Severe thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts, large hail, and a few tornadoes, are likely to develop this afternoon from parts of the lower Ohio Valley into the southern Plains. An Enhanced Risk (Level 3 of 5) outlook has been issued. Further north, widespread rain showers are expected across portions of the Great Lakes and Northeast U.S. Read More >
Deirdre Reynolds Jones
Director, Office of Facilities
NOAA’s National Weather Service
Deirdre Reynolds Jones is the Director of the Office of Facilities which is one of six portfolio Offices in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service (NWS). In this role, Ms. Jones provides oversight of leasing, construction, maintenance, repair and disposal for NWS’ portfolio of real property located in all 50 states and US territories, as well as NWS’ environmental compliance, sustainability and employee safety programs. Prior to this position, Ms. Jones led the Office of Operational Systems in an acting capacity for two years and directed one of its divisions for five years. For OOS she directed life cycle support and maintenance for all aspects of NWS’ field infrastructure from observing systems, such as weather radar systems, buoy systems and other in situ weather sensors, to dissemination systems, such as the NOAA Weather Radio, and the Telecommunications Gateway, which distributes weather data to customers and partners from all sectors nationally and internationally.
From February 2001 until September 2010 Ms. Jones was the Director of the Systems Engineering Center within the Office of Science and Technology where she led acquisition, development, testing and deployment of planned product improvements of NWS weather systems. Under her leadership, SEC completed Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) Build 5 – a series of major upgrades to the critical forecaster workstation; migrated AWIPS to the Linux Operating System for both backend server and user interface capabilities; and digital video broadcast over satellite technology to increase data throughput four-fold with no increase in recurring cost. During her tenure as Director, SEC also completed the Next Generation Weather Radar Open Radar Data Acquisition and Automated Surface Observing System All Weather Precipitation Accumulation Gauge, Ice Free Wind Sensor, and Dewpoint Sensor technology upgrades.
Ms. Jones joined the NWS in 1992 at the Radar Operations Center in Norman, OK where she held the positions of Quality Assurance Chief, Systems Engineering Team Leader, and Engineering Branch Chief, until her appointment to the Senior Executive Service in 2001. Prior to federal service, Ms. Jones held positions with Vitro Corporation in Silver Spring, MD and Midwest City, OK as well as Frontier Engineering, Inc. in Stillwater, OK.
Ms. Jones is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. She also holds a Master of Science in Systems Management from the University of Southern California (USC). She enjoys community service through her church and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®. Ms. Jones resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with her spouse of 27 years, Bobby Jones.
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