Advanced Weather and Society Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) Workshop
PARTICIPANTS
Organizing Committee:
Eve Gruntfest
Kristin Kuhlman
Kevin Manross
Kevin Scharfenberg
Greg Stumpf
Inventing and developing the WAS*IS movement have been the work I’ve enjoyed most in my long career.
I was a Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, CO from 1980 until 2007. My career is originally based on what we can learn from the Big Thompson Flood in Colorado. That catastrophic flash flood occurred in July 1976 and 144 people were killed. I have published widely and I am an internationally recognized expert in the specialty areas of warning system development and flash flooding. In 2008 we are wrapping up a five- year National Science Foundation project evaluating warnings for short fuse weather events, particularly tornadoes and flash floods.
As a social scientist giving many presentations to the world of engineers and physical scientists, often early career folks would tell me that they wanted to do work that integrated social science and meteorology but they didn’t know how and they didn’t know other folks who were doing that kind of work. WAS*IS recognizes the need to bring social science methods into meteorology and to develop cadre of physical scientists who understand the benefits and tools of social science.
Beginning in May 2008 I will be directing a new initiative that build on the WAS*IS movement. SSWIM stands for Social Science Woven into Meteorology. With the expert assistance of WAS*ISers Heather Lazrus, Kim Klockow and Gina Eosco we will integrate social science into the multi-faceted National Weather Center in Norman, OK. Our project is funded jointly by University of Oklahoma and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We are thrilled that so many meteorology students recognize the importance of including societal impacts in their work. Stay tuned for exciting news of our projects.
I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma and a research associate with the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) and the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma. For my dissertation, I am focused on storm electrification and lightning, specifically within thunderstorm anvils. I am presently trying to reproduce observed lightning in a cloud model using ensemble Kalman filter data assimilation of mobile radar data. I work within the Severe Weather Warning and Technology Transfer group at NSSL, which focuses on moving new research into operational use. Since joining the group earlier this spring, I have become very interested in how we can incorporate societal viewpoints in order to ultimately make better and more useful products at the end. I look forward to having this workshop be part of that.
For the past six plus years I have been working as a Research Meteorologist at the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) with the Severe Weather Warnings and Technology Transfer (SWAT) group at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL - phew). My focus has been the development and testing of radar applications and algorithms for severe weather warnings (and data quality). Recently, I have begun delving into Dual-Pol radar applications. I have enjoyed developing a hybrid of skills as a meteorologist and a computer programmer. Originally from NW Pennsylvania, the1985 tornado outbreak grabbed my attention and I have since followed that interest. I hold a B.A. in Mathematics from Edinboro Univ. of PA (1996), a B.S. in Meteorology from the Univ. of Oklahoma (2000) and a M.S. in Atmospheric Science from Texas Tech University (2002). I am very enthusiastic about my family, storm chasing, computers, hiking, and football (among other things). I am looking forward to collecting ideas and suggestions from this workshop and seeing how we might develop new tools for aiding the dissemination of severe weather information.
My name is Kevin Scharfenberg and I'm currently serving as the Severe Storms Services Coordinator for the National Weather Service. I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas where I was bitten by the weather bug at an early age when I had a close encounter with a tornado on Christmas Eve, 1982. I got my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to my current job, I worked with the Experimental Warning Program and Hazardous Weather Testbed as a University scientist at the National Severe Storms Lab. When I'm not working I love to travel, go hiking, take photos, or just relax around town with friends.
I received my B. S. in Meteorology at the State University of New York at Oswego, and then my M. S. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University . Currently, I am a University of Oklahoma meteorologist contracted to work for the National Weather Service (NWS) to research and develop innovative severe weather warning decision making technology including Doppler radar algorithms. I am stationed at the National Weather Center (NWC) in Norman, Oklahoma, and work with NSSL scientists to help transfer this new technology into NWS operations. Additionally, I held the position of the Operations Coordinator for the Experimental Warning Program (EWP) 2008 spring experiment at the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT). In the past, I served as an NSSL group manager responsible for warning application R&D. Throughout my 19 year career, I have had opportunities to participate in a number of special research projects, including several storm intercept programs (e.g., VORTEX), as well as real-time NWS warning decision proof-of-concept tests at about 12 forecast offices nationwide. I have traveled extensively in the United States for business and pleasure, and to the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Brazil, and Australia to lecture on warning and radar applications and theory. I also chase storms as a hobby in the Great Plains since 1987, and have witnessed uncountable severe storms and tornadoes. Throughout my work and hobby, I have been interested in finding ways to help improve the severe weather information delivered to our wide range of users from "end-to-end", from new and innovative severe weather applications and decision assistance as well as improved delivery methods and products.
Participants
- Dave Andra
- Quyen Arana
Kevin Barjenbruch
Patrick Burke
Greg Carbin
Renee Curry
Gina Eosco
Somer Erickson- John Ferree
Tanja Fransen
Barry Goldsmith
Amanda Graning
Tracy Hansen
Mark Hoekzema
Kirk Holub- Mike Hudson
Rebecca Jennings
Jeff Kimpel
Kim Klockow
Angelyn Kolodziej
Daphne LaDue- Jim LaDue
Brent MacAloney
Mike Magsig
Chris Maier
Dan Miller
Dale Morris
Christina Muller
Kodi Nemunaitis
Kiel Ortega
Karen Pennesi
Randy Peppler- Brenda Philips
Liz Quoetone
Isabelle Ruin- Sarah Ruth
Craig Schmidt
Andrea Schumacher- Travis Smith
Alan Stewart
Neil Stuart
Melissa Tuttle Carr
Donna Woudenberg
As a rural Nebraska native, Kevin developed an interest in weather early on, and has his recorded weather observations from the farm taken during his grade school years to prove it. He will tell you that the impact of weather on his family's livelihood clearly had much to do with his interest in weather.
