Mueller now director of NC State Climate Leaders Program

Amanda Mueller has been promoted from program manager to director of the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology & Science, or KIETS, Climate Leaders Program at North Carolina State University.

The KIETS Climate Leaders Program established in 2021 brings together students and faculty to focus on solutions for mitigating or reversing the negative effects of climate change.

Mueller has led the KIETS Climate Leaders Program since July 2021. During this time, she has implemented a variety of activities for the inaugural cohort of climate scholars and faculty mentors and, along with professor Roy He from the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, organized the first KIETS Climate Leaders Symposium in October 2022, according to an announcement Wednesday from the university.

“We are extremely grateful to Amanda for her tremendous efforts to make the KIETS Climate Program such a success and look forward to her continued leadership as the Director of the Program,” KIETS Director Dr. Ruben Carbonell said in a statement.

Before leading the KIETS Climate Leaders Program, Muller served as an environmental specialist with the state Department of Environmental Quality’s Water Sciences Section.

Mueller worked on a variety of wetland related projects for DEQ for 18 years, including the establishment of the North Carolina Wetland Program Plan. Mueller received a master’s degree from the department of resource management and policy at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and her bachelor’s degree in biology from the College of William and Mary.

The KIETS Climate Leaders Program is collaborating with the N.C. State Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative, a campus wide effort sponsored by the Office of the Provost led by Goodnight Distinguished Professor Erin Seekamp, to develop and engage a community of faculty and students to work with industry, nonprofit, government and community leaders across the state to address issues related to climate change and coastal resilience and sustainability.