Homeland Security: Leading on Crisis Management and Reducing Risks
ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL has a track record of leadership in crisis and risk management. Having served in the highest echelons of power, advising two Presidents in the White House and serving as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, she has spearheaded vital initiatives to strengthen America's resilience against both known and emerging threats, foreign and domestic. With unparalleled experience in navigating complex, high-stakes situations, Sherwood-Randall characterizes the array of threats coming our way, from extreme weather events to potential future pandemics to terrorist attacks, and provides concrete, actionable advice on how we can effectively meet them.
Engaging and insightful, her presentations offer a deep dive into the evolving challenges facing our nation and the strategies required for robust, forward-thinking risk reduction and crisis management in the modern world. Sherwood-Randall’s unique expertise equips audiences with the mindset and tools that are necessary to prevent, prepare for, and respond to crises and ultimately foster a safer, more secure future.
Foreign Policy: Assessing Trends, Threats, & Opportunities
As a renowned national security, foreign affairs and defense expert who has spent four decades addressing the world’s most pressing global challenges, ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL provides a comprehensive look at the major trends and most significant threats facing the world today.
Sherwood-Randall draws on extensive insider experience, having served early in her career at the Pentagon as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, and most recently at the White House National Security Council where she spent four years in the West Wing as Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor. She brings her razor-sharp intellect to analyze a broad range of top global threats, including nuclear brinksmanship and proliferation, the global competition for advanced technology dominance, cybersecurity and biosecurity risks, fentanyl trafficking, and what’s at stake with Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, China, India, Mexico, and more. With an exceptional ability to break down even the most complex and daunting issues so that they can be understood by a wider audience, Sherwood-Randall describes how we can leverage U.S. strengths to make America stronger and more secure.
Women in Leadership
ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL began her career on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon as one of very few women in national security. She has often been the only woman in the room, ranging from the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room to the corporate management boards and councils at the Department of Energy that she chaired as its COO. In her most recent leadership role, her colleagues – both male and female – noted the significance of seeing a female lead and succeed in these male-dominated environments. In so doing, she has blazed the trail and inspired many younger women to tackle the toughest challenges. She can speak to the importance of recruiting and mentoring the next generation of leaders whose expectations for the workplace may be different, Sherwood-Randall describes what it means to be an effective female leader and and how organizations can foster growth opportunities for both women and men in order to achieve their goals and outperform their competitors.
STEM: Preparing Americans for the Jobs of Tomorrow
A trailblazer in male-dominated fields, ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL has driven technology innovation to strengthen U.S. national and homeland security throughout her career, at the White House, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy. Sherwood-Randall can speak to private sector and community leaders as well as STEM practitioners and aspiring scientists about the importance of a STEM education—especially when it comes to strengthening the workforce. For for-profit and not-for-profit leaders alike, Sherwood-Randall describes the benefits of STEM investments as a pathway to keeping their competitive edge, attracting top innovators, and recruiting and retaining the talent that will power their futures.
The Future of Energy: Opportunities and Risks
Drawing on her experience at the nexus of national security and energy security as the White House Homeland Security Advisor and, previously, as the Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Energy, ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL explains what lies ahead in the energy sector, highlighting both the immense opportunities that innovation and generating new technologies can present to American businesses and workers, as well as the challenges that come with our growing dependence on electrification and networked systems. Tracing the evolving definition of energy security, Sherwood-Randall shares frank analysis on what it takes to keep our electricity generation and distribution infrastructure safe, whether from cyber and physical attacks or the effects of severe weather and climate change.
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As one of the highest-ranking officials in the U.S government on national security, homeland security, and energy security, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall makes critical issues tangible for groups looking for insights on the changing international landscape and how it will affect Americans at home.
ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL shines a light on concrete actions that can be taken to strengthen American security and prosperity. Perhaps now more than ever, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall helps groups understand relations with international allies and adversaries, the global response to climate change and what can be done to manage its devastating effects, and the domestic landscape that is being shaped by competing visions of the American future.
Whether she's speaking on risk management in today’s high-threat global and homeland environment and helping groups understand the trends, threats, and opportunities; or the future of energy assessing the opportunities and risks; or STEM and how we can prepare Americans today for the jobs of tomorrow; or what it means to be a woman in top leadership positions, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall is brilliant and inspirational.
Watch Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall's opening keynote at the Ash Carter Exchange >>
PEOPLE Magazine Names Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall “The Most Powerful Woman You’ve Never Seen – Until Now”
In a recent exclusive interview with PEOPLE, ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL offers a rare glimpse into her high-stakes role behind the scenes in the West Wing of the White House as White House Homeland Security Advisor (2021-2025) and Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Energy (2014-2017).
U.S. National Security Advisor JAKE SULLIVAN reflected on her crucial skill in managing responsibilities with life-or-death consequences for everyday Americans: "She somehow manages to combine being very tough with being very empathetic and human. And that's frankly what you need for the span of issues that she deals with in her job."
With a keen focus on safeguarding national and homeland security, Sherwood-Randall oversees the country’s counterterrorism and crisis management strategies, making decisions that impact millions of Americans in the White House Situation Room. Balancing her intense professional responsibilities with her personal life as a mother, she shares the pressures of a role that often requires her to make split-second decisions under the weight of immense responsibility and risk. As a trusted advisor to President Biden, Sherwood-Randall’s 24/7 work—largely unseen by the public—shaped the Nation’s capacity to respond to security threats, both domestic and global.
