Will Rogers

Adjunct Senior Fellow

Will Rogers is a national security and foreign policy professional with more than 15 years of experience in government and civil society specializing in the practice of climate and energy security.

From January 2022 to January 2025, Will served as the senior climate advisor to the Secretary of the Army, the first individual to ever hold the position where he served as the principal advisor on climate change risks and preparedness and energy resilience to the Department of the Army. In this role, Will also served as counselor to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations, Energy and Environment) and worked closely with the DoD and other Military Service senior climate advisors and coordinated with other federal agencies and the White House to ensure strong collaboration and alignment with U.S. climate and energy resilience goals.

Before joining the Department of the Army, Will was the deputy legislative director and national security advisor to U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) from 2013-2022 where he was responsible for helping manage day-to-day legislative operations and advising Senator Schatz on defense, foreign policy, and appropriations issues.

From 2009-2013, Will was a researcher at CNAS where he directed the center’s Natural Security program, exploring the intersection of energy, climate change and national security policy. From 2012-2013, Will was the Bacevich Fellow, a fellowship established in 2007 to honor the memory of 1LT Andrew J. Bacevich Jr., USA, of Walpole, Mass., who died from wounds suffered during combat patrol operations as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Prior to joining CNAS, Will worked with the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Previously, he worked in the office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.

Will has a MA in security studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and a BA in political science and international relations from the University of California San Diego, where he concentrated in U.S. national security and foreign policy. He also studied abroad at the University of Auckland, in Auckland, New Zealand, where he was a recipient of the 2007 Political Studies Senior Prize Scholarship.

Will is currently an adjunct professor in the Johns Hopkins University Global Security Studies program where he lectures on climate change and national security.

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