2021 Candidate Biographies

Jennifer Hogan

Jennifer Hogan, Boeing

Jennifer Hogan is a degreed meteorologist holding a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric sciences from The Ohio State University. She started her meteorology career as an aviation forecast meteorologist for NetJets, Inc. being the first woman meteorologist hired on at the company.

For a little over 10 years, Jennifer forecasted weather for any location where NetJets flew, globally, which exposed her to many unique environments for aviation forecasting. It was this skill and experience that brought her to Boeing in 2012.

Jennifer joined Dreamlifter Operations as a schedule management and planning integrator in the Dreamliner 787 Supply Chain Management organization. She moved from Columbus, Ohio to Everett, WA where she supported this global, 24/7/365 operation in support of the Dreamliner 787 production in Charleston, SC and Everett, WA.

While the move to the Pacific Northwest was an adventurous one, Jennifer missed the four seasons of the Midwest. When she made plans to move back to Ohio, Dreamlifter Operations leadership offered her a remote work position, which she accepted, and then continued to support the team for roughly four more years.

She continued to support Dreamlifter Operations from a weather standpoint by helping establish Fairbanks, AK as a new alternate airport of use, along with contributing to a Monte Carlo study for the 747-400 aircraft nitrogen generation system which required temperature studies at several places around the globe at high cruise altitudes.

Tropical weather forecasting for aviation impacts was one of the larger focuses for Dreamlifter with daily operations occurring in Nagoya, Japan and Charleston, SC.  She would work hand in hand with the Atlas Air Operations’ dispatcher team in the efforts to move and protect assets based on her forecasts as Dreamlifter Operations is the most vital aspect of the 787 supply chain for aircraft parts for manufacturing.

Jennifer transitioned to Boeing Defense, Space and Security in 2018 now working at the Boeing site in Heath, Ohio in a data analyst role for manufacturing operations.

Jennifer has been a National Weather Association member since high school, then took on the benefits of the corporate membership with NetJets while employed there. When she transitioned to Boeing she felt the need to be further invested in the organization and became an individual member along with taking on more volunteer roles to be an engaged member. She was a part of the team that developed the Support Women in Meteorology luncheon prior to the Diversity Committee being stood up within the organization.

When the Diversity Committee was created, she was nominated to the co-chair role for the committee. Through her interactions with the organization in this committee, she was nominated for a Board position, was elected to it, and has served on the National Weather Association board for the past three years.  Jennifer has been able to apply her corporate knowledge and experience in process development in aiding the Board with changes in the National Weather Association bylaws. She has additionally served on two adhoc committees in the past year; one for the research on in person, hybrid, or all virtual annual meeting and the RACE adhoc committee.

Along with weather and aviation, Jennifer is passionate about championing and advocating for women in STEM fields and getting younger generations interested in the aviation and science fields. She enjoys mentoring and advising those who are following in her footsteps. Leading by example is extremely important to Jennifer.

This is exhibited through her involvement in one of Boeing’s business resource groups, BWIL (Boeing Women Inspiring Leadership), as the Heath, Ohio chapter president. Jennifer has been involved in a handful of panel discussions talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion most recently with the Ohio State Diversity in Aviation conference this past October.

Not only does she volunteer with the National Weather Association, but Jennifer additionally volunteers on a regular basis with Tech Corp a non-profit organization who helps expose elementary students to the world of computer science. Jennifer is honored to be nominated for the president-elect position for the National Weather Association.

Contact: hoganjennifer14@gmail.com

Kathy Sherman-Morris

Kathy Sherman-Morris, Mississippi State University

Kathy Sherman-Morris is a Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Mississippi State University where she served as director of the Geosciences Distance Learning Programs from 2012 through 2019.

In addition to teaching, Kathy studies risk perception, responses to hazardous weather, and communication of weather information. Her research has also focused on ways to enhance diversity in the geosciences. Students she has mentored at the undergraduate through doctoral level have gone on to work in broadcasting, education, and for the National Weather Service.

For the last three years Kathy has served as a member of the NWA Council/Board of Directors. As a director, she was involved in the recent revision of the by-laws and helped to develop policy with other members of the Governance Committee.

