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Expert Bio
Alice Hill is the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her work at CFR focuses on the risks, consequences, and responses associated with climate change. Hill previously served as special assistant to President Barack Obama and senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff where she led the development of national policy to build resilience to catastrophic risks, including climate change and biological threats. Her coauthored book, Building a Resilient Tomorrow, was published in 2019. In 2020, Yale University and the Op-Ed Project awarded her the Public Voices Fellowship on the Climate Crisis. Hill’s book, The Fight for Climate After COVID-19, was published in September 2021.
In 2009, Hill served as Senior Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in which she led the formulation of DHS's first-ever climate adaptation plan and the development of strategic plans regarding catastrophic biological and chemical threats, including pandemics. While at the Department of Homeland Security, Hill founded and led the internationally recognized anti-human trafficking initiative, the Blue Campaign. Hill served as a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution from 2016 to 2019, during which time she was awarded the National Institute of Building Sciences’ President’s Award and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center Writing Fellowship. In 2016, Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative also named her Meta-Leader of the Year. Earlier in her career, Hill served as supervising judge on both the superior and municipal courts in Los Angeles and as chief of the white-collar crime prosecution unit in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s office. The Department of Justice awarded her its highest accolade, the John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement.
Hill earned her bachelor’s degree in history and economics with distinction from Stanford University and her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Axios, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, CNN, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Nature, and Lawfare, among others. Hill is also a contributing author to the book, Standing Up for a Sustainable World: Voices of Change, edited by Claude Henry, Johan Rockström, and Nicholas Stern.
Affiliations:
- California Insurance Commission, California insurance working group, chair
- Climate Crisis Advisory Group, member
- Crisis Response Journal, editorial advisory board member
- Environmental Defense Fund, board member
- Gateway House G20 Energy and Climate Finance Task Force, member
- Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, advisory council member
- Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change, advisory council member
- Munich Re America and related U.S. subsidiaries of the Munich Re Group, board member
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One Concern, advisory board member
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Red Cross Disaster Cycle Services Mission Adaptation Advisory Council, member
Current Projects
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Accelerating risks and damage from climate change are spurring private insurers in the United States to limit coverage in a growing number of areas, thus imposing mounting stress on local communities and straining the country’s overall economic health.
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The UN climate summit delivered on a loss and damage fund, but it fell short on goals to reduce emissions and avoid the worst consequences of climate change.
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Billion-dollar disasters such as Hurricane Ian are on the rise in the United States. Officials should take swift action to reduce the damage and protect Americans.
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The Inflation Reduction Act promises the largest investment in climate action in U.S. history—$370 billion—and could lead to significant emissions reductions over the next decade.
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The Supreme Court’s decision on the EPA also undermines Biden’s leadership in the global fight against climate change.
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Countries made notable commitments in the Glasgow Climate Pact, but they still fell short of the action needed to keep global warming within manageable levels.
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COVID-19 exposed the world’s failure to prepare for the worst—can we learn to build back better?
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