A career in Meteorology was always in the works and upon graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a B.S. in Meteorology; he began his career at Weather Service Office Fort Wayne, Indiana in the spring of 1988. Following operational forecaster positions at Weather Forecast Offices Cleveland, then Northern Indiana, in 2004 he became the Warning Coordination Meteorologist for Weather Forecast Office Salt Lake City. This signaled a move from 16 years as an operational forecaster to a position where education and outreach were the focus. Serving as the primary customer service representative to the local community, including the Media and a diverse Emergency Management Community ranging from the Paiute Indiana Tribe to the Utah Department of Public Safety to snow safety officials at Mountain Resorts, Kevin's current focus is on improving public awareness, preparedness, and response to hazardous weather.
Kevin's previous research and publications were geared toward operational meteorology, but following participation in the Weather and Society * Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) workshop, the focus shifted. He is currently active in a State of Utah geospatial technology project aimed at providing enhanced warning displays, and ultimately improved understanding and response to warnings. He also co-leads the WAS*IS Partnership Initiative which targets improving communication and collaboration between the government and private sectors as well as enhancing products and services of the weather enterprise and increasing their visibility.
Hi. I'm a General Forecaster at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Norman, OK. I earned a Masters Degree in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma in 2002, having worked for several years as a research assistant with the National Severe Storms Laboratory. I then entered the NWS at a small office in Williston, ND, moving later to Goodland, KS, and then back to Norman by October 2005. Like many people here, I am a severe storms enthusiast; I am heavily involved in spotter training, and work to build ties with emergency managers. I also like to participate in operationally-oriented research, and provide feedback during testing of new technologies and concepts. Outside of the office, I am also President of the Central Oklahoma Chapters of the AMS and NWA, and I enjoy traveling, hiking, music, and astronomy.
I am the Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) at the NOAA/NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction, Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman. Before the WCM job came along, I kept busy as a severe weather forecaster, fire weather forecaster, and mesoscale meteorologist at the SPC since 1996. My career with the NWS began in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1993. Prior to that I worked in the private sector in New York and Vermont. I grew up in Vermont and earned a B.S. degree in Meteorology from Lyndon State College in 1985. I have also completed some graduate course work at the University of Oklahoma.
My participation in the annual scientific evaluations conducted at the SPC and the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) since 2000 has given me a better appreciation for the complexity of hazardous weather forecasting. Operationally relevant forecast problems of mutual interest to the NWS, SPC, and NSSL have been investigated through the collaborative interactions that take place between forecasters, academics, and researchers. Early SPC/NSSL Spring Programs have now evolved into the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT) located at the National Weather Center (NWC) in Norman. We have recently focused on the ability of high-resolution numerical models and ensemble systems to better predict severe storms. I am thrilled to be able to assist in applying testbed results to forecast operations and serve as a co-author on peer-reviewed manuscripts related to this research.
I am a member of the National Weather Association, American Meteorological Society, and Union of Concerned Scientists. I also serve as secretary to the board of the local Norman Area Land Conservancy. As SPC WCM, in addition to compiling daily, monthly, and annual tornado statistics for the nation, I write the annual tornado summary for Weatherwise Magazine and serve as chair of the planning committee for the National Severe Weather Workshop which takes place each March in Norman.
My interest in meteorology stems from growing up on a family farm in South Dakota. I then made the move to Oklahoma to follow my dream of studying meteorology. For my undergraduate degree, I majored in meteorology with honors (cum laude) at the University of Oklahoma with minors in math and hydrologic science. I spent six months of my B.S. degree studying at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. My Master's research at the University of Oklahoma is a continuation of research that began during a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. This research is a dual-Doppler radar study of a landfalling hurricane (Isabel) that came ashore in North Carolina in 2003. Two mobile radars, the Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research and Teaching Radars (SMART-Rs), were utilized to measure the three-dimensional wind. These radars collected data of the small-scale structures within hurricanes that can be used in models to improve flood forecasts.
I have also been involved in national and international field projects with these radars. I have worked on a couple of field projects involving the National Severe Storm Laboratory (NSSL) and will be involved in a large field program named VORTEX-2 in Summer 2009. In the summer of 2007, our radar group was involved in the NASA Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) project that was based in Costa Rica.
To combine my interests in radar meteorology and the social sciences, I will be teaching a radar workshop this summer (2008) to high school teachers in conjunction with EarthStorm of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. Attending WAS *IS will help me further understand my career interest in learning how to be an effective liaison between the scientific community and those outside of it. Outside of meteorology, I love to sing, play golf, read, travel, and spend time with my amazing family and friends.
I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio but decided to venture out a little and attend the University of Miami, Florida where I received both my undergraduate degrees in Atmospheric Science and Mathematics. I am currently finishing up my Masters work in Meteorology and will start an Interdisciplinary PhD in the Fall. My current research focus is on the cost of false alarms in tornado warnings. I hope to continue this work in the future as well as work on hazard response and communication as well as be more involved with emergency management. My passion for Meteorology and especially societal impacts began when I was young. Being just south of Xenia, Ohio AKA one of the "hotspots" of the April 3rd and 4th 1974 "Super Outbreak", I grew up hearing the stories and seeing the photos. Since then I have made it my goal to be a part of the societal impact movement in order to serve the community and to help save lives. In my spare time, I like to enjoy the outdoors, listen to music and volunteer in various types of activities such as outreach services, red cross and FEMA.
