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NOAA
HIGHLIGHTS CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN EMPLOYEES DURING BLACK
HISTORY MONTH |
| The
following is a list of some of the African-American employees at NOAA
who make valuable contributions to the government and their communities
every day. |
 John
E. Jones Jr., Deputy Director, NOAA National Weather
Service — Fresh out of St. Augustine's College in Raleigh,
N.C., Jones started his weather career as a meteorological intern
in the NWS Raleigh Forecast Office. More than 30 years later,
as deputy director, he is the agency's second-highest ranking
official and the first African-American to hold that position.
Jones, appointed deputy director in 1998, was a key figure in
the effort to modernize the agency's operations and services.
"Having a job where you're overseeing the improvement in
the systems that forecast weather and help save lives can be
quite a challenge," Jones says. "But the more lives
we help save brings us the greatest rewards." In his role,
Jones also assists the NWS director with managing 122 forecast
offices across the country. Before assuming the deputy director
position, Jones was deputy director of the NWS Eastern Region
Headquarters in Bohemia, N.Y. Earlier, he had been a lead forecaster
in the NWS Pittsburgh Forecast Office and deputy meteorologist-in-charge
in the forecast office in his native Philadelphia. While in
Philadelphia, Jones once worked 26 consecutive hours forecasting
the "Storm of the Century" in March 1993. |
 Renee
Roberta Fair, Meteorologist-in-Charge, Little Rock,
Ark., Forecast Office — When tornadoes ravaged parts of
Arkansas Jan. 21- 22, 1999, the staff of the Little Rock Forecast
Office led the NOAA National Weather Service's efforts to warn
the public and keep track of the storms. Renee Fair, the meteorologist-in-charge
of the office, said the staff issued a total of 150 severe weather
warnings during that stretch. "Everyone here performed
superbly during such a dangerous time," Fair says. In 1998,
Fair was named MIC after serving as the deputy MIC and the warning
coordination meteorologist both in the Little Rock office. She
is currently the only African-American female managing a weather
office. The Columbia, S.C., native and Talladega (Ala.) College
graduate, started her weather career as a satellite meteorologist
after finishing the Scientist Training Program at Penn State
University in 1975. Fair, who has earned several awards for
forecasting, came to Little Rock after stops in the forecast
offices in Boston and Washington in the early 1990s. |
 Judi
Bradberry, Senior Forecaster, Southeast River Forecast
Office, Peachtree City, Ga. — A meteorologist for more
than 30 years, Judi Bradberry's interest in weather grew out
of a fellowship program sponsored by the National Center for
Atmospheric Research, designed to introduce minority students
to meteorology. Her participation in the program during the
mid-1970s transformed her interest into an awarding-winning
career as a forecaster and hydrologist. The Georgia native displayed
her hydrologic forecast skills during Hurricane Fran, Tropical
Storm Alberto and record-breaking floods December 1997 - March
1998 in Florida. Bradberry and her colleagues at the Southeast
River Forecast Office received the Department of Commerce Silver
and Bronze Medal Awards. She also received the NWS Southern
Region Director's Exemplary Teamwork Award. Bradberry earned
an MS degree in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. |
 Stanley
Johnson, Program Manager, NOAA Weather Radio —
NOAA Weather Radio is what Stanley Johnson would like every
American to keep handy. As program manager for NOAA Weather
Radio, a battery-operated device that broadcasts up-to-the-minute
NWS forecasts and warnings 24 hours-a-day, owning such a radio
"can be a matter of life and death," he says. Johnson
manages the installation and upkeep of NOAA Weather Radio transmitters
across the country that carry the radio signal. There are more
than 940 transmitters covering all 50 states, adjacent coastal
waters, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Pacific
Territories. "The coverage for the nation is improving,"
Johnson says, "but the challenge continues to be making
more people aware that NOAA Weather Radio exists and that it
can save their lives." Johnson travels the country promoting
NOAA Weather Radio to manufacturers, corporations and at special
events. |
 Evan
B. Forde, Oceanographer, NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic
and Meteorological Laboratory — Forde became the first
African-American oceanographer to board a small submarine to
explore underwater volcanoes and canyons beneath the Atlantic
Ocean. As an oceanographer at the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic
and Meteorological in Miami, Forde has researched the forces
that create underwater landslides, mudslides and avalanches.
He literally was almost consumed by his work once. Forde's submarine
was trapped for 10 minutes, two miles below the surface, in
a small, underwater landslide off the New Jersey coast in 1980.
At 23, he had a masters degree from Columbia University and
was already on his way to becoming a recognized expert in the
study of submarine canyons. Some of Forde's early theories about
how the underwater canyons—some much larger than the Grand
Canyon—developed between North America and Europe still
hold today. Forde uses satellite sensors to collect data that
will improve the understanding of oceanographic and meteorologic
processes. "The information will be especially valuable
in improving hurricane forecasting, including pinpointing exactly
where the storms will make landfall," he said. Forde also
has worked extensively in the area of science education, developing
and teaching graduate level courses on Tropical Meteorology
targeted towards K-12 teachers. |
 Edward
Young, Chief of Technical Services Division, Pacific
Region — The weather in Berkeley, Calif., was dull for
Young, as an inquisitive fourth grader. He remembers being amazed
by the special effects of a thunderstorm in a scene from the
Wizard of Oz and wondered why Berkeley's weather lacked the
same fireworks. His interest at that time was the temperature
difference between the coolness of California's coast and the
heat of its interior. That early fascination would later help
Young—as a forecaster in the NOAA National Weather Service
Riverside Forecast Office—predict a major arctic outbreak
in December 1978. To Young's credit, the Riverside Office issued
a freeze warning days in advance. He and his colleagues received
a NOAA Unit Citation for their work. Young serves as Chief of
the Technical Services Division in the NOAA National Weather
Service Pacific Region, based in Honolulu. He is responsible
for ensuring that all 12 field offices in the region have smooth-running
technical operations and support. Young also manages the collection
of weather information being reported by the field offices. |
 James
McQuirter, Lead Forecaster, NOAA National Weather Service
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., Forecast Office — Before
the notion of a job in meteorology entered his mind, McQuirter
had his Air Force career already planned, but a chance meeting
with a NOAA recruiter on the campus of Texas Southern University
in 1977 changed everything. Nearly 30 years and several tornado
warnings later, McQuirter is an award-winning lead forecaster
in the Minneapolis forecast office, where he prepares forecasts
that impact the Twin Cities area. McQuirter, a native of Chicago,
Ill., counts as his most memorable forecasts the Great Flood
of 1993, which swallowed nine states. McQuirter, at the time
a journeyman forecaster in the Des Moines, Iowa, forecast office,
was part of a team that won a Department of Commerce Gold Medal
for efforts to forecast the historic flood. |
 Ruth
Aiken, Lead Forecaster and Doppler Radar Focal Point,
Raleigh, N.C., Forecast Office — Tracking the weather
in North Carolina always presents a tricky challenge, according
to Aiken. North Carolina is a meteorological mixed bag, especially
during the winter—with snow storms in the mountains and
thunderstorms in the east of the state occurring at the same
time. Since 1993, Aiken developed a knack for pinpointing storms
with the help of the NOAA National Weather Service Doppler radar.
"Severe weather is so intriguing because each storm is
different," she says. As a lead forecaster, Aiken shares
the duty of issuing warnings for severe weather. Aiken, who
also is the warnings team leader, received several awards, including
Best All Around Lead Forecaster. "Our main objective is
to prevent loss of life with faster, more accurate severe weather
warnings," she said. |
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