Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder
Dr. Erica Fleishman, Panel Member
Erica Fleishman is Director, Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI); Chair, Geography and Environmental Sciences; and Professor, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University. Erica received a B.S. and M.S. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno. She has 35 years of experience researching land management and ecological responses to environmental change in the western United States. Her long-term research program in the Great Basin documents the status and trends of birds, butterflies, and their habitats in relation to land use and climate change. Erica has also worked with federal agencies and industry on responses of marine mammals to underwater sound and coauthored curricula on applications of remote sensing to environmental sciences. Additionally, she participates in the development of mechanisms for the conservation of private lands under the US Endangered Species Act. As director of OCCRI, she supports public agencies and communities in projecting climate change and its effects on natural and human systems. Erica is a past editor-in-chief of Conservation Biology and currently serves on the editorial boards of two other international journals.
Dr. Ben Kirtman - CI Director, ex officio member, Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS)
Benjamin Kirtman is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the inaugural William R. Middelthon III Endowed Chair of Earth Sciences. He earned a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park. He currently serves as Dean of the Rosenstiel School.
Dr. Kirtman is also Director of NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies and Deputy Director of the University’s Institute for Data Science and Computing. Previously, he served as Associate Dean for Research at the Rosenstiel School. His honors include the Provost’s Award for Scholarly Activity, the Department of Atmospheric Sciences’ undergraduate teaching award (three consecutive years), the Robert D. Cess Distinguished Lecture in Recognition of Outstanding Contributions to Atmospheric Sciences (Stony Brook University), and the University of Miami Faculty Senate Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award (March 2025). He is also the three-time recipient of the Department of Atmospheric Science Undergraduate Teaching Award. He is a Fellow of both the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union.
Professor Kirtman has played a key leadership role in the World Climate Research Programme and served as a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on the physical scientific basis of climate change. He has secured over $100 million in research funding from the NSF, DOE, NOAA, NASA, and the Department of Defense. With over 250 peer-reviewed publications, his research focuses on understanding and predicting climate variability across a range of timescales, from days to decades.
Dr. Michael Prather, Panel Member
Dr. Michael Prather’s scientific career is grounded in a rigorous academic foundation that began at Bethesda‑Chevy Chase High School in Maryland and advanced through degrees in mathematics, physics, and astronomy. He earned his B.S. in Mathematics from Yale University in 1969, followed by a B.A. in Physics from Merton College, Oxford in 1971 (later elevated to an M.A.). He returned to Yale for doctoral studies, completing his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1976. This multidisciplinary training—spanning quantitative methods, fundamental physics, and planetary science—shaped his lifelong focus on atmospheric chemistry, climate processes, and the evolution of the Earth system.
In recent decades, Dr. Prather has served as a leading figure in atmospheric science at the University of California, Irvine, where he joined the faculty in 1992 and ultimately held roles including Department Chair, Fred Kavli Endowed Chair, and UCI Distinguished Professor. He is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus. His recent work includes directing the UCI Environment Institute, serving as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. State Department, and contributing extensively to international climate and ozone assessments through the IPCC, WMO, and other scientific bodies. His expertise in atmospheric composition, greenhouse gas dynamics, and Earth system modeling continues to inform global assessments and policy-relevant research, reflecting a career defined by scientific leadership and sustained public impact.
Dr. Cristiana Stan, Panel Member
Cristiana Stan is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences at George Mason University. An internationally recognized expert in climate dynamics, subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) prediction, and coupled atmosphere–ocean modeling, she has made influential contributions to understanding tropical–extratropical teleconnections, the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), and sources of predictability across weather–climate timescales.
Dr. Stan received her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University in 2005, following earlier degrees in Physics and Atmospheric Physics from the University of Bucharest. She began her research career at the Institute of Geodynamics of the Romanian Academy and later held positions at the Center for Ocean–Land–Atmosphere Studies (COLA) and the Institute of Global Environment and Society before joining George Mason University in 2009.
Her research portfolio spans more than sixty peer-reviewed publications, including highly cited papers and studies recognized by Web of Science “Highly Cited in Field” distinctions. Her work has advanced the use of super-parameterized climate models, explored the role of ocean–atmosphere coupling in subseasonal predictability, and contributed to fundamental insights into intraseasonal variability and its global impacts. She has also developed novel diagnostics for evaluating MJO teleconnections and created machine-learning-based tools for signal processing and improving prediction systems.
Dr. Stan is deeply engaged in national and international scientific leadership. She serves as Vice-Chair of the World Climate Research Programme’s Joint Scientific Committee and is a member of steering groups and advisory panels for the World Weather Research Programme, Centers for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E), and NOAA’s Unified Forecast System (UFS) initiative, where she co-chairs both the S2S and Medium-range Weather application teams. She has organized major international conferences and workshops on S2S prediction and teleconnections and has served as a reviewer and panelist for funding agencies across the U.S. and Europe.
A dedicated mentor and educator, Dr. Stan teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in atmospheric dynamics and Earth system modeling and has supervised students and early-career scientists through programs such as the Weather Program Office’s WINGS initiative. She frequently gives invited seminars, keynotes, and presentations at leading scientific meetings.
