DAVE FREEMAN: He is a member of the NWA Council, the Broadcast Standards and Ethics Subcommittee, and the Professional Development Committee. Since 1990, Dave has served as Broadcast Publicity Chair, Broadcast Seal Chair, Broadcast Committee Chair, a prior term on the Broadcast Standards and Ethics Subcommittee, a prior term on the Council, and on a web advisory committee. Dave began broadcasting in 1976, and has been Chief Meteorologist at KSNW TV in Wichita, KS, since 1993. He also serves as a Lecturer in atmospheric sciences at the University of Missouri. Dave holds a Certificate in Broadcast Meteorology from Mississippi State University, along with the Seals of Approval of both the NWA and AMS. He has presented at a number of conferences: NWA Annual Meetings, the National Severe Weather Workshop, the Southeast Severe Storms Symposium, the High Plains Conference, and AIRMASS in Wichita. Dave’s work has been recognized with a number of awards including being honored two times as NWA Broadcaster of the Year (1992, 2008), and receiving a special NWA 25th Anniversary Award recognizing contributions to the NWA Broadcast Seal program. Recently, Dave was honored with a NOAA/NWS Special Service Award for his leadership and collaboration with NWS personnel that resulted in a change in the national severe thunderstorm criteria.

BRUCE THOMAS: Bruce currently serves as the 2010/2011NWA Vice President and as a member of the NWA Executive Committee. He has served as a NWA councilor from 2007-2009 and has been actively working with the Membership and Marketing committee. He is a current member of the local Kansas City AMS/NWA joint chapter, having served as chapter President (2000) and VP/President (2005).
Professionally Bruce is Chief Meteorologist and National Spokesperson with Midland Radio Corporation in Kansas City, MO and has been in this position since 2004. Bruce was a Broadcast Meteorologist for KCTV CBS 5 in Kansas City from (1998- 2004) and with KCEN TV NBC 6 in Waco, Texas from (1990-1998). He started his broadcasting career in College Station, TX at KBTX TV CBS 3 from (1988-1990) while taking graduate classes in the School of Geosciences at Texas A&M University. Bruce earned a B.S. in Broadcast Meteorology from Metropolitan State College of Denver, Colorado (1984-1986) and attended Mississippi State University (1979-1983) studying Geosciences.

WENDY SCHREIBER-ABSHIRE: She is a Senior Project Manager in UCAR’s COMET Program in Boulder, CO where she leads efforts in the areas of satellite meteorology, hydrology, climate, tropical meteorology and space weather. She began her career at NCAR in 1983 where she participated in several field programs and research studies, including JAWS and microburst research, convection initiation investigations, and served as a radar meteorologist during GALE. She joined the COMET Program in 1990 as a staff meteorologist and contributed to training endeavors supporting the National Weather Service modernization. In 2003, after years spent developing training modules on a variety of topics, Wendy became the COMET Residence Course Coordinator which provided her the opportunity to interact with many atmospheric science professionals. Through the years Wendy has authored and co-authored over 50 scientific papers including journal articles and conference preprints. She earned a degree in Meteorology from Metropolitan State College of Denver (B.S. 1985) and a degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Wyoming (M.S. 1989). Wendy is a long-time member and recent past Councilor of the National Weather Association and a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. She is also a member of the American Geophysical Union and the Denver-Boulder Local AMS Chapter. Wendy served 4 years as chair of the AMS Board on Outreach and Pre-college Education where she led the creation of the AMS statement on the value of K-12 earth science education. She is currently a member of the AMS’s Membership Committee and the Planning Commission. In 2009 she was also appointed and continues to serve as an Ombudsperson for UCAR and is a member of the International Ombudsman Association.

