Past Commissioner: Dr. Genene Fisher

Dr. Genene Fisher is the Deputy Director at the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. She is responsible for a broad spectrum of scientific, financial, and administrative activities for OER, including strategic planning, financial management, personnel management, policy and diversity and inclusion. 

From 2015-2020, Genene was the Executive Officer for the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), which is part of NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS). She was responsible for a broad range of scientific, financial, and administrative activities for NCEP’s nine centers which provide national and global operational weather, water, climate, and space weather products and services. In the NCEP Office of the Director, Dr. Fisher oversaw strategic planning, financial management, personnel management, policy, and interagency and international issues.

From 2011-2015, Genene served as the NWS Senior Advisor for Space Weather. In this position, she advised NOAA leadership and federal agency executives on space weather technical and policy issues in preparation for domestic and international strategy and policy formulation. She integrated space weather operations into agency policies and procedures and expanded space weather activities within NWS HQ.

Prior to joining NOAA, Genene spent ten years as a Senior Policy Fellow at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Policy Program, where she focused on science policy issues and societal impacts of weather and climate. She routinely met with policy makers to highlight the importance of atmospheric and space weather science and offered  recommendations on how to reduce adverse impacts to user systems.

Genene has been active with AMS since 2001 in a variety of roles. For example, she has served on the BAMS Editorial Board since 2007. She helped create the AMS Space Weather Committee, served as co-chair of the Space Weather Conference, and led the writing of policy statements.

Genene received a PhD in Atmospheric and Space Science and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan. She also has a B.A. in Planetary and Space Sciences from Boston University.