The Speakers
Andy Hatzos - Meteorologist NWS Wilmington OH
Andy is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, Ohio. A native of Berkley, Michigan, he attended Central Michigan University, earning a degree in Meteorology in 2007. Andy started his NWS career in May 2006. While at NWS Wilmington, Andy has issued warnings for several major severe events, including the June 2012 derecho and the Memorial Day 2019 Day tornado outbreak. Andy enjoys travel, photography, and hockey. He has visited 1248 counties, 127 county high points, and been on 457 different roller coasters.
Sam Shamburger - Senior Meteorologist NWS Nashville TN
Sam Shamburger has been a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Nashville, Tennessee since 2011, where he has worked the whole range of major weather events from the March 2, 2012 tornado outbreak to the February 20, 2015 ice storm and the January 22, 2016 heavy snow. Prior to that, Sam got his start in the NWS at WFO Lake Charles, Louisiana in 2004, and quickly got to experience many hurricanes first hand including Rita, Katrina, Ike, and Gustav. Originally from Dallas, Texas, he attended Texas A&M University where he got his B.S. in Meteorology, and then Mississippi State University where he earned his M.S. in Geosciences (Meteorology).
Kevin Deitsch - Warning Coordination Meteorologist NWS St. Louis MO
Kevin is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) for the National Weather Service in St Louis, MO. In this job he focuses on partner engagement with the media, emergency management and other local officials in 46 counties in Missouri and Illinois Previously, Kevin had worked as a Lead Forecaster for NWS St. Louis before getting promoted to WCM in 2018. Prior to coming to the St. Louis office, Kevin worked as a forecaster in Louisville, KY and Des Moines, IA. Kevin has a passion for providing decision support services to our core partners and for giving the local community timely and accurate weather information.
Rodney Donavon - Senior Meteorologist NWS Des Moines IA
Rod is a Senior Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Des Moines, IA (NWS DMX). Rod began his career in 2000 at the NWS Grand Forks, and would become a General Forecaster at that office in 2002. Rod moved to the NWS DMX in 2003 and became a Senior Meteorologist in 2007.
Rod’s early research focused on warning decision making for large hail which used 50 dBZ heights as an updraft strength indicator and compared to the melting layer. Rod was the recipient of the National Isaac M. Cline Award in Meteorology for the hail research. Today, Rod’s work is focused on tornado warning decision making which includes near storm environment analysis and radar interrogation. He is a member of the NWS Central Region Tornado Warning Improvement Project (TWIP). Rod also enjoys utilizing satellite data as a storm survey aid and to help provide higher resolution tornado track information. Rod is a past President of the Central Iowa NWA and is currently the chair for the chapter’s radar workshop that is held at the annual Severe Storms and Doppler Radar Conference.
Ray Wolf - Science Operations Officer NWS Quad Cities IA
Ray is the Science and Operations Officer for NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) in Davenport, Iowa. He is responsible for managing operations, staff training, and local research. Prior to arriving in Davenport in 1994, Ray was a forecaster at the NWS office in Denver, CO where he evaluated new forecast and warning science and technologies that formed the basis of the NWS Modernization. He also served as an agricultural forecaster in the MidSouth, supporting farmers and producers in the region with weather and climate information. Ray received an M.S. in Agricultural Climatology in 1985 and a B.S. in Meteorology in 1982 from Iowa State University.
Dr. Victor Gensini - Associate Professor Department of Geographic and Atmospheric Sciences Northern Illinois University
Dr. Gensini's research umbrella covers extreme weather and climate, with specific interests focused on: severe convective storms, synoptic/mesoscale meteorology, applied climatology, GIS techniques, geoscience data visualization, weather forecasting, and climate change. His past research has primarily focused on the relationship between severe convective storms and climate change by utilizing dynamical downscaling from a convective permitting regional climate model. Currently, a majority of Dr. Gensini's research is examining weather and climate dynamics that explain variability in extreme weather (e.g., hail, tornadoes, heavy rain, heat waves) frequency and analyzing ways to forecast these events at sub-seasonal to seasonal time scales. Dr. Gensini holds the CCM designation from the American Meteorological Society, serves an Associate Editor for WAF and an Editor for JAMC, and is a member of several NOAA NGGPS committees. In addition, he also has a guest faculty research appointment at Argonne National Laboratory and serves as Deputy Director for the NIU Center for Research Computing and Data.
Dr. Robin Tanamachi - Assistant Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) Purdue University
Dr. Robin Tanamachi leads the Weather Radar Research Lab at Purdue University. She is a research meteorologist specializing in radar-based studies of severe convective storms and tornadoes. Prior to joining the faculty at Purdue in 2015, she spent 13 years working in the severe weather capitol of the Great Plains: Norman, Oklahoma. She participated in numerous field programs, including VORTEX2, studying tornado structure and behavior with mobile radars. Prof. Tanamachi spearheaded an effort to install a gap-filling weather radar at Purdue, called the X-band Teaching and Research Radar (XTRRA). She has authored or co-authored 17 refereed publications, presented at conferences all over the world, and even been featured in a children's book (The Tornado Scientist by Mary Kay Carson and Tom Uhlman). Recently, she's branched out into the field of Atmospheric Science Education Research, studying the beneficial impact of field experiences on meteorology students.