Born in Weiden, Germany, to an Air Force father, and a German mother, I was able to experience geographical diversity from an early age. And the love of traveling I had as a child continues to be one of my favorite things to do as an adult. My job at the National Weather Service in Glasgow, as the Warning Coordination Meteorologist, allows me to travel throughout Montana as well as other portions of the United States. My meteorological interests lie with extreme weather events, fire weather, and how to best get education and preparedness information to the public. I have been involved with the WAS*IS program since the original workshop in November 2005, and have made a concerted effort to get to know the other participants within the program, integrating their talents into my own programs. I am currently serving on the AMS Board of Societal Impacts, and have served on various teams within the NWS for outreach, program management and education. I have presented at the annual AMS meetings, the International Association of Emergency Management, and many regional conferences on disaster events, partnerships with emergency management, pre-disaster mitigation, and public response to warnings.
I am married to Mike Fransen and I have two boys, Andrew and Alex. When not busy with my kids' football, bowling and baseball activities, I like to read fiction thrillers and old west history. My husband and I also enjoy (most of the time!) home remodeling. Growing up a tomboy in the mountains of Colorado, I loved riding dirt bikes and four wheelers. But with no national forest in my back yard nowadays, I spend time with friends and family on Fort Peck Reservoir, fishing, swimming and tubing.
After two years of undergraduate coursework (and a modest GPA) at Penn State, I got my first big break: The National Weather Service was recruiting students to train at national headquarters. There were only three openings, but, as luck would have it, only two of us applied, and having met the minimum GPA and coursework prerequisites, we were in!
The rest, one might say, is history. I began my career in January, 1986, with the Techniques Development Laboratory of the Office of Systems Development, where I assisted the staff with statistical guidance equations based on numerical weather prediction models. Evaluating these equations, used by NWS forecasters as guidance, was equivalent to holding the golden key to the kingdom of modern, routine weather forecasting; by noting the tendencies and biases in tests, I was able to gain invaluable knowledge about the forecast process that I continue to use today! After graduation, I remained at National Headquarters, but was hired as a Verification Specialist with the Services Evaluation Branch. This career moved meshed with my previous experience, as I was tasked with evaluating and comparing the actual forecasts produced by humans and computers! In 1993, I became a general forecaster at the local office in Sterling, VA, where I was able to apply my weather knowledge with the tools I acquired as an equation developer and verification specialist. Issuing forecasts and warnings for weather ranging from hurricanes to heat waves, for up to 120 counties, including four states and the District of Columbia, was certainly a challenge, but I was up to the task. By the end of 1998, I was promoted to senior forecaster at the local office serving Florida 's Suncoast, where I continue today.
During my more than 21 years as a NWS meteorologist, I have never forgotten the lessons of one of my mentors, who always said that a good forecast should pass the public service test: If the public understood the message, and took appropriate action based on the message in a timely manner, your forecast was a success. Whether I'm forecasting, leading teams of my peers, or communicating with my staff or external partners, I never forget that my mission isn't complete when I hit the "send" button on a forecast or have the last word in a meeting. Rather, satisfaction comes from the response elicited, from a neighbor taking cover in a safe shelter when the tornado warning is received, or my colleagues working trouble-free with programs that I created or adjusted. I am coming to WAS*IS to meet with like-minded professionals to help those in the weather enterprise to pass the public service test with flying colors!
Amanda is currently a general forecaster at the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Duluth, MN. Her career in the NWS began in 2002 when she was selected for a cooperative-student meteorologist. For 2 years, Amanda worked at the NWS in Minneapolis, MN while attending St. Cloud State University. In May 2004 she received her B.S. Degree in Meteorology and moved to the NWS office in Duluth, MN. She has received multiple awards for her research including the Best in Session Award at the Academy of Science Winchell Undergraduate Symposium, the Denise M. McGuire Student Research Award, and the St. Cloud State University Undergraduate Research Award. She has presented her work at various functions in the weather community and enjoys sharing her love for meteorology with others, especially students.
I am currently a software engineer at NOAA, developing software for weather forecasters. I have worked on the Graphical Forecast Editor (GFE), a tool used throughout the National Weather Service to create a digital forecast from which we automatically generate graphical and text products. The GFE is also being used in Australia and Taiwan.
I have always worked extensively with weather forecasters when developing software tools for them, and found that the iterative approach of feedback and development leads to success. I am excited through the WAS*IS community to work with other stakeholders -- emergency managers, the private sector, and social scientists. This opens up a whole new world!
My current interest is in Earth Information Services to make NOAA data widely accessible and explorable by the publics, private sector, emergency managers, as well as scientists. Like Donna, after the WAS*IS workshop, I'm considering, changing my title to SoftwarE Engineer Integration Specialist (SEE-IS :)
In my spare time I love to travel, often visiting my grown children in Madison, WI (new grandchild there!) or Lake Tahoe, CA (my son is chef at a resort). The picture was taken at the entrance to Taroko Gorge in Taiwan.
