergraduate. My sincerest hope is that we can attract the best, most capable and passionate students from across the globe to work with and learn from as we all strive for a more sustainable way of life.
