Recently, we were delighted to invite Will Rogers, the Senior Climate Advisor to the Secretary of the Army to the University of Georgia Campus in Athens, GA.

During his visit to campus, Rogers met with IRIS researchers and other senior members at the University, and gave a talk titled “Strengthening the Resilience of the Force.”

More about his talk:

In February 2022, the Army became the first military service to release a climate strategy that lays out a plan to strengthen the resilience of the force against the effects of climate change while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Army’s plan includes deploying carbon-free electricity, microgrids, and battery storage on its installations, and improving the conservation and stewardship of Army lands against climate hazards inside and outside of the installation. The Army followed-up that strategy in October 2022 with an implementation plan detailing the steps it will take over the next five years to put that strategy into action.

Will Rogers, the Army’s senior climate advisor, will highlight key aspects of the Army Climate Strategy and explain why the Army must work across government and with community partners to respond to the climate crisis. In doing so, he will emphasize that the effects of climate change are a critical part of the future operating environment and will fundamentally reshape how we think about security in the 21st century— from the way we train with allies and partners to how we assess fragile state vulnerabilities.

More about Will Rogers:

Will Rogers is the senior climate advisor to the Secretary of the Army where he serves as the principal advisor on climate action to the Department of the Army and supports the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installation, Energy Environment) with the implementation of the Army Climate Strategy. Will’s responsibilities also include coordinating with the DoD and Service senior climate advisors to ensure strong collaboration and alignment with DoD climate and sustainability goals.  

Before joining the Department of the Army, Will was the deputy legislative director and national security advisor to U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) from 2013-2022 where he was responsible for helping manage day-to-day legislative operations and advising the senator on defense, foreign policy, and appropriations issues. 

From 2009-2013, Will was a researcher at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a national security and defense policy think tank in Washington. He was most recently the Bacevich Fellow at CNAS, where he directed the center’s Natural Security program, exploring the intersection of energy, climate change and national security and defense policy. 

Prior to joining CNAS, Will was a researcher with the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Previously, he worked in the office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer. 

Will has a M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and a B.A. in Political Science-International Relations from the University of California, San Diego, where he concentrated in U.S. national security and foreign policy. He also studied abroad at the University of Auckland, in Auckland, New Zealand, where he was a recipient of the 2007 Political Studies Senior Prize Scholarship.  

Will is currently an adjunct professor in the Johns Hopkins University Global Security Studies program where he lectures on climate change and national security.