Reflecting on the last three years and the nomination to run for NWA president, Kathy found it an exciting time to have been a part of NWA governance: “I would love to have the opportunity to see some of the initiatives I’ve been involved with take root and hopefully continue to grow and strengthen the organization.”

A member of the National Weather Association since joining as a student in 1997, she has also been a member of the Broadcast Meteorology Committee and a reviewer for the Journal of Operational Meteorology.

In other professional service to meteorology, Kathy is an associate editor for the journal Weather, Climate and Society, chair of the AMS Board on Societal Impacts and co-chaired the AMS Symposium on Societal Applications for the 2016, 2017 and 2018 meetings.

Kathy has also been on the advisory panel for UCAR’s COMET program and was a state coordinator for CoCoRaHS. Her educational background includes degrees in Social Studies Education (B.S.E., Mansfield University in Pennsylvania), Broadcast Meteorology (M.S., Mississippi State University) and Geography (Ph.D., Florida State University).

Contact: kms5@msstate.edu

Matthew Alto

Matthew Alto, AccuWeather

Matthew Alto is AccuWeather’s Manager, Global Data Partnerships. In this key leadership role, Matt blends his background in meteorology with his strong interpersonal skills to cultivate and manage AccuWeather’s partnerships with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS), Global Weather Industry partners, as well as other weather, environmental, and technology providers from around the world.

Through these partnerships, Matt is responsible for acquiring top-tier weather data and information which is integrated across the entire suite of AccuWeather products and services.

Matt joined AccuWeather in 2010 as a forecasting intern before joining full-time after graduating from the Pennsylvania State University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology.

In his early career at AccuWeather, he served as a member of the Forecasting Department where he routinely wrote weather news stories, broadcast weather forecasts on hundreds of radio stations throughout the United States, and provided specialized and customized weather forecasts for a variety of AccuWeather clients throughout the world.

Matt is an active member of the National Weather Association (NWA) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Matt served as the Co-Chair of the NWA Annual Meeting Steering Committee and was responsible for leading the NWA’s first successful virtual meeting. He is a member of NWA Membership & Marketing Committee, which he chaired from 2016-2019.

Matt also sits on the AMS Board on Global Strategies and contributes to the World Meteorological Organization’s Open Consultative Platform (OCP) to promote greater engagement between the public, private and academic sectors operating in the global weather enterprise.

Contact: matthew.alto@nwas.org

Sean Sublette

Sean Sublette, Climate Central

Sean Sublette is a meteorologist at Climate Central working with data analysts, multimedia designers, and climate scientists to provide resources that support journalists and meteorologists in their reporting on the local impacts of climate change to their audiences.

Prior to joining Climate Central in 2015, Sean worked as a broadcast meteorologist for 19 years in the Roanoke-Lynchburg television market and was named Chief Meteorologist at the ABC affiliate in 2009. In addition to joining NWA during his time in Virginia, he worked as an adjunct professor at the University of Lynchburg, teaching courses in introductory meteorology and introductory climate science. He served on the AMS Distinguished Science Journalism Award Committee and the AMS Board of Broadcast Meteorology, working as board chair in his last year. In 2021, he will rotate on to the AMS CBM Exam Review Committee.

As the duties of operational meteorologists begin to shift more toward impact communication, decision support, and risk assessment, effectively conveying what we know – and don’t know – is more critical than ever before.  Communicating short-term (weather) and long-term (climate) risks is increasingly important to help stakeholders make the best decisions about their families, communities, businesses, and property. Our ability as scientists to communicate these risks effectively will be vital in an era where many people feel their weather and climate information needs can be met from a smartphone.

Sean earned his B.S. and M.S. in meteorology from Penn State, completing his studies in 1994.

Contact: ssublette@climatecentral.org

Trevor Boucher

Trevor Boucher , NOAA/NWS Las Vegas

Trevor Boucher is a Lead Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Las Vegas, NV. Trevor received his Bachelor's Degree in Geophysics and Masters Degree in Atmospheric Science from Texas Tech University which included participating in the 2009-2010 VORTEX-II tornado field project.

