John Cortinas

As a member of the federal government’s senior executive service, I have served nine years as director of OWAQ, NOAA Research’s program to improve NOAA National Weather Service products and services for high-impact weather events. In this office, I also oversaw NOAA’s U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP), the Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI), and hosted the National Earth System Prediction Capability project office. I have extensive experience transitioning research to operations, particularly through USWRP and JTTI. Prior to joining OWAQ in 2010, I directed NOAA Research’s Cooperative Institute program, overseeing the administration of a program that supported more than 1000 scientists and students at United States universities working with NOAA.  In this position, I oversaw administration, grant management, and science policy development for cooperative institutes across the United States and led the development of NOAA’s first Administrative Order governing CIs and its accompanying handbook.