Kathie Dello
Assistant Secretary for Resilience, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Kathie Dello serves as the Assistant Secretary for Resilience at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ), where she leads efforts to build resilience to extreme weather and environmental hazards.
Prior to joining NCDEQ in September 2025, Dello was the State Climatologist of North Carolina and Director of the State Climate Office at NC State University, where she built one of the nation’s leading state climate programs. She has dedicated her career to connecting cutting-edge climate science with the needs of communities, policymakers, and decision-makers, ensuring that research translates into action.
Dello's work has been recognized nationally for advancing climate resilience, stakeholder engagement, and science communication in New York, Oregon, and North Carolina. She was an author on the 5th National Climate Assessment and the 2020 North Carolina Climate Science Report. She has published in peer reviewed literature, testified before policymakers, and collaborated across sectors to design solutions that address climate risks while creating opportunities for a more sustainable future. Kathie has been quoted in national and public media outlets. She is Governor Josh Stein's 2025 Recipient of the North Carolina Award in Science, the state's top civilian honor.
Originally from upstate New York, she holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Oregon State University.
Camille Harley
Master of Public Policy student, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Camille Harley is a second-year student pursuing a master of public policy degree at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Her interests are environmental and energy policy and public budgeting. Harley conducts research for the Nicholas Institute's Heat Policy Innovation Hub, a project dedicated to bringing attention to extreme heat and advancing solutions to address it. On campus, she serves as the treasurer for the Black Policy Student Association, a student-led organization that hosts the Sanford School’s Annual Black Policy Conference. Before coming to graduate school, Camille worked in public finance and solar project development. She hopes to help make public resource allocation more equitable in the future.
Ryan McCord
Ph.D. Candidate, Nicholas School of the Environment and Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Ryan McCord (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in environmental policy (economics concentration) at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Sanford School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on how energy access affects health and development in low- and middle-income countries, especially through health systems, household energy transitions, and improvements to the reliability and quality of electricity supply. In her work, she primarily combines applied econometric and machine learning methods with primary data collection and data from low-cost digital metering technologies. McCord has worked on studies in Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, DRC, Tanzania, and Nepal, and cares deeply about research that’s rigorous, grounded in real-world contexts, and useful to the people and institutions she works with.
Brian Murray
Director, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability
Brian Murray, Ph.D., is the director of Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, which accelerates solutions to critical energy and environmental challenges.
Murray is also a research professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and the Sanford School of Public Policy.
He has led the Nicholas Institute since 2021, when the organization was created by the merger of the Duke University Energy Initiative and Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Previously, Murray led the Energy Initiative from 2016-2021 and was the director for economic analysis at the Nicholas Institute from 2006-2017. In 2015, Murray was a Fulbright Scholar in Environment and Economy at Canada's University of Ottawa.
Murray is widely recognized for his research on the economics of energy policy, particularly as it relates to efforts to mitigate climate change risk. He has written about the design and assessment of economic incentive mechanisms for decarbonizing the economy such as carbon tax, cap-and-trade, directed tax credits, and tradable performance standards, as well as policies affecting the markets for renewable energy and sustainable land use.
Murray is among the original designers of the allowance price reserve approach for containing prices in carbon markets that was adopted by California and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) cap-and-trade programs and served on a National Academy of Science panel to examine the effects of the U.S. federal tax code on energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. He was a convening lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report on greenhouse gas mitigation from land use change.
Prior to working at Duke, Murray served as director of the Center for Regulatory Economics and Policy Research at RTI International.
Murray earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance at the University of Delaware and a master’s degree and doctoral degree in resource economics and policy at Duke University.
Tyler H. Norris
James B. Duke Fellow & Ph.D. Student, Nicholas School of the Environment
Tyler H. Norris is a Ph.D. student at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, where his research focuses on electric power systems. He is an awardee of the university’s James B. Duke Fellowship and serves in the research group of Dr. Dalia Patino-Echeverri, Gendell Associate Professor of Energy Systems and Public Policy.
Norris brings over a decade of energy sector experience to his research. Most recently, he served as vice-president of development at Cypress Creek Renewables, a leading US independent renewable power producer. In addition to overseeing a multi-gigawatt portfolio of development-stage projects, in this capacity he regularly directed electricity simulation studies for use in regulatory proceedings. Previously, he served as a director at S&P Global Platts, an international energy consultancy, where he developed power market forecasts for electric utilities and integrated majors. Prior to S&P, he was a special advisor at the US Department of Energy, where he designed technology commercialization programs.
Norris has served as an expert witness in multiple utility commission proceedings related to interconnection, resource planning, and wholesale electricity rates. In 2024, he was invited by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to serve as an expert panelist at the Commission's technical workshop on generator interconnection. In 2020 he was appointed to Governor Cooper’s Carbon Policy Working Group to advise the development of NC's state-wide electricity decarbonization standard (H.951). In 2019 he was awarded “Clean Energy Leader of the Year” by the NC Sustainable Energy Association, and in 2023 was named to BusinessNC's annual "Power List” for energy.
