NC State Announces Launch of Universitywide Climate and Sustainability Academy

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden and Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs Rob Dunn today officially announced the launch of the Climate and Sustainability Academy. Dr. Erin Seekamp has been appointed as executive director and Dr. Christopher Galik has been appointed as deputy executive director, effective December 4. 

This academy will be the fourth academy and NC State, and represents a universitywide, interdisciplinary effort to build upon previous grassroots climate and sustainability efforts and initiatives.

The Climate and Sustainability Academy will connect and oversee the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (CRSI), focused on the coast and its watersheds, and the Sustainable Futures Initiative (SFI), working to bring together students, staff, scholars and practitioners to imagine and implement sustainable solutions for society. This academy also aims to facilitate and amplify climate and sustainability work on campus, including the State Climate Office, the Sustainability Office and the 20+ entities represented in the Climate Solutions Collaborative. 

“NC State has been establishing a broad-based interdisciplinary footprint in the climate and sustainability space for several years, which I’ve been very supportive of,” said Arden. “Launching this academy now also ensures that we are well-positioned to deliver on our land-grant mission as the world around us changes.”

The academy will leverage major strengths to make NC State a place where students innovate new climate and sustainability solutions that are implemented on campus in collaboration with business partners, with the campus serving a model for the cities of the world. It will also promote working landscapes as solution geographies, where innovations in food, biomaterials and clean energies are interconnected. Additionally, the academy will reimagine the coast of North Carolina in light of major changes, as an example of similar reimagining and innovation that will need to occur around the world. 

“NC State is already a world leader in finding sustainable solutions and understanding climate. Through this academy, Erin and Christopher will make it easier for existing programs to work together; easier for our students to get the training they need to innovate and to better their communities and the state; and easier for NC State to help our partners in the communities to deal with the challenges and opportunities of the next decade,” said College of Natural Resources Dean Myron Floyd 

The academy will host two open houses in spring 2025 on March 3 and March 6 from 9-11:30 a.m. in Duke Energy Hall. More details will be shared in late January.

Seekamp is the director of the CRSI and the Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Coastal Resilience and Sustainability in the College of Natural Resources. She joined NC State in 2012 as a professor and extension tourism specialist in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management. As executive director, Seekamp will lead the overall academy as well as the components of the academy focused on climate.

Seekamp is the first woman in the College of Natural Resources to receive the Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Professorship Award, and she was named a University Faculty Scholar in 2020. She received her Bachelor of Science in anthropology from James Madison University, her Master of Science in forestry from Virginia Tech, and her Ph.D. in natural resources from the University of Idaho. Her research focuses on community-engaged, place-based and deliberative science to advance the consideration of diverse values into planning frameworks and decision-making processes that support resilient transformations in socio-ecological systems. 

Galik is the director of the SFI and a professor of public administration in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. As deputy executive director of the academy, Galik will focus on achieving sustainability solutions, with NC State’s campus as a center of innovation. 

Galik joined NC State in August 2016 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Sustainable Energy Systems and Policy. He earned his Bachelor of Science in biology from Vassar College, his Master of Environmental Management in resource economics and policy from Duke University, and his Ph.D. in forestry and environmental resources from North Carolina State University. He works at the intersection of public policy, economics, and technology, using a variety of methods grounded in a variety of disciplines to explore complex energy and environmental policy problems.

This post was originally published in Provost's Office News.