| 2012-2013 Officers
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Chairperson: Katie Collins Garrett |
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Katie Garrett has been with the National Weather Service (NWS) since January 2008. She is currently working at the NWS Operations Center in Silver Spring, MD where she is an Emergency Response Specialist. She briefs NOAA and NWS leadership, as well as other NWS partners on significant weather events across the nation. She earned her Master's degree from Texas A&M University in 2007, where she also led the university's storm chase team and was a member of the Texas A&M Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society. While attending Ball State University in Muncie, IN, to earn her Bachelor's degree in Operational Meteorology and Climatology, Katie volunteered at the Indianapolis NWS office and was an active SKYWARN observer.
Katie loves participating in outreach activities where she can share her passion for weather. She is heavily involved with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's Heritage Program. She has been the NWS representative on the core team for NOAA Heritage Week and the development of the Gateway Exhibit located on the Silver Spring, MD campus. She also lead the NOAA Preserve America Initiative Internal Funding program from 2009-2012, which provides funding to all NOAA line offices, including the NWS, to help preserve the history of NOAA and tell the story of their organization's heritage.
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Vice Chairperson: Tony Fracasso |
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Tony Fracasso is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service at the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, MD. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Atmospheric Science from Cornell University and a Master's degree from the University at Albany (SUNY). Tony was a COOP observer for two years at Cornell's observation site and also worked for the Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC). After graduate school he worked with a private weather company in Albany, NY before joining the HPC in 2006. Tony is currently part of the CoCoRaHS program and enjoys the warm DC summers and brief but sometimes snowy winters.
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Treasurer: Jacob Hamblin |
 | Jacob Hamblin is a graduate of Iowa State University with a Bachelor's in Meteorology. He also has minors in Journalism & Mass Communication and Spanish. Jacob is a full member of the American Meteorological Society. He has been a member of AMS since his freshman year at Iowa State and is happy to be taking the reigns of Treasurer for the DC AMS Chapter.
Jacob started out working as a Broadcast Meteorologist/Forecaster for the Weather Eye Radio Network after graduating from Iowa State in 2007. He was employed there until 2009 and then began seeking other positions. He worked a couple PT jobs from 2009 to 2010 while continuing to hone his forecasting skills by using Twitter. Jacob began a temporary position researching snowfall rates at the Minneapolis/St Paul International Airport during the Winter of 2009-10 and relocated to the Washington, DC Metro area this spring.
Jacob is currently employed in the DC area, but not directly in the meteorology field. If you know of anything that you think he would enjoy, feel free to pass it on. He has recently begun to forecast for his apartment building and has also started up a forecasting blog, which can be viewed at www.capitol-weather.blogspot.com |
Corresponding Secretary: Bryan Jackson |
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Originally from Nebraska, I have been on the East Coast now since the fall of 2006. I am a general forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Sterling (I started in January 2009). Prior to my work at Sterling, I served as a Student Career Experience Program intern at the Meteorological Development Laboratory in Silver Spring and then as a meteorological intern at the southeast Virginia forecast office in Wakefield, VA. I have an M.S. degree in Geosciences from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2007) and a B.S. in Physics from North Park University in Chicago (2004). I have been a member of AMS since 2005 and was first involved with DC-AMS when I lived in Silver Spring. I enjoy hiking, tennis, traveling, and concerts. |
Recording Secretary: Douglas Price |
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Doug has been an associate member of AMS since 2007. He has worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, administering provisions of the Clean Water Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, and Endangered Species Act. He participated in inter-agency working groups with the Environmental Protection Agency, National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Doug has a B.S. in mechanical engineering, and M.S. in Business Administration currently works for the U.S. Department of Treasury. His interest in weather arose from a focus in related academic areas in engineering studies, specifically physics and thermodynamics. Atmospheric soundings are a whole lot like working with steam tables! |
Science Fair Outreach Officer |
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Kevin Shaw has a B.S. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin. He has been a nautical cartographer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and an active weather observer for over 35 years, including as a member of the Baltimore Washington Climate Review. More recently Kevin became a SKYWARN observer for the National Weather Service in Sterling, VA. Kevin has also been the coordinator of the Maryland/Delaware Atlantic Coast Observer Network (MD/DE ACON) since the fall of 1986, which includes over 40 observers throughout the region.
Kevin has been married for over 30 years and has two grown daughters and three dogs. He has been an active member of DC-AMS for over 20 years and is looking forward to supporting the outreach initiatives of the local chapter. |
Webmaster: Brandon Meitz |
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Brandon has a B.S. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Arizona. After graduating, he moved to New Zealand for 2 months to travel and explore the country. After returning to the U.S., Brandon relocated to the DC area and acquired an IT role at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. There, he developed new skills, including Project Leadership, Software Implementation Management, Database Administration, and HTML editing. After 4 years at CSIS, Brandon began turning his attention back to his true passion, weather, by volunteering to become the webmaster for the local DC-AMS chapter.
Brandon has also recently completed a shift shadow at the Sterling NWS office as well as becoming a trained SKYWARN spotter.
Brandon is currently pursuing a Masters Degree from George Mason University in Geographic and Cartographic Sciences in order to begin a career in Meteorology. |
Social Chair: Richard Barnhill |
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Richard Barnhill is Meteorological Software Testing Engineer working with the Raytheon AWIPS team in support of AWIPS 2. Previously, he was a Support Scientist for IMSG, working within NESDIS on an algorithm for the GOES-R satellite. He earned his BS in Meteorology from North Carolina State University in 2008 and a Masters in Geography from East Carolina University in 2010. While at NC State, Richard worked as a research assistant as well as participated in the NWS Raleigh semester long "internship" class. At East Carolina, he worked within the South American Monsoon group, analyzing satellite data concerning the strength of precipitation around monsoon onset. Currently, his jod deals with discovering and testing issues concerning the development and support of the AWIPS 2 software.His interest in weather arose from living in Eastern North Carolina, where you can have a land falling hurricane in September, followed by a crippling ice storm/nor'easter within a few months. He has been a member of AMS since 2005. He is an avid sports fan (Red Sox and NC State) that also plays golf and is active in flag football and softball leagues in the DC area. |
Public Outreach Office : Kathryn Shontz |
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With meteorology being a passion since childhood, Kathryn obtained her MS in Atmospheric Science from UCLA with research focusing on hurricane dynamics. Kathryn got her BS in Meteorology and Environmental Science from the Florida Institute of Technology. She currently works for Noblis supporting the NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Office in Greenbelt, MD. Previously, she supported the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research as a liaison for satellite products.
Additionally, Kathryn serves as the assistant coordinator of the NOAA Preserve American Internal Initiative Fund (PAIIF) which provides internal grants to NOAA employees to preserve the organization's heritage assets. She loves DC and is happy to be supporting NOAA every day! |
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