Program

9:00 AMS Mahoney Lecture
David Applegate, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and Acting Associate Director for Natural Hazards, U.S. Geological Survey
10:00 Call to Order and Forum Preview
Heidi Centola (IBM and AMS Commission of the Weather Water and Climate Enterprise Commissioner), Jordan Gerth (NOAA and Chair of the AMS Board on Enterprise Communication), Andrea Lang (University of Wisconsin–Madison, Chair of the AMS Board on Enterprise Economic Development)
10:15 AMS Leadership Panel
 
Brunch Break (11:15 - 12:15)
12:15 Congressional Keynote and Congressional Roundtable
(Modified Chatham House Rule)

 
Coffee Break (2:00 - 2:30)
2:30 Enterprise Keynote

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Marcia McNutt, a distinguished geophysicist and the current president of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. McNutt’s remarkable career includes leadership roles in prominent scientific organizations not limited to serving as editor-in-chief of the Science journals, director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and president of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Her academic career began at MIT, where she was a professor of geophysics and directed a joint oceanography program.
 
 
3:45 Session 1:  NOAA Leadership Overview

 
4:15 Closing Remarks
8:00 Networking Coffee and Light Breakfast
9:00  Call to Order
Andrea Lang (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Chair of the AMS Board on Enterprise Economic Development
9:05  Session 2: Energy Security and Energy Dominance
Plentiful, affordable, reliable energy is a critical driver of the American economy and its future growth. Energy demand has long been modulated by weather and climate primarily through air temperature, but now generation is increasingly weather-driven with the growth in renewables over the last 10-20 years.  The U.S. has many sources of energy generation and dispatch available currently (including natural gas, renewables, nuclear, and battery storage) and potentially others in the near future (hydrogen) that could offer new opportunities for growth. Among the current Administration’s stated policy goals is to expand energy infrastructure in the U.S., which is expected to “create jobs and economic prosperity for Americans.” Our nation’s energy security is rooted in both affordability and reliability of energy, and its energy dominance can be achieved through removing potential barriers to low-cost energy generation, storage, and transmission, particularly as electric demand is increasing due to data centers and other large loads. This session will address actions that are currently underway and are still needed to ensure a “reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy,” as President Trump called for in one of his executive orders.
Organized by the AMS Energy Committee and Renewable Energy Committee.
Moderators:  Angel McCoy (NREL), Jared Lee (NSF NCAR)
Panelists:   Dr. Brent Heard (National Academies Board on Energy and Environment Systems), Jacob Burlin (Pepco Holdings), Dr. Katie Hurst (NREL)
Coffee Break (10:20 - 10:35)
10:35 Session 3: Resiliency for Transportation and Energy Systems in 2030 and Beyond
The transportation and energy systems in the United States are critical backbones of our economic strength, supply chain stability, and national security. Our country is built around roadways and energy infrastructure. Yet these same systems are also susceptible to wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, wind, blizzards, heat waves, and other extreme weather events that degrade both transportation network mobility, efficiency, and safety, as well as energy generation, transmission, and distribution. These degradations lead to economic losses, but these losses can be reduced with improved resilience. This session will explore what needs to happen to increase the resilience and adaptability of transportation and energy sector infrastructure vulnerabilities, including during and after extreme weather events.
Organized by the AMS Road Weather and Technology Committee, Energy Committee, and Renewable Energy Committee.
Moderators: Jared Lee (NSF NCAR), Angel McCoy (NREL), Brittany Welch (NSF NCAR)
Panelists:  Dr. Ashish Sharma (Discovery Partners Institute at the University of Illinois System), Chris Albrecht (Olson), Karma Sawyer (PNNL), Maurice Moss (American Clean Power Association)
Lunch Break (11:50 - 1:00)
1:00 Session 4: Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise Study Report Updates
The AMS Weather Enterprise Study, in its second year of a two-study, recently released a special report that addressed how funding and staffing cuts at NOAA and other federal agencies impact the ability of the entire enterprise to serve the nation and sustain economic prosperity. This session will discuss these issues, with a special focus on the future of NWP as the study continues to reframe its findings toward possible recommendations for how the weather enterprise can be made more effective in serving the public.
Moderators: Mary Glackin (Ret. NOAA and IBM) and Keith Seitter (Holy Cross)
 
1:45 Session 5: AI Ethics and Policy within the Enterprise
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into our daily work. This panel examines the ethical use of AI in aspects of the weather, water, and climate enterprise beyond the development of prediction models, including the drafting of proposals, reports, and communications, as well as research. It will address concerns around authorship, transparency, intellectual and scientific integrity, responsibilities, and the evolving role of human creativity and oversight in AI-assisted work as it applies to the public, private, and academic sectors. (ChatGPT contributed to the development of this abstract.)
Moderators: Jordan Gerth (NOAA), Annarita Mariotti (NOAA), Yue Zheng (NOAA)
Panelists:  Aaron Piña (USDA/USFS), Gerald "Gerry" Mulvey (Texas Academy of Science, Nighthawk Weather), Mike Farrar (BAH), Monica Youngman (NOAA/NWS)
Coffee Break (2:45 - 3:00)
3:00 Session 6: Advancing the Conversation on Open Data vs Data for Profit
The weather, water, and climate enterprise has continually experienced a tension between the domestic and international mandates to make data freely available and the need for private entities to maintain some form of control over their data to remain competitive. This session will attempt to move this conversation forward with ideas for concrete actions that can be applied to achieve a healthy equilibrium across the sectors and stakeholders. The Committee for Open Environmental Information Services is also submitting a BAMS abstract on this topic.
Moderators: Shawn Miller (RTX) and Daniel Rothenberg (Brightband)
Panelists: Jenny Dissen (NOAA), Steve Woll (Little Creek Applied Science), and Elizabeth Wilson (Synoptic)
4:00 Session 7: Open Discussion on Data and AI
In a conversation with the audience, we reflect on the related sessions this afternoon discussing the enterprise study, the ethics and policy issues related to AI, and the merits of open vs. proprietary data. This session will take an opportunity to have a discussion about the value of data for training AI and how the prior sessions intersect.
Moderators: Sue Ellen Haupt (NSF NCAR) and Shawn Miller (RTX)
 
