Dr. Rebecca Pincus is Director of the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. Previously, she was on the faculty at the US Naval War College, in the Center for Naval Warfare Studies, where her research focused on Arctic security and geopolitics. She also worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, as Arctic and Climate Strategy Advisor. In 2015, she was a Fulbright Fellow in Iceland, conducting research on Arctic small states and security. She also worked on polar strategy and policy issues for the US Coast Guard, at its Center for Arctic Study and Policy, and served on the faculty at the US Coast Guard Academy. She is currently a contributing author for the 5th National Climate Assessment. She has testified before Congress and the US-China Commission on security and defense in the polar regions, and her research has been published widely in peer-reviewed and popular outlets.

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 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. Sherri serves as Vice Chair of the Secretary of State's International Security Advisory Board and on the EXIM Bank's Council on Climate. 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.

Elizabeth Wishnick (moderator) is a Senior Research Scientist in the China and Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Division at the Center for Naval Analyses, on leave from her position as Professor of Political Science at Montclair State University. Since 2002, she has been a research scholar at WEAI. She previously taught undergraduate and graduate courses in international relations, Chinese politics, and Chinese foreign policy at Barnard College, Columbia College, and SIPA. Dr. Wishnick has dual regional expertise on China and Russia and is an expert on Chinese foreign policy, Sino- Russian relations, Northeast Asian and Central Asian security, and Arctic geopolitics. Her book project, China’s Risk China’s Risk: Energy, Water, Food and Regional Security (forthcoming Columbia University Press) addresses the security consequences of energy, water and food risks in China for its Eurasian neighbors, a topic she explores in a related policy blog, www.chinasresourcerisks.com. She received a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University, an MA in Russian and East European Studies from Yale University, and a BA from Barnard College. She speaks Mandarin, Russian, and French.