Executive Director, Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster
Deb is the Executive Director of the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster. Formerly, she was the Managing Director of Graduate Student Programs and Services in the Pratt School of Engineering and the Associate Director for Counseling, Training, and Programs in the Career Services Office at the Nicholas School for the Environment, both at Duke University. While at Stanford, Deb was the associate director of the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) and, prior to that, a postdoctoral scholar who helped launch Prof. Ardoin’s Environmental Learning in the San Francisco Bay Area project.
Deb’s research interests focus on informal environmental education and communication, community-based natural resource management, social network analysis, and mental models and perceptions. Deb was an NSF-IGERT fellow and completed her PhD in 2011 in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida with a certificate in Environmental Education and Communications and a concentration in Tropical Conservation and Development. Her dissertation investigated communication and social networks associated with water and wildlife resources in rural Botswana. Deb holds a Master of Environmental Management, MA in teaching, and BS degrees from Duke University.