Career experience: Worked at Bell Labs for 10 years doing research and development for business software, spent the next 8 years doing research in Artificial Intelligence with emphasis on Natural Language Understanding, have worked at NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) since 1997 working on software for the National Weather Service with emphasis on automatic text generation and user-extendable frameworks.
Education: B.A. Philosophy, M.S. Computer Science
Since I was a child, weather has been a fascination to me. I spent many mornings pouring over the weather page in the newspaper and posting the days forecast on the refrigerator before the rest of the family was out of bed. I had always known I was going to be a meteorologist. I went to the University of Maryland to study Meteorology and quickly began a quest to land a job working for my idol Bob Ryan at the local NBC station in Washington. When I was a junior I finally got the job at WRC-TV/NBC4. I worked through undergraduate school while obtaining my degree in Meteorology. I continued working full-time while I completed my graduated course work at Maryland as well.
From 1986-2000, I worked as a Meteorologist/Weather Producer producing weather graphics and forecasts for the on-air forecasters. In 1996 we became the first local TV station to debut a weather web site. It was called "WeatherNet4"and it quickly became the #1 TV weather web site in the country. This public/private partnership with NASA was used to promote space and science via the Internet and over the broadcast airwaves. From 1996 to 2000 I performed the duties of webmaster for this successful web site. From 1997-2000 I also performed on-air duties as a vacation fill-in meteorologist. In 2000, I moved to AWS (now WeatherBug) with whom NBC had been a client since the start of the company. I moved to become the technical product manager/meteorologist. I began by overseeing the debut of the new TV web offering WeatherNet Plus and also as a product manager for WeatherBug. As the company meteorologist I also oversaw the development of nearly every product developed by the company. In 2002 I became the Chief Meteorologist for WeatherBug and among my many duties I oversee the development and distribution of the weather content seen in the WeatherBug products. I lead a team of meteorologists that write editorial content and oversee the meteorology and content development for WeatherBug and all other products developed by the company. In the Spring of 2006 I lead a team to design and staff a multimedia studio which now handles all of the WeatherBug video and audio production for our web products. In the summer of 2006 I was made director of the yet to be formed Meteorological Operations Center at WeatherBug. Over the past year I have built the department staff to 15 meteorologists who perform a wide range of forecasting and content development tasks.
One of my highlights here at WeatherBug was heading up a team to chase hurricanes in the WeatherBug StormTracker. In 2001, we had the opportunity to experience the landfall of Hurricane Gordon that came ashore in the Big Bend area of Florida. I also spent two week in both 2004 and 2005 on a tornado chasing trip supplying images and content to our web products.
Since its creation in 2005 I have been a physical scientist at the NOAA/OAR Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Prior to ESRL, beginning in 1998, I served as a systems analyst at the Forecast System Laboratory before FSL was absorbed into ESRL. At both FSL and ESRL my primary responsibility has been the design, development, and operation of the Ground-Based GPS Meteorology project [http://gpsmet.noaa.gov]. I have also worked on the NOAA Wind Profiler program and more recently on the ESRL Model Probabilistic Post Processor (EMP3) [http://www.fsl.noaa.gov/emp3/] project.
Before moving to Boulder to join GPS-Met, I worked for 11 years at the Applied Research Laboratories of the University of Texas at Austin. While at ARL:UT I was engaged in research and software development in support of underwater acoustics environmental research and applications.
Education:
MS Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 1986.
BS Aerospace Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 1984.
When I am not arguing with computers, I try my best to go snow skiing, mountain biking, or hiking as much as my legs will allow and wife will let me get away with.
As a Hurricane Program Specialist, Rebecca supports a variety of projects to help State and local agencies prepare for hurricane hazards. These include providing tools and technical assistance to State and local agencies in developing hurricane evacuation plans, conducting assessments, and increasing public awareness through training and outreach programs. She is also a member of the Hurricane Liaison Team (HLT), which consists of FEMA, National Weather Service, State, and local emergency management officials deployed to the National Hurricane center to ensure the rapid exchange and communication of information prior to the landfall of a hurricane. The HLT works directly with National Hurricane Center forecasters to monitor storm tracks and coordinate the latest advisories to Federal, State, and local emergency management agencies.
Prior to joining FEMA in December 2007, Rebecca worked for The Weather Channel in the Global Forecast Center before becoming a member of the local programming team. As the team's emergency management liaison, she began working with emergency managers to provide information to local communities during land-falling hurricanes and other significant weather events. In addition, she was as a meteorology product manager for the Local on the 8s and Weatherscan.
Rebecca also has previous consulting experience with Sapient, participating in the launch of interactive projects for clients such as American Cancer Society, UPS, and Symbol Technologies.
Rebecca earned a Master of Science in Earth and Atmospheric Science from Georgia Tech and a Bachelor of Science in Communication from Ohio University, Athens, OH. She is an active member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and a Weather and Society Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) fellow.
Dr. James (Jeff) Kimpel has broad experience in leading organizations in the atmospheric and related sciences. He is interested in putting together alliances of institutions and people to tackle complex, multidisciplinary problems. Past efforts include contributions to the creation of the Oklahoma Weather Center, the OU / Fort Valley / Industry Consortium, and most recently, the Phased Array Radar Project. He designed an alternative graduate degree, the Master of Science in Professional Meteorology, to develop student expertise in the transfer of technology and high-quality service to clients. He has taught a graduate level course in private sector meteorology employing the case-study method.
