Integrated IDSS Workshop

In early 2025, the federal workforce began to change as part of the platform on the incoming Presidential administration. Nearly ever residence training course hosted at the NWS Training Center was temporarily or permanently canceled pending a review of our financial situation and staffing levels. While the courses were cancelled, mine included, staff across the NWS continued to receive requests to support external public safety partners. Acting as the project lead, I worked with a team of 5 to create a stop-gap training to help ease loss of our infamous IDSS Deployment Boot Camp. Despite critically low staffing levels, our team still needed to strengthen the skills required to support decision makers during times of risk and crisis. Together, our team created a 3-day workshop that included a retooled version of our realistic 8-hour simulation, now broken into two 4-hour simulations. The workshop ran 3 times in 2025 and received some of the highest praise of any of our virtual efforts. While many desired the return of the residence IDSS Deployment Boot Camp, they praised our efforts to bring as much of the training to folks across the nation so they could still prepare for their operational duties.

Impact-based Decision Support Services Professional Development Series (Curriculum)

My first major project while working at the National Weather Service Training Center was a national curriculum. Focused on NWS scientists, the business goal of the curriculum was to train employees how to work within external core partner systems and effectively communicate critical environmental information to decision makers. This training assignment was part of the National Weather Service’s shift from product-based to interpretation-based services in an effort to create a Weather-Ready Nation.

My roles in the project were project manager, writer, graphic designer, instructional material developer, and copywriter. (Government work requires many hats!) The final structure of the training included 7 units, ~30 new modules and materials created by my team, 6 existing modules, dozens of exercises, and a competency task book. The first three units of the curriculum are required for all new NWS operational employees, meaning the training has has reached thousands since its completion in 2017. Eventually becoming the project lead in 2018, my role in later years has been the maintenance and ongoing analysis of the content.

For a full list of the materials in the current version of the curriculum, see the NWS Training Portal. The team began updates in 2024, and though I maintain the project lead role, I’ve stepped aside to give a newer employee a chance to design their first NWS curriculum.