Sherri Goodman
July 15, 2025
Topic: Arctic Security in a Changing Environment
Sherri Goodman, Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program and Polar Institute, and Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security, is credited with educating a generation of US military and government officials about the nexus between energy, 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. Her new book, Threat Multiplier: Climate Change, the Military and Fight for Global Security was published in 2024.
A summa cum laude graduate of Amherst College, she earned a law degree from Harvard Law School and a masters in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Amherst College in 2018. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Environmental Peacebuilding Association in the Hague in 2024.