Dr. Kimpel is the Past President of the American Meteorological Society and served on the National Academy of Sciences Board on Natural Disasters. Previously, he chaired the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the National Science Foundation's Advisory Committee for the Atmospheric Sciences, and the National Weather Service / National Centers for Environmental Prediction Advisory Panel. He is presently the Director of NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory.
I graduated from Purdue University (Boiler Up!) in May 2006 with degrees in Economics and Synoptic Meteorology. I began the research process in 2004 in an REU program at NSSL (National Severe Storms Lab), working on a study of economic impacts of tornadoes in Oklahoma (changes in consumption). I built on this work in a senior thesis in 2006, looking at changes in financial distress in OK and TX. That fall, I came to grad school at the University of Oklahoma to begin my thesis work looking at economic and social impacts of the Oklahoma Mesonet enterprise. I have also been involved in two side projects while at OU: working with Randy Peppler to do a case study on OU meteorologists (theoretically a 'weather salient' group) who traveled to AMS 2007 through an ice storm: gauging their perceived risks/information used to assess risk/actions taken... and a project with the political science department gauging what people believe about climate change based on their political affiliation: matching perceptions with the climate reality of their local area. I am coming to WAS*IS because the nature of the work I want to do is very cross-disciplinary (perhaps an obvious statement!), and I would love to be connected to a community of people who are mixing social sciences into meteorology. It can be a strange an unbounded thing, and finding more people with understanding/expertise in both areas will just be exciting. There's a world of interesting/fun work to be done, and I look forward to seeing what everyone is up to!
I graduated from the University of Oklahoma in May 2007 with a B.S. in meteorology and minors in math and hydrologic science. I am currently pursuing a Masters in meteorology and working for the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). I have worked with NSSL since I started as a student researcher for the Severe Hazards Analysis and Verification Experiment (SHAVE) in summer 2006, where we focused primarily on remotely building an accurate hail dataset for the entire United States. In 2007, as the SHAVE Operations Coordinator, I supervised the SHAVE students and analyzed radar data. My research is primarily using storm types to automatically determine the associated probabilistic hazard information for that storm. I have had the unique opportunity to be involved with the Experimental Warning Program (EWP) and to learn about the development of new warning techniques and products. As we consider these new products, it becomes a necessity to understand societal needs and behaviors and I am very enthusiastic about the integration of social science into meteorology. I am also very interested in public awareness of severe weather and this past year I was involved in starting an elementary school safety outreach program for the OU AMS student chapter. When I have free time, I also enjoy photography, music, playing the trumpet, traveling, and being with family and friends.
Many aspects of the competent practice of any discipline involve ways of thinking from outside that discipline. Such realization that many of the current questions and challenges meteorologists were pondering would require outside thinking provided a starting point for Ms. LaDue to transition her career to bring in to meteorology those disciplines involved in how adults make meaning and how adults learn. The first phase of her transition was to move from having been a researcher for 7 years to taking over leadership the National Weather Center Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NWC REU) program in 2001. Under her direction, the NWC REU program evolved to further enhance research skill-building aspects while also adding reflective components to help students make meaning of their experiences, particularly how those experiences inform their career aspirations. In 2003, the National Science Foundation awarded her a 2-Year Extension for Special Creativity to further explore how students' thinking on careers evolved through the program. At this point, Ms. LaDue's career transition is nearly done: She is beginning to apply social science research methods and disciplinary thinking to the practice of meteorology and she is completing her dissertation research on how meteorologists learn to forecast. More broadly, her dissertation is studying how an adult learns to take a body of knowledge and apply that knowledge in creative, non-linear ways to solve real-world problems.
I am a 1999 graduate of Lyndon State College (VT) with a B.S. in Meteorology. My first job out of college was at National Weather Service Headquarters as a programmer working on the verification of warnings for the Performance Branch. After 5 years on the job as a contractor, I accepted a government position within the Performance Branch as a meteorologist. Now instead of working on the programming end of verification, I am involved with the planning, specifications, and training processes. My area of expertise is still with the verification of NWS warnings, but I also oversee the national process of logging severe and unusual weather events process.
In attending WAS*IS, my goal is to learn more about the societal impacts of weather. Ultimately I would like to see if there are any ways in which the NWS can start measuring performance and public impact instead of just your standard verification scores.
After growing up in a small college town in western Illinois during the active severe and weather seasons of the 1970s, I was hooked on severe and winter weather, music, and science at an early age. What better place for me than the University of Oklahoma? Norman, OK happens to be my occupational Nirvana, and I deeply appreciate my wonderful wife, May Yuan, and my two wonderful kids, Audrey and Evan, for supporting me in my career ambitions to significantly further the understanding, prediction, and warning for high impact weather. Outside of work I love spending time with my wife and kids, storm chasing, and tinkering with new technologies. I have stayed happy in Norman for nine years after my B.S. and M.S. in meteorology from OU. I am the Senior WDTB CIMMS Research Associate working though OU for the Warning Decision Training Branch, where I enjoy deeply rooting myself in warning decision making training and as much applied research as I can fit in after the kids go to sleep at night! I am the task lead for NOAA's NWS Weather Event Simulator, and I have spent much of my career developing simulation capabilities and simulation training with the WDTB among other things. I hope to contribute to the next generation of high impact weather research, products, and services with activities at the National Weather Center such as the Hazardous Weather Testbed and extensions of WAS*IS such as the expertise and NWS users/partners workshop we will be discussing this week for the upcoming Fall. Although I am a critical thinker, I like people and collaboration. I look forward to meeting everyone this week and developing some practical approaches to collaboration.
