Bradley R. “Brad” Colman is the director of Weather Strategy for Bayer/The Climate Corporation. In this role, he coordinates across multiple business units to set Enterprise weather priorities, and works with vendors, engineers, and climate scientists to provide tailored decision-support information to Bayer’s global agricultural industry. Before working for Climate, he was principal program manager on a Microsoft team charged to develop a sole-source weather service for their ecosystem.

Prior to joining the private sector, Colman enjoyed a long and diverse career with NOAA, where he worked at NWS’s forecast offices in Seattle, Washington (MIC & SOO), and Juneau, Alaska (forecaster); NOAA’s Environmental Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado (research meteorologist); and NOAA’s Meteorological Development Laboratory, Silver Spring, Maryland (acting director). Colman has served as affiliate associate professor at the University of Washington and affiliate assistant professor at the University of Idaho.

He is an AMS Fellow (1995), recipient of the Mitchell Award (2000), and has served as commissioner of the Planning Commission (2012–15) and the Scientific and Technological Activities Commission (2001–06); councilor and member of the Executive Committee (1997–2000); chief editor of Weather and Forecasting (1992–97); and associate editor of Monthly Weather Review (1990–93).

Colman earned his Sc.D. in atmospheric sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1984) and a B.S. in Earth sciences from Montana State University (1977). He coedited an award-winning two-volume Handbook of Weather, Climate, and Water (Wiley Press, 2003). He has also authored or coauthored more than 30 journal articles, contributed content to 4 books, and coauthored the NRC report, Where the Weather Meets the Road (2004). He is a Bayer Science Fellow (2018), an elected Member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences (2014), cochair of the Environmental Information Services Working Group (NOAA-SAB, 2018–present), and a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC, 2019–present).

As executive director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), a non- profit worldwide scientific and educational organization of amateur and professional astronomers, Stella Kafka utilized a combination of talent, skills, and scientific accomplishments that she now brings to her new role as AMS executive director.

Kafka obtained her B.S. degree in physics at the University of Athens, Greece, and a master’s and Ph.D. in astronomy, with a double minor in physics and geophysical sciences from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. There she received the Hollis and Grete Johnson Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Research. After completing her Ph.D., Stella held a series of prestigious postdoctoral positions and fellowships, first at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, where she received the National Optical Astronomy Observatory Excellence Award, then at IPAC/Caltech, and finally as a NASA Astrobiology Institute Fellow at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Stella also brings with her a wealth of managerial experience. In addition to serving as the director of two research and mentorship programs for undergraduates while in Chile, Stella managed editorial, marketing, financial, business development, operations, and production aspects of journals at the American Institute of Physics (AIP). As a journal manager at AIP, Stella successfully oversaw the launch of a new journal and served as a liaison between publishing and research communities.

On top of her research and management abilities, Stella brings an international perspective to her work. After growing up in Greece, she obtained a Proficiency Diploma in the French language (she has one in English, too), pursued higher education in the United States, and worked and traveled in South America (including Chile, Argentina, and Brazil). Stella is fluent in Greek and English and speaks Spanish and French.

Stella enjoys interacting with people of every age and background and has honed her communication skills through mentoring students, classroom teaching, and lectures to professional and public audiences. And then, like all good communicators, she knows when to stop and listen.

Anjuli S. Bamzai currently serves as Senior Science Advisor, Global Climate Change in the Directorate for Geosciences, National Science Foundation (NSF).  In this role she represents NSF at various leadership positions in interagency Working Groups e.g.,  U. S. Global Change Research Program,  Interagency Arctic Policy Research Committee,  Climate Security Advisory Council, U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability program, as well as ad hoc Working Groups convened by the Office of Science and Technology Policy e.g. Fast-track Action Committee on Earth System Predictability.   

At NSF, she has served as Division Director, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, Section Head Atmosphere Section, program director Arctic Natural Sciences and program director Climate and Large-Scale Dynamics.  She has worked as a program manager at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Atmospheric and Oceanic Research, Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science and NSF.  She has highlighted the role of science diplomacy through an Embassy Science Fellowship at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul Republic of Korea, and will be doing a stint as Embassy Science Fellow at the Embassy in Cairo Egypt this summer. 

She has served as the US Government reviewer for the IPCC AR4 and was the NSF ex-officio member on the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee for the third National Climate Assessment. She was program manager for the International Research Institute, Columbia University during its formative period.  

Bamzai earned a Ph.D. in Earth Systems and Global Changes from George Mason University (1997).  The training she received in India includes the following: Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay India (1979); Masters in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay India (1973); and Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics (major), Mathematics and Statistics from Fergusson College, Pune India (1971).