5:00 Closing Remarks
 
8:00 The Dr. Keith Seitter Breakfast Roundtable 
9:00 Call to Order
Jordan Gerth (NOAA) Chair of the AMS Board on Enterprise Communications
9:05 Session 8:  Weather Communications - What ifs
This "reverse panel" session will cover topics pertaining to the future of the Weather Enterprise.  The moderators will propose thought-provoking "What if" scenarios to the audience, then transition to a facilitator role for discussion with the audience on the implications of those scenarios.
Organizers: Gary Szatkowski (OurWeather US), Heidi Centola (IBM), Edward Shaw III (Broadcast Meteorologist, Roanoke, VA)
 
Coffee Break (10:20 - 10:35)
10:35 Enterprise Keynote

Keynote Speaker:  Craig McLean, JD dedicated over 40 years to NOAA, holding the roles of NOAA Assistant Administrator for Research, acting Chief Scientist, and the US head of delegation to the UN's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, where he significantly advanced global ocean mapping and the UN Decade of Ocean Science. He attained the rank of Captain in the NOAA Corps. Recognized by President Biden for his leadership and commitment to scientific integrity, McLean continues his engagement advising government, philanthropy, and industry on ocean matters.
 
 
11:15 Session 9: The Weather Act and NOAA:  Measuring Success and Identifying Risks
How do we measure the success of significant legislation?  The authors of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 considered this when they incorporated both ongoing reporting requirements for NOAA, and directed the NOAA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Environmental Information Services Working Group (EISWG) to provide advice and to report annually back to the Congress on progress.  It has been eight years since the initial Weather Act was signed.  This panel discussion will consider how well these efforts worked; provide an overview of this year's Report to Congress, including risks to the Weather Water Enterprise (WWE) and Nation, both which depend on NOAA as a critical foundation; and discuss ways the WWE and its stakeholders can better communicate with Congress to foster innovation and measure success of future legislation.
Moderator:  Brad Colman (SAB Member and past co-chair EISWG)
Panelists: John Kreider, (Chair, NOAA Science Advisory Board), Grant Davis (General Manager, Sonoma Water), and Scott Glen (Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University)
Lunch Break (12:15 - 1:30)
1:30 Session 10: Public-private-academic collaboration in a future AI driven landscape
As artificial intelligence reshapes the boundaries of weather and climate modeling, the traditional public-private-academic partnership model is coming under strain as budgets continue to be cut. The session offers a pragmatic discussion about how we protect the public good under shifting political realities. The panel will explore what a resilient forecasting ecosystem might look like in an AI-driven future, what structural changes are needed to sustain innovation, and how the community can collaboratively respond to deepening uncertainty while reaffirming the irreplaceable role of government in the environmental enterprise.
Moderator: Luke Peffers (Nexus Weather and Climate)
Panelists: Michael Morgan (Univ. Wisconsin-Madison), Jenn Mahoney (NOAA), Mike Eilts (Spire), Daniel Rothenberg (BrightBand)
 
2:30 Session 11: Strategic Topics for the Weather and Climate Enterprise
The Commission on the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise (CWWCE) is charged with developing and implementing programs that address the needs and concerns of all sectors of the weather, water and climate enterprise; promote a sense of community and foster synergistic linkages across sectors. With the rapidly changing environment it is critical to identify strategic topics of focus for open, collaborative discussion. This session will be an opportunity for all attendees to weigh in on what the top emerging needs and opportunities are for our Enterprise and the AMS as we plan for the future.
Moderators: CWWCE Chair and Incoming Chairs, Heidi Centola (IBM) and Tanja Fransen (NOAA)
 
3:15 Closing Remarks
 

All times listed are Eastern Daylight Time.

*Program is subject to change.

The AMS 2025 Joint Washington Forum and Summer Community Meeting will be held under a modified version of the Chatham House Rule, which will be strictly enforced:

Participants are free to use the information received at the 2025 Joint AMS Washington Forum and Summer Community Meeting, but attribution of remarks of speakers (including but not limited to keynotes, moderators, panelists and attendees) by other people is not permitted. It is at the discretion of the individual outside of the virtual forum if they wish to be quoted.

The Chatham House Rule originated at Chatham House with the aim of providing anonymity to speakers and to encourage openness and the sharing of information. It is now used throughout the world as an aid to free discussion. Meetings do not have to take place at Chatham House, or be organized by Chatham House, to be held under the Rule.

More information on the Chatham House can be found here: www.chathamhouse.org