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Dr. Toddi Steelman


Toddi Steelman, Ph.D.

Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment

Duke University

Adjunct Faculty College of Natural Resources

North Carolina State University

Dr. Toddi Steelman is the Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. She remains an active Fire Chaser and Adjunct Professor at NCSU, after having been on the faculty in the College of Natural Resources from 2001-2012. The author of four books, Steelman has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, as well as opinion and editorial pieces in Nature, the Globe and MailThe Hill and the Los Angeles Times. She has brought her 20 years of wildfire expertise to bear in a variety of venues including the Royal Society (UK), National Academy of Sciences (US) and as an invited keynote speaker in Canada, Germany, Australia and the United States. She a past-President of the International Association of Wildland Fire. Her research agenda has focused on understanding community responses to wildfire, and how communities and agencies interact for more effective wildfire management on large, interjurisdictionally complex wildfires, much of which has taken place with her valued colleague and Fire Chaser, Dr. Branda Nowell.