Dr. Shira Efron is the RAND Coorporation’s Distinguished Israel Policy Chair. Concurrently, she also serves as a special climate change advisor to Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the co-chair of the subgroup on regional cooperation of President Herzog’s climate forum. Prior to that, she served as Israel Policy Forum’s Research Director and The Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation Senior Fellow. Dr. Efron has spent over 15 years in U.S. think tanks, including the RAND Corporation, where she founded and led the Israel program between 2016-2022, the Center for American Progress, and Middle East Institute, and the Tel Aviv based Institute for National Security Studies. She was previously a consultant with the U.N. country team in Jerusalem, where she focused on access and movement issues in Gaza. She has a PhD and MPhil in policy analysis from RAND’s Graduate School, an MA in international relations/international business from New York University, and a BSc in biology (major) and computer science (minor) from Tel Aviv University.