Three nationally recognized experts have recently joined The Chicago Council on Global Affairs as senior fellows: Stephen Brick, an expert on energy and environmental policy; Jennifer Sims, an authority on national security and intelligence; and Roger Thurow, a former Wall Street Journal correspondent and coauthor of  Enough, the influential book on the global food crisis.

Mr. Brick, Dr. Sims, and Mr. Thurow join the Council’s two other senior fellows: former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Michael Moskow, who is vice chairman and senior fellow on the global economy; and former Chicago Tribune correspondent, Richard C. Longworth.

Stephen Brick joined The Chicago Council on Global Affairs as a senior fellow on energy and climate in September 2009. From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Brick was manager of the environment program for the Joyce Foundation in Chicago. He directed a $6 million per year grant portfolio focused on energy and water issues in the Great Lakes region.  His expertise includes utility regulatory policy, energy economics, energy technology assessment and air pollution control policy and economics.

As a senior fellow with the Council, Mr. Brick is working to continue outreach related to the Council’s June 2009 task force report, Embracing the Future: The Midwest and a New National Energy Policy, and develop follow-on projects.  He served as a member of the task force. He also authored “Climate and Energy – The Midwestern Stake,” a Global Midwest Policy Brief published by the Council in October 2009, as part of its Global Midwest Initiative. The brief outlines the Midwest’s vital role in the national energy and climate debate.

Prior to his work at the Joyce Foundation, Mr. Brick worked as associate director of research for the Energy Center of Wisconsin, where he was responsible for a wide range of studies on energy efficiency, renewable energy and on the environmental impacts of energy systems. His previous positions include director of environmental affairs for PGE National Energy Group, science and policy director for the Clean Air Task Force, and co-founder and vice president of the energy consulting firm MSB Energy Associates.

Jennifer Sims joined The Chicago Council on Global Affairs in December 2009 as a senior fellow on national intelligence. Dr. Sims is a widely recognized expert in the intelligence community and continues to serve as the director of intelligence studies and visiting professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Dr. Sims has published widely on intelligence reform, defense technology and arms control.  Her current research addresses intelligence support to counter-terrorism, counter proliferation, and homeland security. She is leading a Chicago Council roundtable series on intelligence, which is cosponsored by DePaul University.

Previously, Dr. Sims served as deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence coordination and later served as an intelligence advisor to the under secretary for management and coordinator for intelligence resources and planning at the U.S. Department of State. She also served as a professional staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and as a legislative assistant to Senator John Danforth on foreign and defense policy. In 1998, Dr. Sims was the recipient of the intelligence community's highest civilian award, the National Distinguished Service Medal.

Roger Thurow joined The Chicago Council on Global Affairs in January 2010 after three decades at the Wall Street Journal.  For 20 years, he was a foreign correspondent, based in Europe and Africa.  His coverage of global affairs spanned the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela, the end of apartheid, the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the humanitarian crises of the first decade of this century – along with 10 Olympic Games. 

In his role as senior fellow, Mr. Thurow will be the principal editor of and contributor to the Council’s Global Food for Thought blog, part of its Global Agricultural Development Initiative. The blog provides a forum for expert commentary, debate, and breaking developments on international agriculture, food, and related issues.  Mr. Thurow also will work on a range of other activities for the Global Agricultural Development Initiative.

In 2003, Mr. Thurow and Journal colleague, Scott Kilman, wrote a series of stories on famine in Africa that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting.  Their reporting on humanitarian and development issues was also honored by the United Nations. Thurow and Kilman are authors of the recent book ENOUGH: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty.  In 2009, they were awarded Action Against Hunger’s Humanitarian Award.