I serve in NOAA National Weather Service's (NWS) Headquarters as our National Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM), and our StormReady and TsunamiReady Program Manager. Donna Franklin, our fantastic WCM Program Coordinator, and I, strive to do our best to provide support to all 130 of our Regional and Field WCMs. They are our organization's leads for education and outreach, as well as customer service. Here at NWS Headquarters we do work directly with our customers and partners at the national level. That mainly involves coordinating NOAA NWS services, national programs, and new initiatives.
A 1987 graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Meteorology, I began my NWS career shortly thereafter as an intern in Kalispell, MT. I then spent eight years in our Salt Lake City, UT Forecast Office, primarily supporting our land management agencies as Utah 's Fire Weather Program Manager. My next stop prior to last year's move to NWS Headquarters was to our Juneau, AK Forecast Office. I served there for four years as the WCM and learned a great deal about our marine customers and tsunami science. My most meaningful career experiences took place in the decade that I served as an Incident Meteorologist (IMET). NWS IMETs support Incident Management Teams with on-site forecast and warning services pertinent to their operations. Everything from wildfires to oil spills, working as an IMET is one of the most challenging, yet most rewarding positions in our organization.
By attending WAS*IS, I want to become more capable of leading the integration of social science into the global 'hazards' enterprise. I hope to learn viable socio-economic methods and infuse them into our current NWS paradigm. I want to be able to better facilitate among the various folks that have a passion for, and contribute to the hazards enterprise. Call me crazy but I simply believe we need to partner together more effectively on implementation strategies for community resilience to natural hazards to become more viable in the U.S.
Dan Miller is currently the Science and Operations Officer at the National Weather Service forecast office in Duluth MN. Dan is originally from Owatonna MN, and earned a B.S. degree in meteorology from Iowa State University in 1992. Since beginning a career with the National Weather Service in 1993, he has worked at NWS offices in Limon CO, Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN, Norman OK, and his current location at Duluth MN. Dan's primary areas of interest and expertise include severe convective storms (tornado environments and extreme non-tornadic windstorms), meso-scale winter weather, weather radar, and effective/timely communication of weather information and services to the user community to motivate appropriate response. Dan has participated extensively in NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed activities, and has also participated on several national NWS teams working toward the operational deployment of the polarimetric upgrade to the current WSR-88D radar network.
I am the manager of emerging outreach programs at the Oklahoma Climatological Survey at the University of Oklahoma. A native Okie, I helped conceive and develop the OK-FIRST program which supports Oklahoma's emergency management, fire, and law enforcement communities with a weather-based decision support system and an associated instructional curriculum. Recently, I completed an 18-month assignment with the National Weather Service's Warning Decision Training Branch to assist with the development, implementation, and delivery of their Advanced Warning Operations Course, which delivered content to over 2,100 NWS forecasters, managers, and support staff. I also developed additional distance learning modules for NOAA entitled "NOAA's Business Model" and "Team NOAA: Putting the Pieces Together". I received both bachelor's and master's degrees in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. I also am a member of the planning committee for the National Severe Weather Workshop. In other activities, I enjoy playing the piano, and I am active in my church, serving as music director and a teacher of adult men.
As the Emergency Management Director for Outagamie County I am tasked with coordinating effective mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts relating to natural and technological disasters. To accomplish this I coordinate with many state, regional and local agencies such as law enforcement, fire, EMS, National Weather Service, public works, public health, coroner, schools and elected officials. Yearly our county focuses on planning, training, and exercising for the hazards affecting our area. For public outreach I work ongoing with local media and events to encourage citizens emergency preparedness. Also I represent East Central Wisconsin on the Wisconsin Emergency Management Association Board. My education background is a B.A. in history and M.S. in geography. My research interests are emergency management, natural disasters, weather, and China. I am looking forward to this opportunity and seeing old friends and making new ones in Norman!
I am a Graduate Research Assistant for the Oklahoma Climatological Survey at the University of Oklahoma (OU), where I am studying the surface energy balance in urban and rural environments. After serving as a Teaching Assistant for introductory meteorology courses, I received my MS in Meteorology at OU in December 2003. Prior to moving to Oklahoma, I received my BS in Meteorology/Climatology at the University of Nebraska in 2001.
While my background is primarily in meteorology, my interests in policy and societal impacts have grown significantly since attending the AMS Summer Policy Colloquium. Since then, I have visited the offices of legislators at the Oklahoma State Capitol on behalf of the Oklahoma Mesonet and organized a brown bag lunch series with OU’s Department of Political Science to integrate meteorology, political science, and social science. I hope that WAS*IS will help me establish relationships with social scientists and integrate social science into my research in ways that benefit society.
I received both my B.S. and M.S. in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. I currently work with the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies and National Severe Storms Lab as research associate; I began my career with the same group in which I currently work, as a undergraduate research assistant in 2004. I became interested in the weather at a very young age since I grew up in Wichita, KS. My weather interests were only furthered from being the son of a pilot and getting my pilot's license in high school. Since 2006 I have been primarily involved with the Severe Hazards Analysis and Verification Experiment (SHAVE) trying to verify hail, wind and flash flooding from thunderstorms throughout the CONUS. SHAVE has also allowed me to survey about 20 tornadoes, in the past year and a half, around Oklahoma. My primary research interests lie in severe storm algorithm development and testing, severe storm verification and severe weather warning theory and technology. While I go for jack-of-all-trades in my hobbies, my three primary hobbies are storm chasing, my two dogs and cooking. I looking forward to the workshop and learning from others, as my primary involvement in the Experimental Warning Program has been on the software development side.
