Alice Hill

Alice C. Hill is a recognized authority on climate resilience and adaptation policy in the United States, with experience spanning legal, judicial, and executive branch roles. Hill serves as the David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her work draws on service in the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as her earlier career as a federal prosecutor and judge.

Before focusing on climate policy, Hill built a legal career that included serving as chief of the major frauds division in California's central district of the U.S. Attorney's Office, where she supervised more than 30 prosecutors handling white-collar crime involving losses in the billions of dollars. She received the John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement from the U.S. Department of Justice. Hill later served as a supervising judge on the Los Angeles Municipal and Superior Courts before transitioning to federal public service. In her role at the Department of Homeland Security, she helped guide senior leadership, briefed Congress, and founded and led the anti-human trafficking initiative, Blue Campaign. Hill was an ex officio member of the Third National Climate Assessment and led the development of the department's first climate adaptation plan.

During the Obama administration, Hill was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Resilience Policy at the National Security Council. She led the development of policy regarding national security and climate change, integrated climate resilience into international development and federal initiatives, and developed national risk-management standards for natural hazards. Hill led the development of executive orders establishing a national flood standard for buildings and a national wildfire standard. She received the Meta-Leader of the Year award from Harvard University's National Preparedness Leadership Initiative.

Hill is an author and commentator on climate change and disaster risk management. Oxford University Press published her books, "The Fight for Climate After COVID-19" and "Building a Resilient Tomorrow." "Building a Resilient Tomorrow" addresses solutions to climate risks being deployed globally. Hill's writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Axios, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, The Bridge, The Hill, Lawfare, CNN, The Bulletin, and other media, and she has appeared as an expert commentator on NPR, CNN, and MSNBC. She was awarded the Public Voices Fellowship on the Climate Crisis, a collaboration between The OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Hill's work extends beyond academia and publishing. The Rockefeller Foundation has twice awarded her the Bellagio Center Residency Fellowship. She received the President's Award from the National Institute of Building Sciences. Hill chairs the California Department of Insurance Working Group, which makes recommendations to ensure the availability of private insurance in California, one of the world's largest insurance markets, in the face of growing climate risk. She is a member of the boards of directors and audit committees of the domestic subsidiaries of Munich Re Group, a board member of the Environmental Defense Fund, and a board member of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Hill's career demonstrates the impact of cross-sector expertise in addressing environmental challenges such as climate change, disaster preparedness, and risk management.