Norris serves on the board of the NC Clean Energy Fund, which he chaired from 2023-2024, and was previously elected vice chair of the Carolinas Clean Energy Business Association. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Harvard Law & Policy Review, and elsewhere. He is recipient of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship and Forbes 30 Under 30, received his B.A. in public policy from Stanford University, and graduated from the NC School of Science & Mathematics.
Vincent Price
President, Duke University
Vincent Price is the 10th President of Duke University, where he is also Walter Hines Page Professor of Public Policy and Political Science in the Sanford School of Public Policy and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. A leading global expert on public opinion, social influence, and political communication and former editor-in-chief of Public Opinion Quarterly, President Price came to Duke in 2017.
Since arriving on campus, Price has turned his attention to the future of the university, developing a strategic vision focused on five core principles: empowering people, transforming education, building community, forging partnerships, and engaging a global network. He has also overseen a series of major new initiatives at Duke — including continued strategic advancement of the arts; investing in Duke science and technology; launching a university-wide, impact-oriented approach to addressing climate change; implementing next-generation residential programs; advancing a comprehensive commitment to opportunity, access, and belonging; and broadening and deepening engagement with Durham and the surrounding region.
Prior to coming to Duke, Price served as Provost of the University of Pennsylvania and was the Steven H. Chaffee Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Professor of Political Science in the School of Arts and Sciences. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he earned his PhD (1987) and MA (1985) in Communication from Stanford University and a BA magna cum laude (1979) in English from the University Honors Program at Santa Clara University. Born and raised in southern California, Price and his wife Annette are the proud parents of two adult children. In their free time, they can often be found walking their doodle, Marlowe, on the Al Buehler Trail or in Duke Forest.
Tim Profeta
Executive in Residence, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability
Tim Profeta is an executive in residence at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability.
In 2023, Profeta returned to Duke from two years of service at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he served as the special counsel for the power sector and a senior advisor. At the Agency, Profeta had a lead role in the development of the regulatory strategy affecting the power sector, including the recent proposed greenhouse gas regulations, served as a liaison between the Agency and other federal departments and agencies regarding power sector policies, and took an instrumental role in the design of several Agency programs that were authorized in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Prior to leaving for EPA, Profeta was the founding director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, which merged with the Duke University Energy Initiative in 2021 to create the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. Since its creation in 2005, the Nicholas Institute has grown into a major nonpartisan player in key environmental debates, serving both the public and private sectors with sound understanding of complex environmental issues.
Profeta’s areas of expertise include climate change and energy policy, the Clean Air Act, and adaptive use of current environmental laws to address evolving environmental challenges. His work at the Nicholas Institute has included numerous legislative and executive branch proposals to mitigate climate change, including providing Congressional testimony several times on his work at Duke University, developing multiple legislative proposals for cost containment and economic efficiency in greenhouse gas mitigation programs, and facilitating climate and energy policy design processes for several U.S. states.
Prior to his arrival at Duke, Profeta served as counsel for the environment to Sen. Joseph Lieberman. As Lieberman’s counsel, he was a principal architect of the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act of 2003. He also represented Lieberman in legislative negotiations pertaining to environmental and energy issues, as well as coordinating the senator’s energy and environmental portfolio during his runs for national office. Profeta has continued to build on his Washington experience to engage in the most pertinent debates surrounding climate change and energy.
Profeta is a member of the Climate Action Reserve Board of Directors, and is a member of The American Law Institute.
Profeta earned a J.D., magna cum laude, and a master's in environmental management in resource ecology from Duke in 1997 and a Bachelor's degree in political science from Yale University in 1992.
Tyler Ratcliffe
Undergraduate senior, Duke University
Tyler Ratcliffe is a senior studying economics, energy, and environmental science. On campus, he co-leads the undergraduate Energy and Climate Club, organizes the Energy and Climate Ventures house courses and related programming, and previously led Energy Week 2024. His interests include climate tech, commercialization, and utility innovation, and he is excited about mobilizing young talent into the energy industry.
Michael S. Regan
Polis Distinguished Fellow, Sanford School of Public Policy; former Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (2021-2024)
Michael S. Regan is currently a Polis Distinguished Fellow at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy for the 2025-2026 academic year. He served as the 16th Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2021 to 2024.
As EPA Administrator, Regan established the agency’s first national program office dedicated to environmental justice and external civil rights—the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. He oversaw the design and implementation of an investment strategy exceeding $100 billion aimed at improving public health, equity, and community resilience, while also providing regulatory certainty to support economic growth and competitiveness. Additionally, he managed major agency actions to cut climate pollution, from tailpipes to power plants, and set the U.S. on a path toward a clean energy future. As Administrator, he traveled extensively, meeting with communities most affected by environmental pollution, and representing the U.S. overseas at global climate and environmental conferences.
Regan previously served as the 17th Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ). As Secretary, he spearheaded the development of North Carolina's foundational plan to address climate change and transition to a clean energy economy. He secured the largest coal ash clean-up settlement in U.S. history and led critical negotiations on the clean-up of the Cape Fear River from PFAS contamination. He also established North Carolina's pioneering Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board.