I am an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. I originally participated in the Summer 2006 WAS*IS workshop. The focus of my research is the mediating function of language in human relationships with nature. Currently, I am investigating the role weather and climate forecasts play in different sociocultural contexts including rural communities of Northeast Brazil, and Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic territory of Nunavut. I am interested in the struggle between science and indigenous knowledge for control over meaning that is crucial in establishing an authoritative position as 'weather expert' I integrate theoretical dimensions of linguistic and ecological anthropology in analyses of how weather-related communicative practices are tied to particular historical, social, and environmental contexts. An ethnographic and discourse-based perspective gets to the heart of communication issues emerging in these domains where science, cultural knowledge and subjective experience intersect. In my Brazilian research, I try to understand the criticisms aimed at meteorologists and at "rain prophets" (older farmers who use traditional environmental knowledge to make predictions). I have found that each group has different objectives and different ways of communicating environmental knowledge. It is not simply a question of whose predictions are correct because both meteorologists and rain prophets can legitimately claim to be right when evaluated on their own terms. Another aspect of this research involves developing a database of indigenous weather prediction indicators in order to facilitate cross-cultural comparisons of how ecological knowledge systems take variation and change into account, and how this is encoded in language. Generally, I am interested in how weather knowledge is produced, interpreted and evaluated differently by different social groups. The role of media in communicating forecasts and in forming public opinion of the forecasters is a topic I would like to explore further in this workshop.
I am the Associate Director for CIMMS, a position I have held since 1995. Previous to that, I was a research meteorologist at the Illinois State Water Survey. I have B.S. and M.S. degrees in Atmospheric Science from Purdue University and a M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am also a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at the University of Oklahoma. During my years in meteorology and now geography I have become increasingly interested in the interface between weather and society. I am particularly interested in "traditional" or "local" ways that people know or understand weather and the seasonal changes of climate and how these ways are used in livelihood strategies such as farming, and how they perhaps inform efforts toward agro-biodiversity and water conservation.
I grew up in southwest Oklahoma watching squall lines approach with my meteorologist-brother from our roof-top vantage point...too ignorant to worry about lightning back then. I got my degree from OU and began working for the National Weather Service in Tulsa while still in school. I was a forecaster at the NWS office in Oklahoma City/Norman for 10 years doing the greatest job with the worst hours in the NWS. The last year of this was highlighted by the Operational Test and Evaluation of the brand new WSR-88D (NEXRAD) radar during the Spring of 1989. Shortly after, I was hired as an instructor for the newly developed Operations Training Facility in Norman, whose mission it was to teach the new radar operations to over 2500 NWS forecasters. In 2000, my organization morphed into the Warning Decision Training Branch and the mission expanded its focus to that of helping foster better decision making in the short-fused warning environment of NWS forecasters. This includes all aspects of the science, technology, and human factors contributions to this effort. I am currently Commissioner of Committees for the National Weather Association. I have been a Camp Fire leader for over 10 years. I go to the ocean every chance I get and to a local monastery twice a year.
I grew up in the French Alps that is probably why I became very interested in geology and natural hazards. My background led me to graduate in applied geology (MSc). Though I love stones and geomorphology and the story they may tell, 4 years of working experience in environmental education also gave me the itch to better understand the complex relationship between society and environment. To combine both aspects I choose geography for my PhD research. I graduated from Grenoble University (France) in 2007. As a Post-doc my research focuses on human vulnerability to flash flood specifically looking at how people and mostly motorists react to warnings and behave in heavy rains and flash flood conditions. The originality of my research besides relying on both qualitative and quantitative methods is to use time and space scales to integrate physical and social data. This type of work requires a strong interdisciplinary partnership that I particularly appreciate.
I have spent 20 years in the National Weather Service, working my way across the west as an operational meteorologist in Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Oregon before settling in as a regional program manager for the NWS Western Region in Salt Lake City UT. My educational background includes a B.S. from the University of Missouri in Atmospheric Science, and some graduate work in Meteorology at the University of Utah during my intern days. I have also enjoyed numerous leadership and customer service courses both in and out of the NWS; I am a graduate of Western Region's Leadership and Innovation for Tomorrow program, will be returning as a facilitator for a new class this fall.
My most rewarding professional experience was being part of the weather forecast team for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Our team of 15 meteorologists from the NWS, Canada, and Australia used experimental technology to create detailed weather information for dozens of event venues, while providing information to security interests and international media. We took great pride in knowing that no event suffered a weather delay or major health issue, even though we had plenty of thunderstorm and extreme heat activity during the Games.
I am currently working on a number of projects aimed at improving the service provided by our organization, especially for high-impact events, and look forward to bouncing ideas off the WAS*IS group. I am especially interested in finding better ways to provide services to our partners and customers, and to find effective methods to measure the impact of those services.
I am currently a Research Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) in Fort Collins, CO specializing in tropical cyclone formation. I earned an M.S. in Atmospheric Science in May 2004, and my graduate research focused on idealized modeling of tropical cyclone genesis. After spending 2 years pursuing a career in small business ownership, I decided to return to my true passion of hurricane research.
