For the month of October NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory is publishing a series of stories highlighting some of the women working at the lab. One Q&A segment will be published each Monday in October.
Jami Boettcher is a research assistant with The University of Oklahoma Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies at NOAA NSSL’s Radar Research and Development Division. She is a radar meteorologist working with two teams of scientists on possible future radar technologies. Boettcher has previously worked for the National Weather Service and has taught as an adjunct at a variety of institutions.
Q: Describe the path leading up to your current job.
A: The first 10 years of my National Weather Service career were in operations as a meteorologist and then as a hydrologist. I next spent 23 years as an NWS instructor at the Warning Decision Training Division, where my training emphasis was on NEXRAD Radar Principles and the impacts on operations of NEXRAD software and hardware upgrades.
Q: What is it about your job that interests you?
A: Radar, radar, and did I forget to mention radar? More precisely, radar based data quality for National Weather Service forecast and warning operations.
Q: What is your personal philosophy?
A: I’ll call this an aspiration, which means I don’t always succeed: Be patient, respectful, kind, and listen, because everyone you interact with has their own wounds, whether they know it or not.
Q: What does true leadership mean to you?
A: I want to follow leaders who have a core belief that everyone has something to contribute, and provide the patience and attention required to mix those contributions in the best way possible. I prefer leaders who convey interest in people, who know when to direct, when to inspire, and when to get out of the way.
Q:Who is your role model and why?
A: Though she is no longer physically with us, Liz Quoetone. Through decades as co-workers, we explored the nooks and crannies of the human experience. She taught me the power of compassion, patience, and kindness, while she nudged the culture of the NWS toward recognizing the human element of warning operations.