Ploughshares Fund Announces First Roger Hale Fellow
Fellowship Honors Minnesota Business Leader, Continues His Work for Nuclear Security
Ploughshares Fund announced today that Blake Narendra will be the first Roger L. Hale Fellow, a prestigious new position created in honor of Minnesota businessman Roger L. Hale. The Fellowship is meant to bring a new voice and new ideas into the field of nuclear security.
“Ploughshares Fund is delighted to welcome Blake Narendra as our first Roger L. Hale Fellow,” said Philip Yun, executive director and chief operating officer of Ploughshares Fund. “We believe that Blake’s demonstrated scholarship, energy and political savvy will help bring new ideas to the entire peace and security community.”
Blake Narendra is a recent graduate of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where he focused his master’s degree coursework on arms control and nonproliferation studies and completed an internship in the office of Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller. Prior to his master’s degree, Narendra served during the New START ratification debate as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security Thomas D’Agostino. Narendra has also served as staff on two presidential campaigns, two congressional campaigns, two Capitol Hill internships and a term in White House Office of Presidential Personnel.
“The nuclear threat has changed over the years but still remains one of the most important in the world,” said Roger Hale. “I’m pleased that Blake and future Roger Hale Fellows will support efforts to rid the world of these terrible devices.”
The Roger L. Hale Fellowship was created in honor of leading Minnesota businessman and former chair of Ploughshares Fund’s board of directors Roger L Hale. The year-long, paid position is intended to provide an exemplary individual with an opportunity to develop professional skills by working at an institution that has been at the forefront of nuclear nonproliferation policy, advocacy and grantmaking for more than three decades. Ploughshares Fund’s extensive network within the nuclear nonproliferation community will place the Fellow into a unique position to gain practical day-to-day experience grappling with a wide variety of nuclear weapons policy issues.
The Roger L. Hale Fellowship was made possible through a generous lead gift from Ploughshares Fund’s founding chair of the board, Lewis H. Butler of San Francisco, CA and by gifts from current Ploughshares Fund board members and supporters