In this capacity Cheryl led the climate risk scenario development for the Australian Interdepartmental Secretaries’ Group on Climate Risk and she was also the Defence partner with the Australian National Resilience Taskforce’s, disaster vulnerability profiling project.
Cheryl previously led the Australian Department of Defence’s Global Change and Energy Sustainability Initiative and established the Office of the Defence Climate and Security Adviser. She was the lead author of the Defence Energy Integration Framework and for the Departments Submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Implications of Climate Change for Australia’s National Security. She has been instrumental in raising climate security and energy sustainability awareness across Australian Government agencies and in partnership with the Australian National University co-designed and co-developed Climate Security and Energy Literacy professional short courses for Australian Public Service and Australian Defence Force personnel.
Prior to her civilian career Cheryl served fifteen years with the Australian Army specialising in strategic intelligence, information operations and domestic security. Cheryl holds a BA (History and English) and MA (Hons) in History from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She also holds a Grad Dip in Applied Linguistics (Indonesian) from the ADF School of Languages and a Grad Dip in Management (Defence) from the University of Canberra. She is an Alumni of the Cambridge University Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Cheryl Durrant graduated from the Royal Military College Duntroon in 1991, where she was awarded the prize for Strategic Studies, Military History and Military Science and Technology.