Speaking

Natascha F. Saunders, Director of Fellowships (Interim) and Senior Fellow

March 7, 2015

Certified in Career Coaching by PARW/CC, Natascha earned a bachelor’s degree from UMASS Amherst, is an Executive Education Alumna of both Harvard Kennedy School in Leading Change, and MIT Sloan in Entrepreneurship, trained in Mediation from Harvard Law, trained in Scaling Up from Stanford Business School, an MBA graduate of Johnson & Wales, a Master’s in Leadership degree holder and currently a Doctoral Candidate (ABD) in Leadership from Northeastern University.

A National Priority in 2017: Safeguard the U.S. Electric Grid Against Electromagnetic Pulse & Coronal Mass Ejections

As the Trump Administration ushers in uncertain change, one of those changes must become certain if the Administration is serious about national security: a resilient U.S. electrical grid. Our continued failure to allocate the manageable expense of shoring up our grid against phasic-probability, high-impact destructive events is an unabating gamble with the survival of 350 million people and the progress of our predecessors. Some have defended the slow pace of proofing the U.S. electric grid, citing the low-probability of high-impact risks posed by Electromagnetic Pulse and/or solar Coronal Mass Ejection events. However, our nation’s resilience, defense, and security should not be left to luck. No one would step into an escape room with a 10% chance of death during the game, yet Lloyd’s of London assessed that there is a 12% chance per decade that North America will be impacted by a significant CME event. Furthermore, the insurance syndicate notes CME impact is “almost inevitable.”

Misguided Victory of Millennials

For thousands of years, victories of almost any kind have been hard-fought and often accompanied or brought about by great struggle and sacrifice, and often the loss of life. Yet, somehow over the course of 100 years, an expectation has been created that people can enjoy the fruits of victory without the labor required to produce it. This has led to a sense of entitlement and an aversion to anything that causes discomfort – even words and ideas.