I have been working at CIRA since July 2007 under the direction of Dr. Mark DeMaria. My current project entails extending a tropical cyclone formation probability product originally developed for the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basin to the Central and Western Pacific basins. This product will provide real-time, objective guidance to forecasters who are responsible for predicting tropical cyclone formation in those regions.
I was drawn to hurricane research because it gives me the opportunity to use my scientific background to solve problems and help people. Although the science I do is interesting in itself, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of why my work is so important. Professionally, I am attending the WAS*IS workshop because it is crucial for scientists like me to understand the potential societal impacts our work has so that we can better prioritize our projects and appropriately tailor them to the end user. Personally, I am attending WAS*IS to build a better foundation for why I do what I do and to connect with others who share in my desire to bridge the gap between weather research and societal needs.
I am a University of Oklahoma research meteorologist based at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma. I lead the Severe Weather Warning Applications and Technology Transfer (SWAT) group, which works closely with both researchers and operational meteorologists across the United States to develop severe storm analysis tools that assist forecasters in the warning decision-making process. As I grew up in Oklahoma, I was always fascinated by severe weather, and hold both B.S. and M.S. degrees in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. When I'm not working I enjoy spending lots of time with my wife Melodie and our three young daughters.
I am an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Human Development at The University of Georgia. I have been interested in weather and its effects upon people since I was about 10 years old. Growing up in North Carolina, I became interested in learning how to predict weather so that I might know when we might have snow and, consequently, enjoy a weather holiday from school. Now, I guess the desire to miss school is sort of funny since I have ended up working in the University. I also observed how I and others seemed to feel differently depending upon the prevailing weather conditions. Weather observation and recording has always been a hobby-I really enjoy working on and restoring older weather equipment (I have a de-commissioned 8" rain gage that has USWB engraved on the side!). Although I did not initially choose to have a career path in atmospheric sciences, I am now pursuing a certificate in this field through the University of Georgia. I also am expanding my research program in psychology to embrace topics in meteorology and climatology. To this end, I have developed a measure of weather salience (i. e., the extent to which people find weather and climate important to them) and a language-based measure that can be used to characterize the dimensions of people's climate experiences. I also am peoples' understanding of hurricane warnings. In addition to weather, my hobbies include cooking, photography, and tinkering with older cars.
I am married and have 2 sons. I am a native of New England, and received my undergraduate degree from S.U.N.Y. Albany in Albany, NY. After living in North Carolina (Intern - NWS Wilmington, NC) and Virginia (Forecaster and Senior Forecaster - NWS Wakefield, VA) my family and I moved back the northeast in the spring of 2006, where I was transferred as a Senior Forecaster to the NWS in Albany, NY. It is nice to be back at my old alma mater, forecasting the complex northeast U.S. weather, and doing collaborative research with S.U.N.Y. Albany.
My wife and I are involved in our sons' Boy Scouts and various sports, depending on the season. I enjoy running and participate in charity 5K and 10K runs. I appreciate nature and like taking hikes with my family on nature trails wherever we are on vacation. I like being back in upstate NY surrounded by the Catskills, Adirondacks, Lake George, Saratoga and all the beautiful scenery.
Melissa Tuttle Carr joined The Weather Channel (TWC) in Atlanta, GA in 1997 after graduating with a bachelor's degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After working as a Forecaster, Local Product Developer, and an On-Camera Meteorology Apprentice, Melissa is now TWC's Manager of Weather Information Distribution. In this role, she manages cross-departmental projects, writes technical requirements and user guides, and provides customer support for both internal and external customers of TWC distribution systems. She also investigates new data sources while managing numerous existing data sets, and serves as the liaison to the National Weather Service (NWS). As a Summer 2006 Weather and Society - Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) participant, Melissa is extremely interested in the weather and society interface, especially regarding the development of highly functional relationships across different weather-related disciplines and sectors and the effective communication of weather information to consumers. To foster and promote these interests, she leads the WAS*IS Partnership Initiative and participates on the NWS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) work team. Melissa is a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and serves on the AMS Board on Societal Impacts and the review team for the AMS Statement on Community Priorities. In her spare time, Melissa plays for the Atlanta Lady Thrashers Ice Hockey team and serves on their Board of Directors. She also enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, backpacking, and mountain biking.
I received my PhD in Natural Resources with a specialization in Human Dimensions in December 2006. I was hired as a Drought Management Specialist by the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) in January 2007 and continue to work there today. (The NDMC is housed within the School of Natural Resources on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.) I have a strong interest in meteorology and climatology, a strong interest in sociology, psychology, and anthropology (particularly as related to women, children and minorities), and a strong interest in interdisciplinary research - which is why the Human Dimensions specialization appealed to me. I am currently assisting in social, economic and environmental drought impact-related NDMC research at local, state, national and international levels. I co-teach a new course of my design, "Gender and Cultural Perspectives on the Environment," for the School of Natural Resources and will co-teach "Women, Gender & Science" for UNL's Women's and Gender Studies program. I am also interested in public education and outreach, and am involved in the development of K-12 educational publications and outreach projects related to Nebraska's water resources and related to climate, climate variability and climate change.
I am married to Maury (nicknamed Woody). We have three daughters (Christine, Amy & Annie) and four grandchildren (Cecily & Aidan belong to Christine; Isabella & Ilianna belong to Amy). We also have a male tabby cat named Nimbus who keeps us entertained and on our toes. I love spending time with my family and friends, gardening, reading, cooking/baking, and traveling.