While originally from Huntington Beach California, Trevor’s interest in weather began May 27th, 1997 at the age of 9 while witnessing his first tornado in Cedar Park, TX. This tornado was one of several that occurred during the severe weather outbreak that spawned the infamous F5 tornado in Jarrell, TX.

In the last ten years, Trevor has worked at the NWS offices in Lubbock, TX, Nashville, TN, Austin/San Antonio, TX, and now Las Vegas, NV. He has been a highly active member of the National Weather Association since 2011, serving as a member of the Social Media Committee since 2013 and chairing that committee from 2016-2018.

He also is a member of the NWA’s Webinar Team and leads the recent “Distant Social” series started in 2020. Trevor is the recipient of the 2017 Public Education Award, Special Appreciation Award, and was also named Member of the Year that year.

In his weather career, Trevor has specialized in social media applications in operational meteorology, outreach and advocacy for the hearing loss population, and decision support services, presenting several oral/poster presentations on those topics. In his free time, Trevor enjoys traveling, playing and watching sports, Taco Bell, and listening to Toto’s Africa whenever able.

Contact: trevor.boucher@noaa.gov

Kim Runk

Kim Runk, NOAA/NWS Operations Proving Ground

Kim Runk serves as Senior Planning Advisor for the NWS Office of Science and Technology Integration (OSTI). In this role, Kim provides counsel to the OSTI Director concerning a variety of strategic planning issues.

Kim currently leads an initiative aimed at improving coordination across all NWS portfolios and service sectors in pursuit of achieving objectives documented in the NWS Strategic Plan. He also works with NWS and OSTI leadership to identify specific targets of opportunity for efficient, short-term research-to-operations (R2O) transitions.

Prior to joining the STI leadership team, Kim was the first Director of the NWS Operations Proving Ground (OPG), one of twelve NOAA-affiliated testbed facilities. Mr. Runk started with a concept suggested in the original Weather Ready Nation Roadmap and built it into a fully operational and well-respected R2O facility. Under his leadership, the OPG was selected as recipient of the 2017 NWA Larry R. Johnson Special Award for “extraordinary accomplishments, which significantly contribute to operational meteorology.”

Before the OPG, Kim served in a variety of roles including Science & Operations Officer, Meteorologist-in-Charge of a local forecast office, and Chief of Services for the NWS Central Region. Among his proudest accomplishments was leading the creation of the NWS “IDSS Deployment Boot Camp”, a highly experiential training course designed to assist forecasters in learning the skills needed to be successful in the ICS environment of an Emergency Operations Center.

Throughout Kim’s 40+ year career, he has remained passionate about two things: improving the tools, decision-making skills, and communication capabilities of the operational meteorologist; and helping others to identify, develop, and operate in their areas of strength. In his spare time, Kim enjoys running, golf, reading, cartooning, and spending time with his grandkids.

Mr. Runk expressed heartfelt appreciation for the honor of being nominated as a candidate to serve on the Board. If elected, he sees it as a wonderful and exciting opportunity to connect with NWA leaders, think strategically about the future direction of the organization, and explore ways to enhance membership experience.

Contact: kimrunk@gmail.com

Bryan Busby

Bryan Busby, KMBC Chief Meteorologist

Bryan's interest in weather began in Cleveland, Ohio, when he was eight. Later, in high school, he broadcasted weather reports for two radio stations.

In his freshman year at Saint Louis University, he began working at KTVI, ABC in St. Louis, Missouri.  Though only an intern, within weeks he was the part time weekend weathercaster. He graduated with his Bachelor’s degree in meteorology in 1985.

That fall, he joined KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, as the weekend meteorologist and was promoted to Chief in 1988.  Bryan provides forecasts for various local radio stations and newspapers.

Bryan created products that have been used all over the country, including "EarthStation," an integrated weather curriculum geared toward elementary school students and a weather display system which earned him U.S. Patent Number 5,943,630.

In 1998, he was being considered for the weathercaster position at Good Morning America. That same year, he was appointed Chairman of the American Meteorological Society's Board of Broadcast Meteorologists.

