Dr. Kathie Dello serves as the Assistant Secretary for Resilience at DEQ, where she leads the department’s efforts to strengthen North Carolina’s resilience to withstand increasingly severe weather. She leads the efforts of the Division of Coastal Management, State Energy Office, Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program (APNEP), Flood Resiliency Blueprint and the State Resilience Office.
Prior to joining the department in 2025, she served as State Climatologist of North Carolina and Director of the State Climate Office at NC State University. Kathie's work has been recognized nationally for advancing climate resilience, stakeholder engagement, and science communication in New York, Oregon and North Carolina. She is author of the 5th National Climate Assessment and the 2020 North Carolina Climate Science Report. She is a 2024 graduate of Leadership North Carolina. In 2025, Governor Josh Stein awarded her the North Carolina Award in Science, the state’s highest civilian honor.
Dr. Dello holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Oregon State University, a Master’s in Geography and a Bachelor’s in Atmospheric Sciences from the State University of New York at Albany. She resides in Raleigh.