Prior to NCDEQ, Regan served as the Associate Vice President of U.S. Climate and Energy and Southeast Regional Director at the Environmental Defense Fund. He successfully managed complex negotiations with energy companies, corporate business leaders, environmental and industry associations and elected officials across the nation.
Regan is a graduate of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, making him the first EPA Administrator to have graduated from a Historically Black University. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from The George Washington University and received an honorary doctorate from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in 2021.
William K. Reilly
Founding and Current Chair of the Board of Advisors for the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability; former Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (1989-1993)
William K. Reilly is the former Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (1989-1993). He was the Founding Partner of Aqua International Partners (1998-2010) a private equity fund dedicated to investing in companies in the water sector. Reilly served as the first Payne Visiting Professor at Stanford University (1993-1994), president of World Wildlife Fund (1985-1989), president of The Conservation Foundation (1973-1989), director of the Rockefeller Task Force on Land Use and Urban Growth (1972-1973), and a senior staff member of the President's Council on Environmental Quality (1970-1972). He headed the US delegation to the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, and served as one of the seven original Trustees appointed by President Clinton to manage the Presidio National Park in San Francisco. In May 2010, he was appointed by President Obama to co-chair the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling and in late 2012 to the President’s Global Development Council.
Reilly is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of World Wildlife Fund, Chairman Emeritus of the Board of the ClimateWorks Foundation, Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University, Co-Chairman of the Bipartisan Policy Center Energy Project, Co-Chairman of the Board of the Global Water Challenge, and a Director of the Packard Foundation. He recently rotated off the boards of directors of ConocoPhillips, DuPont, and the National Geographic Society, and he currently serves on the boards of Royal Caribbean International and Energy Future Holdings, for which he serves as Chairman of the Sustainable Energy Advisory Board. In 2007 Reilly was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served in the US Army to the rank of Captain, and holds a B.A. degree from Yale, J.D. from Harvard, and M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University.
Toddi Steelman
Vice President and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, Duke University
Toddi Steelman serves as the Vice President and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability at Duke University. In this role, she leads the Duke Climate Commitment - a university-wide initiative that unites education, research, operations, and public service to fully engage the Duke community in developing and implementing solutions to climate change.
Steelman is internationally recognized for her research expertise in wildland fire. An elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Steelman explores: how can people, communities, and institutions work better together to respond to complex problems—especially when the stakes are high, the science is uncertain, and the solutions require collaboration across sectors.
For over 25 years, she has studied how governments, agencies, and communities navigate challenges like wildfires, natural disasters, and climate change. Her work reveals how trust, communication, and shared decision-making lead to more effective emergency responses and more resilient systems.
From 2018 to 2023, Steelman was the Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment, where she led transformative work in environmental education, interdisciplinary research, and community impact. She is a past president of the International Association of Wildland Fire. She has delivered invited keynote addresses across the globe—including in Portugal, Canada, Germany, Australia, and the U.S. and has contributed to the Royal Society (UK) and the National Academy of Sciences (US).
She is the author of four books and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Her commentary has also appeared in major outlets including Nature, The Globe and Mail, The Hill, and the Los Angeles Times. She sits on the Boards of the World Wildlife Fund and the Research Triangle Institute.
Ashley Ward
Director, Heat Policy Innovation Hub, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability
Ashley Ward’s work focuses on strengthening community resilience and protecting human health in the face of environmental challenges. She directs the Heat Policy Innovation Hub at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. In this role, Ward brings together scientists and communities to develop and deploy innovative policy solutions that reduce the impacts of extreme heat on human health and well-being.
Ward’s career has focused on engaging communities to identify and address issues related to resilience challenges, and helping communities develop long-term, sustainable strategies relevant to their needs.
Ward’s previous work with NOAA’s Carolinas Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) team connected rural and urban communities and policy-decision makers with relevant climate and health data, particularly related to risks and impacts.
She has continued to bridge the gap between science, data, policy, and community at Duke’s Nicholas Institute. In this setting, Ward works with communities, public agencies, and policymakers to create and inform effective policy solutions to difficult environmental challenges.
Prior to launching the Heat Policy Innovation Hub, Ward has worked on the Internet of Water (IoW) Coalition at the Nicholas Institute, helping public agencies modernize their water data infrastructure to better manage water resources. On the IoW team, she has led stakeholder and policy engagement, pilot programs, and the development of the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) designed to guide public agencies through the organizational and behavioral changes needed to modernize their water data infrastructure.
Before her work with Duke and RISA, Ward completed her PhD in geography and worked with communities throughout NC on a host of issues such as local food availability and asset-based economic development strategies. Her passion is building coalitions to advance scientific understanding and communicate information in a way that is relevant for use by decision-makers. Having worked in a broad range of communities with varying levels of capacity, Ward is particularly thoughtful about meeting communities where they are and working from there to achieve community goals.
