Florida State Climatologist
(850) 644-0719 phone
As the state climatologist for Florida, my work involves direct climate services, outreach, and applied climate research. The Florida Climate Center is the leading authority on climate variability in Florida. Its mission is to monitor, disseminate and analyze weather and climate data and information to serve the people in the state. My work involves coordinating user data requests and providing information about the historical and current climate and weather of Florida and the broader Southeast U.S. region. My research has explored historical climate trends and extremes, natural hazard risks, and community adaptation planning, and is broadly focused on addressing the climate data and information needs of decision makers in weather-sensitive sectors.
For the past six years, I served as the program manager of the Florida Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) program, which served to improve the ability of the public health sector to prepare and respond to the health effects of weather and climate. I also serve as the Florida state co-coordinator of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network (CoCoRaHS), a voluntary-based network of citizen scientists measuring and reporting precipitation from their own backyards. I earned a Ph.D. in Geography with a minor in Disaster Science and Management from Louisiana State University and a B.S. and M.S. in Geography from the Univerity of Georgia.
