Dr. Julia Nesheiwat is a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center and a recognized expert for energy, environment, climate change, and national security issues as a public servant, academic, former military officer, and US diplomat. Since December 2020, she has served as commissioner on the US Arctic Research Commission reporting to the White House and Congress on domestic and international Arctic issues.  

Nesheiwat brings unique experiences having served over twenty years in international energy diplomacy, critical infrastructure protection, climate, environmental science, and national security serving in the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden-Harris administrations. From July 2019 to February 2020, she served as Florida’s first chief resilience officer, launching a new office dedicated to addressing the environmental, physical, and economic impacts of climate change and emergency preparedness for the state.

From February 2020 to January 2021, Nesheiwat served as the deputy assistant to the president for Homeland Security & Resilience, and from 2011 to 2014, she served as deputy assistant secretary of state where she worked to build the first Energy Resources Bureau at the Department of State. Prior to holding those positions, she served as chief of staff to US Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy as well as the under secretary for energy, environment, and business. Her PhD dissertation from Tokyo Tech, “Post-Disaster Reconstruction in Energy Policy & Resiliency,” focused on post-disaster reconstruction of coastal towns suffering from lack of power, flooding, and rising sea levels. She served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council on low-carbon energy transformation as well as an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. Nesheiwat is a visiting professor at the Naval Post Graduate School on Energy Security and has lectured at Stanford University and the University of California San Diego.