In 2011, Bryan received that organization’s Award for Broadcast Meteorology, and has received 8 Regional Emmy Awards and over a dozen nominations. Bryan is the proud mentor to over forty current broadcasters and hundreds since he started in the field.

Bryan has presented at local and regional IWT summits and both NWA and AMS local, regional and national conferences. Most recently Bryan presented at this year’s NWA  virtual meeting and was the leadoff keynote speaker at last year’s annual meeting in Huntsville, Alabama.

Contact: bbusby@hearst.com

Denise Isaac

Denise Isaac, NBC Boston/NECN/Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra, Boston

I'm a bilingual Meteorologist born and raised in Panama currently working with NBC Boston, NECN and Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra who has always been obsessed with the weather, especially with thunderstorms and hurricanes. Forecasting winter storms and Nor’easters here in New England have certainly been fun and challenging.

I studied meteorology at Florida State University and landed my first job in Washington, DC working for the local Telemundo station.

Two years after, I ended up in the wilds of Minnesota as a producer and reporter for WeatherNation.

In 2010, I accepted a job at the #1 station in Miami, Telemundo WSCV, where I was the lead morning meteorologist for the market, and the national show Un Nuevo Dia. I also juggled those duties with weather assignments on WTVJ, Miami’s NBC affiliate.

After 6 years in South Florida, WXYZ channel 7 in Detroit offered me a job as their 4p and 7p Meteorologist, so I jumped on the bandwagon and headed north to the Great Lakes region to forecast snow and cold weather.

When I’m not making graphics for my weather broadcasts, I enjoy playing sports, being adventurous, watching football and rooting on the Seminoles with my husband and beautiful daughters.

Contact: denise.isaac@nbcuni.com

Alex Forbes

Alex Forbes, Mississippi State University

Alex Forbes is currently a student at Mississippi State University and has been a proud member of the National Weather Association since his freshman year of high school!

Since then, Alex moved on to Mississippi State University and served as President, Secretary, and Co-Symposium Chair for the East Mississippi Chapter of the NWA and AMS.

The chapter puts on one of the largest student-led conferences each year, the Southeast Severe Storms Symposium. By attending multiple NWA Conferences and helping out with the WeatherReady Fests, he was able to help elevate the Southeast Severe Storms Symposium to a new level and make the local chapter experience more valuable for students.

Alex was President of the chapter when it received the Local Chapter Award from the NWA in 2019. Aside from the local chapter, Forbes is also the President of the College of Arts and Sciences Ambassadors at Mississippi State. The organization is responsible for recruiting prospective students, and in his case, prospective meteorology students, to MSU.

Alex is originally from the metro Atlanta area. A series of tornadoes occurred in northern metro Atlanta in April of 2006, including one that hit Forbes’ house, which sparked his interest in meteorology. In 2019, Forbes was an intern at WAGA-TV, FOX 5 Atlanta, and has since done freelance graphic work for the station. Upon graduation from Mississippi State, Alex plans on pursuing a career in broadcast meteorology.

Contact: aforbes@ngawxcenter.com

Katurah McCants

Katurah McCants, Metropolitan State University Denver

Katurah McCants is a senior at Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver) and is working towards her undergraduate degree in meteorology with a math minor. Katurah embraces her lifelong passion for Meteorology and scientific research and has loved weather since she was a child. Hoping to one day obtain her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science, Katurah is enthusiastic about several areas of meteorology with a special interest in satellite and synoptic meteorology.

As a student member of NWA and president of the MSU Denver meteorology club, Katurah has served in a leadership role since 2018. She also works at MSU Denver as a Learning Assistant, where she enjoys helping underclassmen understand course materials. In 2019, she was accepted into NCAR’s Undergraduate Leadership Workshop. This past spring Katurah was chosen for the SOARS (Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science) program as a student research protégé.

Katurah loves spending time with friends outside doing activities, such as, hiking and camping in the Rocky Mountains, and is an avid baker. During the Colorado severe weather season, her favorite pastime is storm chasing with her peers.

Contact: kmccants@msudenver.edu