SCOTT M. ROCHETTE, Ph. D.: He is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of the Earth Sciences at The College at Brockport, State University of New York. His teaching interests include Synoptic Meteorology, Mesoscale Meteorology, and Dynamic Meteorology. His research interests include heavy precipitation, jet streak interaction, and local/regional severe weather. Scott received his B.S. in meteorology in 1988 from Lyndon State College. From 1990 to 1992 he was an operational meteorologist with New England Weather Service in Hartford, CT. Working with the late Jim Moore, Scott earned his M.S.(R) and Ph.D. from Saint Louis University in 1994 and 1998, respectively. After a visiting professorship at St. Cloud State University, Scott accepted his current position at The College at Brockport in 1999. A proud NWA member since 1992, Scott has published articles in National Weather Digest and National Weather Association Electronic Journal of Operational Meteorology, and is a regular presenter at NWA Annual Meetings. His service to the NWA includes reviewing numerous manuscripts submitted for publication in National Weather Digest, as well as membership on the Weather Analysis and Forecasting Committee (1997-present) and the Broadcaster Seal Evaluation Board (2010-present). In addition, Scott served as technical editor of National Weather Digest (2003-2006) and as Councilor (2007-2009).

DIANE COOPER: She is the Chair of the new NWA Social Media Committee and for the past two years has been a member of the NWA Membership & Marketing Committee. As a member of the M&M committee, she is a part of the local chapter team. She has also been a liaison to Penn State to help establish the joint PSU NWA/AMS chapter in 2011 and most recently worked with PSU to beta test a special “semester kick off” student membership initiative. This initiative will be expanded to other student chapters in the future. Diane also provided suggestions to the NWA strategic team on the recent update to the NWA mission and vision statements. Finally, she has presented at several NWA conferences including the 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 conferences and was a session chair with the 2009 Conference in Norfolk. Diane is a member of the local NWA/AMS Twin Cities Chapter. Diane received her BS in Meteorology from Penn State University. Professionally, she has worked for the National Weather Service for 18 years. She began her career in 1993 at the NWS Weather Office in Pittsburgh, PA as a Student Trainee. Upon graduation in 1995, she became an intern at Wilmington, OH and then with the NWS final step in modernization, she became a General Forecaster at Wakefield, VA. In 2001, Diane shifted from the weather side of the house to hydrology, when she became a Hydrologist at the Arkansas-Red Basin River Forecast Center in Tulsa, OK. In 2006, she transferred to Southern Region Headquarters as the Hydrologic Services Program Manager. Her most recent move, in 2009, was to the Chanhassen, MN (Twin Cities) WFO as the Senior Service Hydrologist. Diane’s personal mission statement is to “Provide weather and hydrology information that people need to make solid decisions.” She believes this aligns well with the vision and mission statement of the NWA and that she would be a good fit for the position of NWA Secretary. She is excited for the future and potential of the NWA. She envisions that the NWA will be able to further its support the membership through emerging technologies, new focus areas and enhanced communication.

BARRETT SMITH: He is currently a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was previously a Meteorologist Intern and a participant in the Student Career Employment Program (SCEP) while completing his Master’s degree and thesis at NCSU. He is a member of the NWA IT Committee, served on the program committee during the 2009 NWA Annual Meeting and volunteer assistant with registrations, IT functions and was a volunteer assistant during the 2010 meeting as well. Locally, he has served as webmaster for the Central North Carolina Chapter of the AMS and president of the North Carolina State University Student Chapter of the AMS. While at the NWS, Barrett has earned numerous awards, including Regional Cline Awards for Meteorology in 2008 and 2011, and local recognition for leadership in the office science program. He constructed and continues to oversee his office's numerical modeling program to support of operations and research. As an undergraduate and graduate student at NCSU, he spent a summer abroad studying in Lima, Peru, launched weather balloons during the Terrain Induced Rotors Experiment (T-REX) in California, and taught Weather Measurements and Analysis. His most thrilling activity, however, was being a three year starter on the NCSU rugby team. Barrett recently married his college girlfriend, Shannon, and lives in Cary, NC. His vision for the NWA is growth and success. He hopes to be an active part as secretary and spokesman in this regard.

FAITH BORDEN: She is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Las Vegas, NV, and has been at the office since April of 2007. Prior to joining the Las Vegas office, Faith was stationed in Birmingham, AL, Miami, FL, and Albuquerque, NM. Previous to that she was a student trainee in Anchorage, Alaska, during her undergraduate studies. Faith is a graduate from Florida State University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Meteorology and a Masters Degree in Science Education. Previous to her NWS career, Faith taught middle school and high school science. Faith has been a member of NWA since college, serving as secretary from 2007-2011, and has served on the Education committee since 2003.

