The Center for Climate and Security is pleased to welcome four new distinguished members to its Advisory Board: Vice Admiral Dennis V. McGinn, United States Navy, (Ret), Rear Admiral Leendert “Len” Hering Sr., United States Navy (Ret), Rear Admiral Ann C. Phillips, United States Navy (Ret) and Joan D. B. VanDervort. Together, they have 126 years of experience serving the U.S. Department of Defense, and are four of the nation’s leading experts on climate change risks, energy systems, and how these interact with U.S. military infrastructure, force readiness, and the global operating environment. See each of their bios below.
Vice Admiral Dennis V. McGinn, United States Navy (Retired)
Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn is a member of the Center for Climate and Security Advisory Board. Admiral Dennis McGinn served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment from September 2013 until January 2017. In this role, he led the transformation of naval installations toward greater mission resiliency though energy efficiency, renewable energy, microgrids, and other technologies. Read more…
Rear Admiral Leendert “Len” Hering Sr., United States Navy (Retired)
Rear Admiral Leendert “Len” Hering Sr. is a member of the Center for Climate and Security’s Advisory Board. A native of Portsmouth, Va., he retired from the US Navy in 2009 after serving with distinction for over 32 years. A Surface Warrior by trade he rose to become a prominent military and civilian sustainability leader with a broad background in base operations, facility support, energy and environmental issues. His passion in sustainability lies in educating people on the dangers the future holds without taking responsible actions to address climate change, securing our nation’s energy independence, preserving access to clean water, air quality and other resources. Read more…
Rear Admiral Ann C. Phillips, United States Navy (Retired)
Rear Admiral Ann C. Phillips, USN (Ret) is a member of the Center for Climate and Security’s Advisory Board. A Surface Warfare Officer, Rear Admiral Ann Phillips, USN (Ret.) served in every warfare group of the Surface Navy: Destroyers, Carriers, Amphibious and Replenishment Ships. During her 31 years on active duty she commissioned and commanded USS MUSTIN (DDG 89), and commanded Destroyer Squadron TWO EIGHT, and Expeditionary Strike Group TWO. Ashore she was a Senior Fellow on the CNO’s Strategic Studies Group XXVIII, and managed requirements and resources for the Surface Navy as Deputy Director and Director of Surface Warfare Division, (N86). Read more…
Joan D. B. VanDervort
Ms VanDervort, has over 28 years of professional experience working with the Department of Defense across a broad spectrum of issues from climate change and energy security to environmental regulatory and encroachment impacts on military training. Before retiring from federal service in May 2014, she served as the Deputy Director for Ranges, Sea and Airspace in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Readiness). Her portfolio included oversight of the Defense Department’s Sustainable Range Initiative, a multi-faceted program with Congressional oversight, designed to address training constraints and Readiness implications brought about by environmental requirements, renewable energy, climate change, and incompatible development. Read more…
Very well: it is obvious that the new members of the Advisory Board will increase the intellectual potential of the Center. I am confident that special attention will be directed not only to protecting military structures and ensuring their effective activities, but also to actively counteract the possible negative consequences of climate change. It is obvious that the energy confrontation of the aggregate of planetary civilizations, directed against the negative consequences of climate change, is impossible. At least because the energy of civilizations of the Earth is less than the energy of the surface layer in 10 to an extent 18 times. Now we need a correct statement of the task at hand, a methodology for its solution (in both senses), a developed technology and an error-free implementation program … Naturally, given the emerging limitations: time, financial, material and intellectual. Today … most of all I’m afraid that there are errors in the sections listed above, which I did not find.