Sherri Goodman

Partner

Sherri Goodman is the author of Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership and the Fight for Global Security (Island Press 2024), the story of the US military’s experience on the front lines of a changing frontier for energy and climate resilience.

Sherri Goodman is Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security and Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program and Polar Institute. She is credited with educating a generation of U.S. military and government officials about the nexus between climate change and national security, using her famous coinage, "threat multiplier," to fundamentally reshape the national discourse on the topic.

A former first Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security) and staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Goodman has founded, led, or advised nearly a dozen research organizations on environmental and energy matters, national security, and public policy.

She serves as an independent director on corporate boards in the energy and technology sectors. She Chairs the Energy and Homeland Security External Advisory Board for Sandia National Labs and serves on the boards of the Atlantic Council and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where she served as Chair of the Advisory Board for the Council’s report on Governing Solar Geoengineering and on the Arctic Task Force.

She appears regularly on major news media and is an active public speaker. She holds degrees from Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, and Amherst College.