Commander Esther J. McClure
Commander Esther J. McClure is the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Energy and Climate Change Issue Team Lead, where she heads OSD’s Energy and Climate Change assessment for the ongoing 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR).
Previously, she led the Navy QDR Energy and Environmental Issue Team for Navy participation in Defense Planning Scenario development efforts. She played a leading role in Navy’s Task Force Energy from its inception and helped the Strategy working group design a three-month "alternative futures" planning effort. CDR McClure also incorporated strategic and operational energy issues into Navy's Title X wargame for the first time and coordinated participation by Office of Naval Intelligence, Pacific Fleet, Joint Forces Command and Deep Red to provide robust support for Global ‘09. In addition, she served as the QDR Environmental/Arctic issue team lead and led the Navy's first comprehensive assessment of the impacts of climate change with the Center for a New American Security and the C.N.A. Arctic study.
CDR McClure has previously served as the N812 Deputy Branch Head of OPNAV N81 Assessments Division, where she coordinated warfighting capability and programmatic assessments and led the 2008 Force Design Workshop, a five-day classified Navy workshop underpinning a comprehensive assessment of Navy's required future force structure capability and capacity.
As a Commanding Officer for the USS ARLEIGH BURKE (DDG-51), McClure was deployed in support of NATO Standing Naval Forces in the Mediterranean. As a Lead C4ISR Analyst at OPNAV N81 Assessments Division, McClure conceptualized and executed the nation's first comprehensive Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) assessment for the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review and conceived and executed the first Navy/Coast Guard study of C4ISR in the US littorals supported by detailed modeling. She also established an interagency team to assess sensors, architectures and CONOPS for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense.
CDR McClure has served as the: Executive Officer, USS PHILIPPINE SEA (CG 58) Operation ENDURING FREEDOM; Chief Engineer, USS HUE CITY (CG 66); Chief Engineer, USS THE SULLIVANS (DDG 68); Instructor, Surface Warfare Officer School, Newport, RI; and Navigator and Damage Control Assistant, USS ACADIA (AD 42)-Operation DESERT STORM, Operation EARNEST WILL. She graduated with a Master’s of Marine Affairs, Summa cum Laude, from the University of Rhode Island and a Bachelor’s of Journalism, Summa cum Laude, from the University of Texas at Austin.
