Jim received a B.S. in Geography-Meteorology from Ohio University in 1999, and an M.S. in Geography in 2001. He also served as Associate Director of Scalia Lab during his graduate years from 1999-2001. He currently is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Jackson, KY, and has been in the position since April 2009. He is responsible for managing inter-agency communications, public education programs and weather safety awareness campaigns and is active in promoting the NWS StormReady Program.
Prior to moving to Jackson, Jim worked at the NWS in Billings, MT as a general forecaster from 2001-2007 and primarily focused on wildfire spot forecasting and forest management weather support. Jim was a Senior Forecaster at the NWS in Louisville, KY from 2007-2009 as well.
Alek Krautmann is a program analyst and science advisor for NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) headquarters in Washington DC. He has also served as a NOAA Program Coordination Officer in providing senior staff support to the office of the NOAA administrator and as a policy advisor for satellites and environmental data. Prior to work in DC Alek was a meteorologist at the NWS New Orleans/Baton Rouge office. He was previously a Research Associate with the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP), which is a NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments team at the Oklahoma Climatological Survey in Norman, OK. Alek works to promote an informed society; one that anticipates and is able to respond to the weather and climate hazards in our world.
Alek is a 2012 graduate of Ohio University (M.S. Geography). He was Associate Director at Scalia Lab from 2010 to 2012 and taught undergraduate meteorology lab courses. During this time he also served as co-chair of the American Meteorological Society Student Conference Planning Committee and completed the AMS Summer Policy Colloquium. Alek is a 2010 graduate of the University of Oklahoma (B.S. Meteorology), including a semester abroad at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Emily graduated from Ohio University in 2008 with a B.S. in Meteorology. After college, she moved to Washington, DC where she worked first for the American Meteorological Society’s Education Program and then for Eastern Research Group, an environmental consulting firm. She also earned a M.S. in Environmental Sciences and Policy from Johns Hopkins University in 2012. Since 2014, Emily’s husband’s career with the U.S. Air Force has taken their family all over the world. She currently works remotely for HeartLands Conservancy, an environmental non-profit based in southwestern Illinois.
Rosemary Kanters is currently a chemistry Ph.D. student at the Pennsylvania State University. She graduated from Ohio University in 2013 with a major in chemistry and minor in meteorology. She grew up in North Lawrence, OH, and graduated with honors from Tuslaw High School in 2009. Rosemary enjoys hiking, camping, and traveling and is a part of the American Chemical Society and the American Meteorological Society, along with its local chapter. In Summer 2011, she conducted atmospheric aerosol research at the Pennsylvania State University as a part of the NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, and she spent Summer 2012 conducting similar research in the Chemical Sciences Division at NOAA’s Earth Systems Research Laboratory in Boulder, CO as a part of the Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship Program. Rosemary currently studies interfacial bonding between metal nanoparticles and transition metal oxide supports for catalysis purposes. After completing graduate school, Rosemary plans to conduct environmental research in industry or for a government organization.
Megan graduated from Ohio University in 2016 with a B.S. in Meteorology and a minor in mathematics. She was a 3-year officer in OUCAMS, including being the President during her senior year, and was also the Geography Learning Community Leader. For both her junior and senior year, Megan was a member of Dr. Fogt’s research group on Antarctic climate, and was a contributing author on three published papers. Her interest in polar meteorology led her to Ohio State University for graduate school, where she was a TA in the Department of Geography and did her research with the Polar Meteorology group at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. Megan completed her M.S. degree and thesis on Southern Hemisphere mid- and high-latitude temperature trends in the summer of 2018, with the associated manuscript published in the October 2019 edition of the Journal of Climate.
After graduating from Ohio State, Megan began her career as a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Bismarck, North Dakota. She is very active in the climate program at the office, as well as with outreach events, and has enjoyed experiencing everything from tornadoes to blizzards. Outside of work, she loves traveling, hiking, watching sports, and trying out new recipes.
I graduated with a Meteorology-Geography degree in 2018 and with a minor in Recreation Management. During my time at OU, I was involved with OUCAMS all 4 years and was elected to the Fundraising Chair for OUCAMS for the 2017-18 school year. I interned at the Athens County EMA Office in Spring 2017 and Franklin County EMA Office in Winter ’17-’18. I have helped with COOP observations for NWS Charleston as well as a volunteer forecaster for Scalia Lab for Fall ’17. As for my future, I plan on attending Millersville University to pursue a Master’s degree in Emergency Management starting in Fall 2018 and will be a Student Volunteer for NWS Charleston, WV for Summer 2018. My goal is to get into the NWS or Emergency Management field. My email for future reference will be jtank2wx@gmail.com. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions! I’m willing to help out and be a resource.
Jon Harvery graduated from Ohio University in 2007 with a major in Meteorology and minors in Physics, Math, and Geology. Originally from Zanesville, Ohio and Jon has now moved on to the Geology Graduate Program at Utah State. He enjoys outdoor activities, especially backpacking, mountain biking, storm chasing, and photography. In his time in the OU Meteorology program Jon served as the Meteorology Club President in the 2006-2007 school year and also contributed to the 2007 version of the scalialab.com website. During summer 2006, he worked for NOAA in Boulder, Colorado with the NOAA Profiler Network.
Kirk Groeneveld, O.U. Meteorology student from 1992-96, lives in Athens with his wife and two children. He is the chief meteorologist at WTAP TV, Parkersburg, where he has worked since 1996. He also studied through Mississippi State University’s Meteorology program earning a certificate of Broadcast Meteorology in 1998 after two years of study, during the period they developed an internet testing program. Groeneveld served as Athens County’s cooperative weather observer for the Charleston NWS office for two years, 1994-96. He enjoys science fiction, reading about the late 60s and early 70s turbulent years, and beading.
Nicole Grams graduated in 2011 with her B.S. in Meteorology (Departmental Honors) and minors in mathematics and physics. She was a member of the OU Synchronized Skating Team, an Ohio University Outstanding Senior, member of the “Voices of OHIO” campaign, and AMS Student Chapter president. Nicole also served 2 years as Co-Chair of the national AMS Student Conference Planning Committee. Yet, via her internships in the NOAA Student Career Experience and Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship programs, Nicole realized that meteorology was not, in fact, her primary calling and decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Geoinformatics and Hydrology at the University of Oklahoma. She graduated from the “other OU” in 2013 and is currently a Geospatial Analyst Senior Specialist at Weather Fusion/CoreLogic. Nicole resides in Milwaukee, WI with her NWS meteorologist fiancé and still spends her free time on the ice and at microbreweries.
Michael spent his 4 years at Ohio University participating heavily in OUCAMS. He started as events coordinator and moved his way up to Vice President, where he ran the mentor-mentee program during his last year. He also spent his time splitting his focus between severe weather and climate. He took part in the newly-offered radar meteorology class as well as the one-time Antarctic climate and history class, and loved both of them. He also participated twice in the storm chasing study abroad class with Dr. Houser. Michael’s undergraduate career culminated in the research he did with Dr. Fogt, taking him to Boulder, CO and the NCAR Mesa Lab. After spending a full year doing research and coding, he completed his undergraduate honors thesis in April of 2018, titled The Influence of Tropical Sea Surface Temperature Variability on Antarctic Climate during the 20th Century.He greatly enjoyed working with both of his advisors, and taking all of the special classes they offered.
Post-graduation, Michael will be starting a summer volunteer internship at NWS Cleveland, before heading to Iowa State in the fall to start towards a masters degree in Atmospheric Sciences, and hopes to study severe weather.
