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CSR Announces New Staff
Continued Capacity-building at CSR’s Core
The Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) is thrilled to announce a new round of hires across its programs.
The Center for Climate and Security (CCS) added expertise across its portfolios, bringing on Caroline Baxter and Noah Fritzhand to lead progress in addressing security threats posed by climate change.
Baxter joins CCS as a Senior Advisor after her tenure at the US Department of Defense where she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and principal senior authority on the development of policies relating to military education, training, and exercises. She will contribute her expertise on climate-informed approaches to national security policy, operational strategy, and military readiness.
Noah Fritzhand previously worked for the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security program, where he contributed to the development of sustainable resiliency strategies to address climate and ocean risks in Small Island Developing States and the Global South. As a Research Fellow at CCS, he will conduct research on the intersection of climate change, food security, and conflict.
The Nolan Center on Strategic Weapons was also pleased to welcome Christopher East and Kyle Wilgus to examine issues related to biosecurity and biodefense policies.
East previously served in the United Kingdom’s Cabinet Office as Chief of Staff for Biological Security, where he was responsible for the development of the 2023 UK Biological Security Strategy. At the Nolan Center, he will take the lead on international biosecurity initiatives as a Senior Fellow and Program Manager.
Wilgus was previously a Legislative Research Fellow at the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, where he served as a Legislative Research Fellow. At the Nolan Center, he will analyze biological threats and track policy trends and advancements as a Research Fellow.
CCS Endorses COP28 Declaration On Climate, Relief, Recovery And Peace
The Center for Climate and Security (CCS), an institute of the Council on Strategic Risks, is proud to endorse the urgent call to action embodied in the COP28 Declaration On Climate, Relief, Recovery And Peace, and welcomes the COP’s inclusion of a dedicated day on the topic for the first time. This Declaration reflects inputs and endorsements from a wide range of governmental and non-governmental actors across the climate, environment, development, humanitarian, and peace and security sectors. This demonstrates a growing recognition of the reality that climate change poses a multifaceted threat to peace and stability, requiring an integrated response across these sectors.
Stephanie Epner, Richard Kidd, and Alan Leung Join the Center for Climate and Security Advisory Board
The Center for Climate and Security is pleased and honored to announce that Stephanie Epner, Richard Kidd, and Alan Leung have joined its distinguished Advisory Board of military and national security leaders. This group supports CCS by providing substantive and strategic guidance.
Stephanie Epner is the Senior Director for Global Initiatives at the Climate Imperative Foundation. Most recently, Ms. Epner served on the White House National Security Council (NSC) staff, where she led the directorate responsible for coordinating the Biden Administration’s international climate and energy policy. Prior to that, she served as senior advisor to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and as the climate and energy lead on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff. Read Ms. Epner’s full bio here.
Richard G. Kidd IV retired in 2023 after over 31 years of combined Federal service, including Senior Executive Service assignments in three federal agencies and the White House. Mr. Kidd most recently served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Security. In this role, he provided strategic direction and programmatic oversight to the Department’s environmental stewardship and energy resilience efforts. Mr. Kidd has also been an international civil servant with over five years of work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme. Read Mr. Kidd’s full bio here.
Alan Leung is Senior Vice President for Threat Intelligence, Global Security at Macquarie Group, a global financial services group providing clients with asset management, retail and business banking, wealth management, leasing and asset financing, market access, commodity trading, renewables development, specialist advice, access to capital, and principal investment. He has over 15 years of industry experience in enterprise risk management, corporate security, emergency, and crisis response. Alan also authors a personal newsletter, Securing our Climate, which highlights stories at the intersection of climate change, security, politics, and finance. Read Mr. Leung’s full bio here.
CSR Announces New Staff, Internal Moves
Continued Capacity-building at CSR’s Core
Continuing a trajectory of rapid growth, the Council on Strategic Risks is pleased to announce a new round of hires across its programs and role changes for existing staff.
The Center for Climate and Security (CCS) added expertise across its portfolios, bringing on Tom Ellison, Patricia Parera, and Michael Zarfos to advance progress in addressing security threats posed by climate change, and to analyze growing ecological security risks. The Converging Risks Lab also welcomed Lily Boland as a new team member.
Ellison joins CCS as Deputy Director after a decade of informing policymakers on the security and foreign policy implications of climate change as a Senior Analyst for the US government. Increasing leadership capacity, Ellison will drive strategy and program development to accelerate progress on the Center’s work at the nexus of foreign policy and climate security.
Parera previously served as Associate Director for Partnerships and Global Initiatives at Virginia Tech where she also was a lecturer on sustainable development. At CCS, she will lead research at the intersection of climate change and food security as a Senior Fellow.
Dr. Zarfos will be tackling complex, converging risks caused by ecological change as an Ecological Security Research Fellow. He is also a postdoctoral researcher with the Dovciak Lab at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF), examining how human-induced environmental change impacts forest ecosystems.
CSR was also thrilled to bring on Lily Boland as a Strategic Foresight Fellow to develop security foresight tools and lead analysis of long-term consequences of nuclear weapons use for the Converging Risks Lab. Boland joins from the Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs and the War Studies Department at King’s College London where she studied intelligence and international security.
Internal Moves
Yong-Bee Lim, previously a Deputy Director and Fellow at the Nolan Center, has now transitioned to a new role as the Deputy Director of the Converging Risks Lab where he will address cross-cutting security issues.
Andrea Rezzonico, previously the Deputy Director at the Converging Risks Lab, is now the Program Lead, Ecological Security at the Center for Climate and Security.