KENNETH CAREY: Ken is Chair of the NWA Professional Development Committee and a member of the NWA Ad Hoc Committee on Mentoring. From 2003-2008 Ken chaired and served as a member of the NWA Remote Sensing Committee. Ken is a Senior Principal Systems Engineer for Noblis, a nonprofit science, technology and strategy organization that helps clients solve complex systems, process and infrastructure challenges. He provides strategic planning, systems engineering and project management support for the NWS, NESDIS, and the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA). Ken works with federal clients to implement satellite research to operations plans and meet requirements for the next generation of environmental satellites, developed a science and technology roadmap and a national system for air quality products for the NWS; and is providing business planning, program management and leading technical outreach for the JCSDA, a NOAA, NASA and Department of Defense partnership. Working with a team of emergency managers, NOAA scientists and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Ken helped develop a prototype coastal flooding and inundation tool that is capable of aiding decisions to protecting critical infrastructure and the public. Ken is engaged in a research effort to build a regional climate model assessment capability, including evaluating high-resolution climate predictions for their utility to provide actionable, regional-scale, climate change impact information. Prior to his work at Noblis, Ken retired from the United States Air Force after serving nearly 21 years as an operational analyst, launch weather officer, commander, and training and software development director. Ken has earned M.S. degrees in Technology Management from George Mason University (Beta Gamma Sigma International Honor Society), and Meteorology and Minor in Oceanography from North Carolina State University (Dean’s List), completed a Basic Meteorology Certificate from Texas A&M University (Chi Epsilon Pi Honor Society), and graduated with a B.S. in Physical Sciences from the University of Maryland. Ken is also an adjunct faculty member for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), and chairs the AMS’s Membership Committee. Ken is especially proud to have helped, for the last nine years, develop the curricula for and hosted Weather Camps for high school teenagers, and has been a guest speaker and mentored students in meteorology, to include the Lyndon State NWA/AMS Student Chapter.

BILL MURRAY: He is a weather historian and President of The Weather Company, a private weather forecasting company based in Birmingham, Alabama.  The Weather Company provides meteorological support and forecasts for ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, as well as about eighteen radio stations around the country.  Bill is responsible for weekend forecast packages and blog content, and sells advertising on AlabamaWx.com, which he redesigned in 2010.  He is the Executive Producer for WeatherBrains, the netcast that is all about the weather, arranging all guests for the show each week and leading interviews.  He founded The Weather Source in 1991, a company that developed a one-page weather fax for hotels, which sold to Accu-Weather in 1996.  He was the weekend meteorologist for WBMG, Channel 42, the CBS affiliate in Birmingham from 1991 until 1996.  He also provided recorded and live weather forecasts for radio station WCEO while at TV-42.  From 2002-08, he was the author of the Weather Weekly Engagement Calendar, published by Accord Publishing.  He produces daily Twitter weather factoids @wxhistorian.  He is a member of the NWA Membership and Marketing Committee and will be heading membership retention efforts in 2012.  He served as the Logistics Chair for the 2011 NWA Annual Meeting in Birmingham, introducing several new ideas that will hopefully be features at future meetings.  Bill is a member of the Central Alabama NWA Chapter and a member of the AMS.  He is very active in tourism and the local community.  He is also the Founder and CEO of Integral Hospitality Solutions, a hotel management company that manages twenty-five hotels across the country.  He serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau, and is serving or has served on the Boards of the Chamber of Commerce, the Ronald McDonald House and the Arthritis Foundation.

JOHN OGREN: He is the Director of the National Weather Service Training Center in Kansas City, MO. He has most recently served the NWA as the 2011 NWA Student Conference Chair in Birmingham. John has been involved with the NWA student conference as a speaker since its inception four years ago. Prior to his position in training, John was the Deputy Regional Director for Central Region Headquarters, Meteorologist in Charge of the Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Indianapolis, National Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) Program Manager at NWS Headquarters, WCM and forecaster at WFO Wichita, KS, and began his career in Jackson, KY. He received his B.S. in meteorology and minor in Communications from Western Illinois University.

