Overview
Lydia Olander is a program director at the Nicholas Institute for Energy Environment & Sustainability at Duke University and adjunct professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment. She works on improving evidence-based policy and accelerating implementation of climate resilience, nature-based solutions, natural capital accounting, and environmental markets. She leads the National Ecosystem Services Partnership and sits on Duke’s Climate Commitment action team. She recently spent two years with the Biden administration at the Council on Environmental Quality as Director of Nature based Resilience and before that spent five years on the Environmental Advisory Board for the US Army Corps of Engineers. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and widely published researcher. Prior to joining the Nicholas Institute, she spent a year as an AAAS Congressional Science and Technology Fellow working with Senator Joseph Lieberman on environmental and energy issues. She was a college scholar at Cornell University and earned her Master of Forest Science from Yale University and Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Adjunct Professor in the Environmental Sciences and Policy Division
·
2020 - Present
Environmental Sciences and Policy,
Nicholas School of the Environment
Area Director of the Ecosystem Services Program in the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability
·
2013 - Present
Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability,
University Institutes and Centers
Recent Publications
Advancing consistent socio-economic monitoring of coastal ecosystem restoration through collaborative metric development
Journal Article Communications Earth and Environment · December 1, 2024 Ecological restoration programs increasingly aim to provide socio-economic and environmental benefits. However, monitoring of socio-economic outcomes of these programs lags behind monitoring of ecological outcomes. Socio-economic methods are less establish ... Full text CiteChallenges and Solutions to Permitting Living Shoreline Projects
Report · November 1, 2024 Open Access Link to item CiteEvaluation of Publicly Accessible Nature-Based Solutions Databases as Sources for Evidence of Effectiveness
Report · July 24, 2024 Nature-based solutions (NBS) are “actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal challenges, simultaneously providing benefits for people and the environment” (White House Council on Environmental Qual ... Open Access Link to item CiteRecent Grants
Hosting the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by North Carolina State University · 2023 - 2028Model-based Tracking and Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services (MoTIVES) for Military Base Land-Use and Land-Management Decisions
ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by Strategic Environmental Research & Development Program · 2022 - 2027High-resolution mapping of drainage ditches in eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia for wetland restoration planning and saltwater intrusion vulnerability assessment
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by NC Department of Environmental Quality · 2025 - 2026View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
Stanford University ·
2002
Ph.D.