NOAA's Regional Climate Services Program: Regional Activities in the East
Abstract Art DeGaetano, Director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, and Ellen Mecray, Regional Climate Services Director for the Eastern Region with NOAA, will share their approach for engaging with stakeholders and increasing awareness and knowledge of climate change impacts in the Northeast. The mission of the Northeast Regional Climate Center is to facilitate and enhance the collection, dissemination and use of climate data and information, as well as to monitor and assess climatic conditions and impacts in the twelve-state, northeastern region of the United States. Its activities are intended to further the economic efficiency and general welfare of public and private institutions and individuals in the region. NOAA/NCEI's Regional Climate Services provide the data, tools, and information that help private and public sector constituents in the East reduce their risk and improve their resiliency to the impacts of climate variability and change.
Ellen Mecray is the NOAA Regional Climate Services Director for the Eastern Region, based in Norton, Massachusetts. She is also the U.S. co-lead for the Gulf of Maine Council’s Climate Network, the co-lead for the New England Federal Partners Climate committee, and the lead for the Federal Climate Partners for the Mid-Atlantic. Before working in her current capacity, Ellen led strategic planning for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research where she worked on several initiatives, including ocean acidification, Integrated Ecosystem Assessments, and NOAA’s Strategic Plan. Prior to joining NOAA, Ellen was an oceanographer with the USGS’s Coastal and Marine Geology program. Her research interests include geochemistry of estuarine and coastal contaminants as well as paleoclimatology reconstructions. Ellen holds a BS in geology from Colgate University and an MS in geological oceanography from the University of Rhode Island.
Art DeGaetano is Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell. He is also the director of the federally-supported Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC). The NRCC`s mission is to enhance the use and dissemination of climate information to a wide variety of sectors in the Northeast. Art serves as a climatology specialty editor for the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Art has been at Cornell since 1991 serving as the center`s Research Climatologist until 2001. Prior to his arrival at Cornell Art was an Assistant Professor with the Meteorology Department at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City. He received an interdisciplinary Ph.D. focusing on Climatology and Horticulture from Rutgers University in 1989.
Ellen Mecray Regional Climate Services Director, Eastern Region; NOAA/NESDIS/National Centers for Environmental Information and Arthur DeGaetano Northeast Regional Climate Center Director; Cornell University