TIM ORAM: He is an assistant web master for the NWA public web page, a member of both the IT and Social Media committees, and a former member of the Aviation Meteorology committee. He has also chaired both the IT and Aviation Meteorology committees in the past. As an NWS employee, Tim is currently an Emergency Response Meteorologist at the Southern Region Operations Center in Fort Worth. He was a senior meteorologist at the NWS Spaceflight Meteorology Group supporting NASA’s space flight program from 2002-2011. Prior to his civil service employment, his work experience spanned both the private sector and the military. He was employed as a meteorologist by companies providing services to the Spaceflight Meteorology Group and NASA, and worked for an energy company providing weather forecasts and climate information to natural gas and electric power commodities traders. His US Air Force assignments included: Weather Flight Commander, Staff Meteorologist, Staff Weather Officer to a Joint Task Force, and Special Projects Weather Officer. Tim has an M.S. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Arizona, a B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and completed the Air Force Basic Meteorology Program at Texas A&M University.

PAUL SCHLATTER: He works at NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) in the Office of the Assistant Administrator, as an executive advisor to Dr. Jack Hayes, Assistant Administrator for Weather Services and Director of the NWS. In this position, he staffs the director on a wide range of policy issues and is involved with strategic and tactical discussions with the NWS Corporate Board. His one year post began in April of 2011, and in March of 2012 he will transition to NOAA’s Program Coordination Office (PCO). As the NWS’s PCO representative, he will be a liaison between NWS leadership and NOAA leadership, and will staff Dr. Jane Lubchenco (NOAA Administrator) and Dr. Kathryn Sullivan (NOAA Deputy Administrator) for events related to the NWS mission. Prior to working at NWS headquarters, Paul worked for 8 years at the NWS Warning Decision Training Branch (WDTB) in Norman, OK--the first three years were as a contract employee through the University of Oklahoma/CIMMS. While with WDTB, he designed and delivered a wide range of training modules for the NWS, focusing on high impact weather warnings. He was the project lead for the dual-polarization radar operations course and was instrumental to the success of the development and current deployment of the upgrade to the nation’s fleet of 159 radars. As subject matter expert in the NWS for the operational application of dual-polarization radar products, he has presented at countless conferences, workshops, and meetings, including the NWA annual meeting several years in a row. He has been an active member of the NWA since 2005. Paul graduated from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA with a BS in Engineering Physics, and received an MS in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.

JOHN FERREE: He is the NWS Severe Storms Services Leader, a member and former chair of the NWA Professional Development Committee, and has been an active member in the NWA for the past 15 years. He is co-chair of the NOAA/NSF sponsored Tornado Symposium in December 2011, and recently served as program chair for the AMS Warnings and Communications Conference. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, John has worked for NOAA’s National Weather Service for over thirty-three years. He worked as a forecaster in Arkansas, Nevada, Kansas and Missouri, prior to returning to Norman, OK in 1993 as an instructor for the Warning Decision Training Branch.  His areas of interest include severe storms, distance learning and radar meteorology. In recent years, he has focused on understanding the scientific, technological, and human aspects of decision making as it pertains to the issuance of severe weather warnings.

For the information of voters:

Previously Elected Members that will be on the NWA Council for 2012:

President: Elizabeth Quoetone, NOAA/NWS/WDTB, Norman, OK

Treasurer: Jeffrey P. Craven, NOAA/NWS Forecast Office SOO, Dousman, WI

Councilors:

For 2010 – 2012:
Jeffry Evans, NOAA/NWS Forecast Office WCM, Tallahassee, FL
David Freeman, Chief Meteorologist KSNW-TV, Wichita, KS
Steven Listemaa, NOAA/NWS Forecast Office, Sterling, VA
Dr. John R. Scala, Consultant and WGAL-TV Meteorologist, Lancaster, PA

For 2011 – 2013:
Frank Brody, NWS SMG, Houston, TX
Troy Kimmel, KEYE TV Austin TX
Dr. Chad Kauffman, California University of Pennsylvania, California PA
Nezette Rydell, NOAA NWS, Boulder, CO

Immediate Past-President: Dr. Patrick S. Market, University of Missouri at Columbia, Columbia, MO

Contact the NWA office at 919-845-1546 or exdir@nwas.org for any questions regarding the information on this page.

Contact the NWA office at 919-845-1546 or exdir@nwas.org for any questions regarding the information on this Web page or if you did not receive a ballot by late November.