NWS Selects Employee of Month For Public Safety/Management Initiatives At age 4, Ross Dickman was already wondering about the weather. He didn’t understand why it snowed when the temperature was above freezing. Today, as program manager at the National Weather Service’s eastern region headquarters in New York, he’s still wondering about weather – as NOAA’s new Employee of the Month. Ross is being honored for his innovative, highly effective approach to boosting public safety and staff productivity through his responsibilities for AWIPS – or Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System. AWIPS gives weather forecasters the ability to analyze data from many sources, rapidly develop weather forecasts and warnings, and almost instantly get information out to the public. AWIPS transforms complex weather data into easily understood graphics, readily available via the internet. It instantly converts weather warnings and forecasts for broadcast over NOAA Weather Radio. Perhaps most importantly, it enables meteorologists to devote more time to monitoring the weather. Ross began monitoring and predicting weather as soon as he could – as chief forecaster at the Daily Collegian, Penn State’s newspaper. His work there, while earning a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology, helped him land a spot as an intern at the San Francisco forecast office. Stints in Boston, then as lead forecaster in San Juan followed. In 1995, Ross became manager of the Aviation and Severe Weather Programs at NWS’s eastern region office. About three years ago, he became AWIPS program manager. Under his direction, the eastern region became the first to commission AWIPS in all of its field offices, saving both time and telecommunications dollars. Recognizing that full staff commitment and cooperation were essential to the process, Ross organized and led teams to look at policy development and use of software and hardware. To streamline the process, he created a home page to transfer information to the field. He worked with NWS headquarters to keep things running smoothly. And once AWIPS was installed and operational, he make sure that all eastern region field offices could take full advantage of its capabilities. Ross accomplished this by developing transition and implementation plans, creating a technical team, organizing and leading workshops, and generally selling the program and need for change to all field personnel. New applications and systems have changed the way NWS forecast and warning products are produced. Eastern region offices now issue graphical forecast products, and Ross’ efforts are assisting NWS to meet its goal of producing graphic products for use on many levels. NWS Graphical Product Beyond the weather, Ross relishes treasure hunting with metal detectors and helping out in his family’s florist business.