Learn about the Nicholas School's academic and administrative leadership.
Toddi A. Steelman, Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment
Toddi Steelman
Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment
Toddi Steelman has served as Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment since 2018 and was recently reappointed to her second five-year term through June 30, 2028.
During her initial term, she oversaw the launch of two new majors to help advance climate, earth science, and environmental literacy among undergraduate students; invested in efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion within the school; secured philanthropic support for new faculty hiring; expanded the school’s engagement with other schools and units at Duke and external partners; and oversaw changes to the school’s research and business management infrastructure to better support research activities. She led the school’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to significant damage sustained at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., from Hurricane Florence in 2018.
Steelman also played a leading role in the planning and development of the Duke Climate Commitment, which unites the university’s education, research, operations, and public service missions to address the climate crisis.
Prior to her appointment as the Nicholas School’s dean in 2018, she served as the first permanent executive director of the University of Saskatchewan’s School of Environment and Sustainability, after serving 11 years on the faculty in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University. She also was a faculty member in the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado a Denver from 1997 to 2001.
She holds a Ph.D. from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Studies from West Virginia University.
Working at the intersection of science, policy, and decision making, her expertise in environmental and resource policy is well recognized nationally and internationally. Her research focuses on understanding community response to wildfire, and how communities and agencies interact for more effective wildfire management on large, interjurisdictionally complex wildfires. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and Canadian Tri Agencies as well as a variety of federal and state agencies. Steelman has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and is the author of four books and opinion and editorial pieces in Nature, The Hill, the Los Angeles Times, and the Toronto Globe and Mail. She is immediate past president of the International Association of Wildland Fire.
Executive Vice DeanJuli Plant Grainger Associate Professor of Energy Economics and PolicyJuli Plant Grainger Associate Professor
Senior Associate Dean of Research and Doctoral ProgramsProfessor of Environmental ChemistryProfessor in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy
Chair, ECS Division | Bass FellowUniversity Distinguished Service Professor of Earth SciencesUniversity Distinguished Service Professor
Chair, Marine Science & Conservation Division | Director, Duke Marine LabStephen A. Toth Professor of Marine BiologyStephen A. Toth Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology in the Nicholas School of the Environment
Chair, Environmental Science & Policy DivisionProfessor of Global and Environmental Health
Director of Graduate Studies, University Program in EcologyAssociate Professor of Ecosystem Ecology and Ecohydrology
Director of Graduate Studies, Marine Science & ConservationAssociate Professor of Oceanography
Director of Graduate Studies, University Program in Environmental HealthAssociate Professor of Environmental Genomics in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy
Director of Graduate Studies, Earth & Climate SciencesProfessor of Geomorphology and Coastal Processes
Director of Graduate Studies, University Program in Environmental PolicyProfessor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Director of Graduate Studies, Environment PhD programLee Hill Snowdon Associate Professor of Environmental & Evolutionary GenomicsLee Hill Snowdon Associate Professor
Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and InclusionSenior Lecturer in Environmental Science and Policy
Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Undergraduate ResearchInstructorLecturing Fellow in the Marine Science and Conservation Division
Associate Dean of Professional Programs | Chair, Energy & Environment ProgramProfessor of the Practice of Energy and the Environment
Associate Dean for Teaching Innovation | Director, Duke Environmental Leadership (DEL-MEM) ProgramProfessor of the Practice of Marine Conservation Ecology
Director of Undergraduate Studies, ECSAssociate ProfessorAssociate Professor of Geosciences
Director of Undergraduate Studies, ENVThe Elizabeth Brooks Reid and Whitelaw Reid Associate Professor of Population StudiesElizabeth Brooks Reid and Whitelaw Reid Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies, MSCAssistant Professor of the Practice of Marine Molecular Conservation
Co-Chair, Environmental Economics & Policy ProgramAssistant Professor of the Practice of Environmental Science and Policy MethodsAssociate Professor of the Practice of Science and Policy Methods
Chair, Water Resources Management ProgramProfessor of River Systems Science and PolicyProfessor in the Environmental Sciences and Policy Division
Chair, Ecotoxicology & Environmental Health ProgramAssociate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Co-Chair, Coastal Environmental Management ProgramAssociate Professor of Marine Policy
Chair, Ecosystem Science & Conservation ProgramProfessor of Environmental Sciences and Policy
Co-Chair, Master of ForestryClarence F. Korstian Professor of Forest Economics and ManagementKorstian Distinguished Professor in Forest Economics and Management in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Chair, Business & Environment ProgramLynn Gorguze-Scott Peters Professor of the Practice of Environmental Entrepreneurship & InnovationProfessor of the Practice in Environmental Entrepreneurship
Associate Professor of Tropical Ecology
Harvey W. Smith Professor of Biological OceanographyHarvey W. Smith Distinguished Professor of Biological Oceanography in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Nicholas Distinguished Professor of Environmental Quality
Assistant Dean, Human Resources and Administrative Services
Associate Dean, Marketing & Communications
Associate Dean for Finance
Associate Dean, Development & Alumni Relations
Associate Dean, Student Services
Assistant Dean, IT & Facilities Management
Associate DirectorDuke University Marine Lab