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Celina Scott-Buechler has always been attuned to the ways environments shape lives.
Her childhood was one of movement—Arizona, Mexico, India, Washington, D.C., even a year in Germany—each place offering a different perspective on how communities adapt to shifting natural and social landscapes. What she noticed most was that change was not evenly distributed. Wealthier groups found ways to insulate themselves. Poorer communities were often left to shoulder the consequences.
That shifting landscape of homes impressed upon her the reality that no environment is static, and no community experiences change the same way. “Spending time in so many places—domestically and internationally—impressed upon me from an early age that people’s ‘natural’ environments were rapidly changing and the effects of this change—ecosystem and resource changes, climate change—weren’t being felt equally by everyone. The rich—intra-nationally, as well as internationally—were getting richer and the poor were being left to deal with the mess economic ‘progress’ left in its wake.”
That early recognition would guide her path. She began by studying marine ecosystem degradation and its effects on coastal livelihoods in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Coral reefs became her first laboratory of observation, and her first heartbreak. “I soon realized that if broader climate change weren’t addressed, no amount of local ecosystem and livelihood protection would suffice to save the coral reefs and the ways of life that relied on them.”
The conclusion was unavoidable: the planet didn’t just need science. It needed policy.
From False Choices to New Pathways
As Scott-Buechler pivoted from the natural and physical sciences into public policy, she encountered what many in the climate space had accepted as conventional wisdom: the idea that equity and speed were mutually exclusive. “I kept encountering a false choice,” she recalls. “Either we could address climate change quickly or we could do it equitably. Proponents of this argued that saving future generations meant moving full steam ahead with the systems and people in power that we had; if they were steeped in inequity, there was nothing to be done. My work seeks to disrupt this false choice, asking: what would rapid, ambitious climate policy that remakes today’s inequitable power structures look like?”
That question continues to animate her work.
Scott-Buechler arrives at Sanford as the Accenture Assistant Professor of Public Policy with an uncommon academic pedigree: a PhD in Environment & Resources from Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability, a JD from Stanford Law School, and an MS in Atmospheric Science from Cornell University. That interdisciplinarity is not incidental, it’s central.
“I’m an interdisciplinarian,” she notes. “And I’ve been fortunate to find spaces that approach climate science and policy from interdisciplinary perspectives. But the academic and professional communities I’ve felt most challenged and energized by have been those that are not only interdisciplinary but also multidisciplinary and multi-topic. I firmly believe that all policy is climate policy. The reverse is also true: climate policy needs to be responsive to policy domains from migration to education to labor. I’m really looking forward to learning from and working with colleagues on cross-cutting policy issues.”
Cultivating Climate Policy
Her research sits at the intersection of climate change mitigation, community transition, and climate justice. She focuses particularly on carbon dioxide removal (CDR), methods for pulling carbon out of the atmosphere, and the governance questions that come with them.
“My research focuses on climate change mitigation—transitioning society away from the practices and systems that produce the greenhouse gasses that drive climate change. A lot of my work centers on carbon dioxide removal and clean energy transitions. How can these large-scale infrastructural shifts redress rather than reinforce structural social inequalities?”
That motivation, she explains, is both moral and pragmatic. “First: normatively, I believe that climate action should be just (which is supported by scholarship and advocacy). Second: my work reveals that the perceived equity of climate solutions can determine their social acceptance and thus reduce social and political barriers to implementation.”
In other words: policies take root only if the ground is ready. Like a gardener tending soil, she sees her role as cultivating conditions where climate action can grow; nurturing trust, addressing inequities, and making sure communities are co-creators rather than bystanders.
I believe all policy is climate policy. And climate policy, at its best, should be about nurturing—not only the ecosystems we rely on, but also the communities who live within them.”
Celina Scott-Beuchler
Bridging Scholarship and Policy
Scott-Buechler’s career already demonstrates that philosophy in action. She has collaborated with federal and state agencies, NGOs, and grassroots organizations. She has advised on legislation, including provisions that made their way into the Inflation Reduction Act. She has co-chaired task forces, served as senior fellow for climate innovation at Data for Progress, and published widely in journals that bridge science and policy.
But she insists that entering academia was never a foregone conclusion. “I only wanted to go into academia professionally if I could continue to bridge the scholarship-policy impact divide,” she says. “And that’s exactly what I’ve been offered by this position.”
For her, Sanford represents fertile soil for that bridging work. “Being here is everything—Duke’s interdisciplinarity and climate commitment (both the formal one and informal ways that commitments to climate action are woven throughout research and teaching here), and Sanford’s focus on real-world policy challenges and solutions. It’s exactly the kind of environment where I can keep bridging scholarship and policy.”
Roots and Branches
For all her professional accomplishments, Scott-Buechler’s personal life also reflects her commitment to cultivation and care. “Two of the dearest parts of my life are my fruit trees (schlepped across the country from California) and my cat, known variously as Karenin, Tomato, or Dinkus.”
She is also an amateur rock climber, woodworker, and crafter; pursuits she embraces precisely because they resist perfection. “I’m very ‘jack of all trades,’ but it’s important to me to do things that bring me joy and that I’ll never have mastery over (and that’s okay!).”
Those hobbies, like her scholarship, are about tending, cultivating, and letting growth unfold over time.
Looking Ahead
As she begins her work at Sanford, Scott-Buechler is also beginning to recruit students for her lab, even if they haven’t traditionally seen themselves as climate researchers. For her, mentoring is another form of cultivation, nurturing new scholars who will continue the work of linking climate action with equity.
“I believe all policy is climate policy,” she says. “And climate policy, at its best, should be about nurturing—not only the ecosystems we rely on, but also the communities who live within them.”
It is a vision rooted in conservation and growth, equity and action. Like her fruit trees, it’s work that will take time, care, and persistence…but the harvest has the potential to nourish generations to come.