Sam Lashley - Warning Coordination Meteorologist NWS Indianapolis, IN
Sam Lashley is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) for the National Weather Service Indianapolis office. This is Sam’s second stint working at the NWS Indianapolis office, previously working there in the late 1990s before moving to the Northern Indiana NWS office as a Senior Meteorologist where he spent just over 20 years. Sam is originally from Crawfordsville, IN and is happy to be back closer to home.
As the Indianapolis WCM, Sam is responsible for maintaining close working relationships with core partners, supporting emergency management officials with Impact-Based Decision Support Services, and spreading weather safety and preparedness information through public outreach and engagement. Sam's most memorable weather event was working radar during the 2002 Van Wert OH tornado and providing over a half hour lead time with a tornado warning before a devastating EF4 tornado struck the city of Van Wert.
Sam enjoys supporting the Boilermakers (Boiler Up!), fishing, and golfing in his spare time and is always looking for a good golf outing to support.
Mike Ryan - Senior Meteorologist NWS Indianapolis, IN
Mike Ryan is a Senior Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Indianapolis. He has been with NWS Indy since 2009 after spending 10 years at the Wilmington, Ohio National Weather Service office. Throughout his NWS career, he has been involved with public outreach and decision support services through the Weather Ready Nation, StormReady and storm spotter programs, interacting with local and state emergency management officials, broadcast media and amateur radio networks. He also leads a state climate services team made up of NWS personnel, state and local officials including IDHS, the state climatologist’s office and the Midwest Climate Center.
Mike has had the opportunity to work during events that have produced significant impacts to the Hoosier state, including the February 2011 Ice Storm, the March 2 2012 Severe Weather Outbreak, the November 17 2013 Tornado Outbreak, the January 5-6 2014 Winter Storm and the August 24 2016 Tornado Outbreak.
Mike is a native of Columbus, Ohio and received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Atmospheric Sciences from the Ohio State University in 1998 and 2000 respectively.
David Beachler - Science Operations Officer NWS Indianapolis, IN
David is the Science Operations Officer (SOO) for the National Weather Service Indianapolis Office. Prior to arriving in Indianapolis, David was the SOO at the Marquette MI NWS-WFO. David has served many roles throughout his career within the NWS, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean, Great Lakes, Middle Atlantic, and Washington DC. The experiences having worked tropical events, to powerhouse Great Lakes snow/wind events, Nor’easters on the East Coast, and EF4 Fairdale IL tornado has allowed for some incredible experiences and opportunities to share through training to the staff at the NWS Indianapolis WFO.
As the SOO, David is responsible for overseeing the training and development of forecasters on staff at the NWS Indianapolis. In addition to internal training and ensuring forecasters have the latest tools available to aid in the warning decision making process, David also works from time to time with academia to look into new approaches and methods that may someday become the standard approach to forecasts of small and large weather events. Having worked numerous hazardous events throughout his career, the most memorable was the Chicago 2011 Groundhog Day blizzard. David was part of the NWS Chicago team that hoisted a blizzard headlines more than 50 hours in advance. This blizzard was such a massive event that typically forecasters may only see such an event once in their career.
David is originally from Logansport IN, attended Purdue University and was a student equipment manager for the football team. Ironically it coincided with the years Joe Tiller was the head coach and Drew Brees was the starting QB. Boiler Up...Hammer Down!
Kacie Hoover - Meteorologist NWS Indianapolis, IN
Kacie has been a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Indianapolis office since February of 2017. She is originally from Fort Worth, Texas and earned her undergraduate degree in Geophysics from Texas Tech University in 2013. Afterwards, she went to the University of Alabama in Huntsville to earn her master’s degree in Atmospheric Science in 2016 with her thesis focusing on the use of CYGNSS to observe the convective signal of the MJO. As the social media program leader for NWS Indianapolis, Kacie enjoys creating innovative graphics and decision support briefing slides to help our partners and the public better understand and interpret weather information.
Kacie enjoys cheering on the Texas Tech Red Raiders, traveling, hanging out with her dog, and visiting local coffee shops.
Aaron Updike - Meteorologist NWS Indianapolis, IN
Aaron is one of the newest meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis, starting there in the fall of 2019. Growing up near Madison, Wisconsin, Aaron quickly became interested in weather, and went on to Valparaiso University where he received his B.S. in Meteorology along with minors in Math and Geography. Following his undergraduate education, Aaron got a M.S. in Geography at Virginia Tech, with his thesis work focusing on the effects of remote terrain on tropical cyclone rainbands, specifically Hurricane Matthew. At the WFO in Indianapolis, Aaron is currently leading the Geographic Information System team, with goals to improve the display of office data graphically. He also is heavily involved with outreach at the office, working with educational programs and student volunteers. When not at work, you can typically find Aaron watching, attending or playing most sports or going on hikes and adventures with his wife and golden retriever.