Watch Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall in conversation with The Council on Foreign Relations >>
Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall served as White House Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor, Executive Office of the President from January 2021 to January 2025. In this capacity, she served as chief advisor to the U.S. President on security in the homeland and the safety of Americans overseas, overseeing multiple National Security Council Directorates and chairing homeland policy coordination across all relevant Departments and Agencies. She led Federal emergency and crisis management for domestic and international incidents including terrorist attacks, mass shootings, extreme weather events, natural disasters, Embassy evacuations, and critical infrastructure/supply chain disruptions. She also drove formulation and implementation of signature homeland security initiatives, including: countering international and domestic terrorism; strengthening preparedness and response for natural disasters; bolstering the resilience and security of critical infrastructure against all hazards; disrupting the synthetic opioid supply chain and building a global coalition to counter fentanyl; enhancing domestic screening, vetting, and watchlisting; developing a toolkit to counter drones in domestic airspace and increasing security of the international aviation system; intensifying domestic and international preparations for natural and weaponized biological threats; providing unique security support to domestic and international partners hosting major sporting events; and protecting the security and reliability of U.S. elections.
Prior to her work in national security, Sherwood Randall has served as a Distinguished Professor in the Nunn School of International Affairs, and Senior Fellow in the Strategic Energy Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology; a Senior Fellow at Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; a Strategic Advisor to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories; and a Strategic Advisor to Founders/CEOs of Energy Impact Partners at Arceo Analytics (now Resilience) and Dragos.
Sherwood-Randall was also previously the Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), from October 2014 to January 2017. In this capacity she was the Department’s chief operating officer, overseeing a budget of nearly $30 billion and a workforce of more than 113,000 people at the Department’s headquarters, National Laboratories, Power Marketing Administrations, and U.S. missions around the world. She provided strategic direction for DOE’s broad missions in nuclear deterrence and proliferation prevention, pioneering science and energy, environmental management, emergency response, and grid security. She also chaired all the major corporate management entities, including the Energy Systems Acquisition Advisory Board with oversight of all capital asset projects over $750 million in the largest civilian contracting agency in the Federal government; the Cyber Council that directed cybersecurity across the entire enterprise; the Credit Review Board for DOE’s $40 billion Loan Program; and the Emergency Incident Management Council. She also led strategic energy and economic dialogues with multiple foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Korea, Japan, China, and India, and she co-led a Presidential trade delegation to China that showcased American clean energy technologies.
While at DOE, Liz developed and implemented a new approach to fulfilling the agency’s growing responsibilities for national emergency response and grid resilience. She directed the expansion of collaboration with major U.S. utilities and power providers to generate technological solutions that deter, prevent, mitigate, and defend against emerging threats to the grid and expanded government-industry exercises to improve preparedness. An additional priority throughout her tenure was lifting up the work of career professionals and pursuing an enhanced diversity and inclusion effort to recruit and retain a workforce reflecting the full strengths of our Nation. She received the Exceptional Service Award from the Secretary of Energy at the conclusion of her tenure at DOE.
Sought-out for her incomparable experience working at the intersection of energy and national security, Liz was recently appointed a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center. Before her work at the DOE, Liz served as Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for Defense Policy, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Arms Control from 2013 to 2014. In this role, she was responsible for U.S. defense strategy, policy, and budget planning, including implementation of new nuclear employment guidance and prevention of military sexual assault. In this capacity, she oversaw the Nuclear Security Summit of 2014 and the unprecedented removal of 1300 tons of lethal chemical weapons from Syria. From 2009 to 2013, she was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs on the White House National Security Council, where she led the revitalization of America’s alliances and partnerships in Europe to advance the U.S. global agenda.
During the Clinton Administration Liz served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. In this role, she developed and implemented regional security policy toward all the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, including Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, and established defense and military relationships with each of these states. She was charged by the Secretary of Defense with persuading three countries – Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus – to give up their nuclear weapons, which she led the effort to successfully accomplish. She was instrumental in extending NATO’s Partnership for Peace program across Eurasia and in building the foundation for cooperation between Russia and NATO in the joint peacekeeping operation in Bosnia. For her work at the Pentagon, she was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal by then–Secretary of Defense William Perry and, more recently, the Nunn-Lugar Trailblazer Award by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.
Outside of government, Liz has also been an Adjunct Senior Fellow for Alliance Relations at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University, a founding principal of the Stanford-Harvard Preventive Defense Project, and a 2004 Carnegie Scholar. Her work focused on American national security challenges, including preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, defense leadership and management, and alliance politics. In 2007-08 she was a member of the Review Panel on Future Directions for Defense Threat Reduction Agency Missions and Capabilities to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction. Earlier in her career, Liz was co-founder and associate director of Harvard University’s Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project at the Kennedy School of Government. Immediately following graduate school, she became chief foreign affairs and defense policy adviser to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Liz is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group and the Council on Foreign Relations. She has served on the board of governors of the Commonwealth Club of California and on the Asia Society Policy Advisory Board.
Born and raised in California, Liz attended college at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude. She won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1981, and received her doctorate in International Relations at Balliol College, Oxford University. She is married to Dr. Jeffrey Randall, a neurosurgeon and the founding partner of Pacific Brain and Spine Medical Group, and they have two sons.
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