The Stanford Energy Seminar has been a mainstay of energy engagement at Stanford for nearly 20 years and is one of the flagship programs of the Precourt Institute for Energy. We aim to bring a wide variety of perspectives to the Stanford community – academics, entrepreneurs, utilities, non-profits, and more. 

About the talk

Climate change isn't just threatening our energy systems, it's already breaking them. Extreme weather and other climate hazards are straining generation, transmission, and supply infrastructure, triggering cascading failures across the grid. This talk reveals the scale of our growing vulnerabilities and explores how they collide with surging energy demand. And most importantly, it will discuss solutions that can protect our power in a warming world. 

Alice C. Hill is the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is an expert on the risks, consequences, and responses associated with climate change and the author of The Fight for Climate After COVID-19 and co-author of Building a Resilient Tomorrow. Hill’s work draws on a unique blend of experience spanning service in the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as her earlier career as a federal prosecutor and judge. As part of a distinguished legal career, Hill received one of the U.S. Department of Justice’s highest awards—the John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement. 

During the Obama administration, Hill served as special assistant to the President and senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council, where she led the development of policy addressing national security and climate change, including the first federal flood risk standard and national wildfire standard for federal buildings. Prior to joining the White House, Hill served as senior counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She developed the department’s first-ever climate adaptation plan and the internationally recognized anti-human trafficking initiative, the Blue Campaign. 

Prior to joining CFR, Hill was a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, where her work focused on catastrophic risk and our responses. Earlier in her career, Hill served as supervising judge on both the Superior and Municipal Courts in Los Angeles and as chief of the white-collar crime prosecution unit in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s office. 

Hill’s work is published widely in journals and newspapers, and she is a frequent commentator on TV, podcasts, and radio. In 2020, Yale University and the Op-Ed Project awarded her the Public Voices Fellowship on the Climate Crisis.  

Hill serves on the boards of Munich Re North America and the Environmental Defense Fund. She also serves on the advisory boards of the Center for Climate and Security, Climate Crisis Advisory Group, Insurance for Good, International Military Council on Climate and Security, One Concern, National Parks Conservation Association, Project CASA, and University of Washington Climate Risk Lab.

Alice is currently a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

Anyone with an interest in energy is welcome to join! You can enjoy seminars in the following ways:

• Attend live. The auditorium may change quarter by quarter, so check each seminar event to confirm the location. Explore the current quarter's schedule.
• Watch live in a browser livestream if available. Check each seminar event for its unique livestream URL.
• Watch recordings of past seminars 
  • Available on the Past Energy Seminars page and the Energy Seminars playlist of the Stanford Energy YouTube channel
• (For students) Take the seminar as a 1-unit class (CEE 301/ENERGY 301/MS&E 494)

If you'd like to join the Stanford Energy Seminar mailing list to hear about upcoming talks, sign up here.