Policy

Supporting Stability and Humanitarian Affairs at the U.S. Department of Defense

As an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Annalise supports the office of Stability and Humanitarian Affairs. She focuses on stabilization, prevention of conflict, environmental security, and protection of cultural heritage. At DoD, she helped establish and now leads the Resource Competition, Environmental Security, and Stability (RECESS) team to inform DoD strategic thinking on these topics.

Annalise gave a 3 min 10×20 presentation for the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships Year-end Summit about RECESS. The group was also featured on the DoD website: Scientists, Policy Experts Assess Environment’s Impact on Stability, Defense Strategy.

Annalise co-leads the AAAS Policy Fellow Water Affinity Group, which brings together fellows from different U.S. Government agencies.

Supporting Policy & Global Affairs at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences

Annalise served as a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow in Policy & Global Affairs at the National Academy of Sciences in 2019. She prepared the Workshop in Brief: “The Convergence of Violent Extremism and Radiological Security.” As a fellow, Annalise also helped organize science diplomacy workshops, led development of grant applications, and designed materials on water, terrorism, and conflict.

Forecasting Rainfall and Streamflow for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam at Johns Hopkins University

As a Glenadore and Howard L. Pim Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Change at Johns Hopkins University, Annalise worked with a team (the ad hoc Blue Nile forecast group) to create forecasts to inform Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations and filling. Seasonal forecasts were published in the Climate Hazards Group Blog in 2018 and by Agrilinks in 2019 and 2020.

Annalise led publication of the work in Frontiers in Water and wrote about the policy implications for the New Security Beat.

Annalise was also interviewed about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on Resources For the Future’s Resources Radio: Getting Filled In on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Supporting Forecast-Informed Water Resources Management with the American Meteorological Society

As a visiting fellow at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Policy Program, Annalise co-led a workshop held at AAAS “Translating Advances in Forecasting to Inform Water Resources Management” bringing together water resource managers, forecasters, academics, and policy makers. The workshop concluded with a Hill briefing with Congressional staffers.

She also co-authored a number of policy publications related to her work at AMS:

• Blum, A G and Miller, A. (2019). Opportunities for Forecast-Informed Water Resources Management in the United States. Bulletin of American Meteorological Society.
• Miller, A, Blum, A G, and Higgins, P A T. (2018). Opportunities for Forecast-Informed Water Resources Management. An AMS Policy Program Study. The American Meteorological Society, Washington, D.C. 

• Higgins, P A T, Seid-Green, Y, Miller, A, and Blum, A G. (2018). Toward an Integrated Approach to Water. An AMS Policy Program Study. The American Meteorological Society, Washington, D.C.