Toddi Steelman, Ph.D. '96 and first permanent executive director at the University of Saskatchewan’s School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS), will be the next dean of the Nicholas School, according to a Duke Today release.
The role is being currently filled by Jeffrey Vincent, Clarence F. Korstian professor of forest economics and management, who has been serving as the interim dean since last year when former dean Alan Townsend resigned. Steelman, who has been a "wildland firefighter, ice-road trucker and participant in the world's largest snowball fight," will assumer her new role July 1, noted the release.
“I am delighted to welcome Toddi Steelman back to Duke,” said President Vincent Price in the release. “She has a rare combination of scholarly achievement and successful leadership in environmental education and research that will only accelerate the Nicholas School’s great momentum in focusing on perhaps the defining issues of our time.”
Before SENS, Steelman was a faculty member in the department of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University and the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver. She is a wildfire expert whose research focuses on "understanding community preparation and response to wildfire," according to the release.
Emily Klein, professor of earth sciences at the Nicholas School, chaired the national search to find someone to be the next dean.
“The search committee evaluated many excellent candidates, and we found that Toddi Steelman has the right combination of experience, vision and energy to lead the Nicholas School into an exciting future,” Klein said in the release.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.