Through her scholarship, leadership, and service, Cristiana Stan has helped shape the modern understanding of subseasonal predictability, climate variability, and model development, playing a central role in fostering collaboration across the weather–climate research community.
Dr. Mark Svoboda, Panel Member
As director of the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and a professor within the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Svoboda administers and oversees the center’s staff and mission. Mark is a climatologist by training, and he works closely with federal, tribal, state, basin, local, and international officials and governments on drought monitoring, early warning information systems, science to policy applications, drought indicators and triggers, drought impacts, drought risk management planning, and collaborative research. Dr. Svoboda is the co-founder (serving for 17 years as one of the principal authors) of the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor. Over his career, he has been the PI or Co-PI on over 60 awarded projects totaling nearly $33 million.
His work with the Core Team of the Western Governors’ Association led to the development of a report and recommendations on creating a National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) for the United States. He is currently a member of the World Meteorological Organization/Global Water Partnership Integrated Drought Management Programme’s Advisory Panel. Svoboda actively serves on the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Executive Council in the U.S. and was appointed by the Governor of Nebraska (and currently serves) as a member of the Governor’s Climate Assessment Response Committee.
Mark has served as a member of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s (UNCCD) Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG I) and Science Policy Interface (SPI) teams, where he was a co-chair for their drought working groups over two terms. He was also appointed by the U.S. Department of State to serve as a delegate on the UNCCD’s follow-on IWG II drought team. Dr. Svoboda continues to serve as the drought preparedness working group co-leader for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG).
Dr. Svoboda is credited with coining the term “flash drought”, internationally known for his drought monitoring/early warning and risk management work, and has been a keynote speaker, principal investigator, consultant, advisory board member, or an invited expert for activities in over 75 countries/regions/organizations to date. His work and research in these areas have led to 86 peer-reviewed journal papers and an additional 39 works, including book chapters, reports, and guidance documents. Mark’s bachelor's (Geography: meteorology minor and climate specialization), master's (Geography: Remote Sensing and GIS specialization), and doctoral (Natural Resources: Human Dimensions) degrees were all obtained at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Dr. Kent Tobiska, Panel Member
Dr. Tobiska is the President and Chief Scientist of Space Environment Technologies (SET). He invented the world’s first operational computer code for solar irradiance forecast and extended this expertise into operational space weather systems. Through his career at NOAA, UC Berkeley, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Northrop Grumman, SET, and USU, he has been a USAF/USSF, NASA, and NOAA Principal Investigator. He has been the COSPAR C1 Sub-Commission (Thermosphere & Ionosphere) Chair, the COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere (CIRA) Task Force Chair, and was a Session Organizer for 2002 – 2026 COSPAR scientific sessions. He serves as lead U.S. delegate to ISO for the space environment and developed the ISO solar irradiance and Earth atmosphere density standards; he was the AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environment Technical Committee (ASETC) Committee on Standards (CoS) chair. He has authored/co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers as well as 10 books and major technical publications. Dr. Tobiska is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics as well as a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Committee on Space Research, the American Meteorological Society, the American Commercial Space Weather Association Executive Committee (Executive Committee Chair), and ISO TC20/SC14 US Technical Advisory Group. He currently serves as an industry representative on the Space Weather Advisory Group (SWAG) established by the PROSWIFT Act (2020) to advise US agencies on space weather and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Space Weather Roundtable.
Dr. Ryan Torn, Panel Member
Dr. Ryan Torn is a Professor in the Department of Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany, SUNY. His research expertise is in weather forecast predictability, synoptic and mesoscale dynamics (e.g., hurricanes, winter cyclones, atmospheric rivers, tropopause/jet stream), data assimilation, and ensemble forecasting. He has been the co-author of 77 publications in the peer-reviewed literature on these topics, and his research has been supported by grants from NSF, NOAA, NASA, ONR, DoE, and the US Army Corps of Engineers. From 2019-2025, Dr. Torn was the department chair, overseeing all academic and research aspects of the department, which included revision or creation of six degree programs offered by the department. Furthermore, he has been on the university-wide steering committee for the last two accreditation reviews for UAlbany (2018, 2025). Before joining UAlbany in 2008, he was a postdoctoral associate in the NCAR ASP program. He earned his PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 2007.
Dr. Brad Colman, NOAA Science Advisory Board Member
Brad R. Colman is a member and the inaugural Vice Chair of the NOAA Science Advisory Board (SAB), providing expert counsel on the agency’s scientific and environmental priorities. Brad is the past President (2023) of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). As President, Brad was also chair of the Executive Committee and Council, and worked closely with the Executive Director, the Council, and AMS staff to plan and execute AMS programs. The AMS is the preeminent atmospheric sciences professional society in the USA and has a membership of approximately 12,000 members. After being elected as President, Brad left his position as the Director of Weather Strategy for Bayer/The Climate Corporation. In that role, he oversaw and guided the design and execution of the Bayer Enterprise weather programs. He coordinated across multiple business units to set enterprise priorities and then worked closely with vendors, engineers, and scientists to map out the optimal course necessary to meet these priorities. The program spanned across global data acquisition and validation, data repository architecture and dissemination, model building, and domain expertise.
Before joining Bayer/Climate, Dr. Colman worked on a Microsoft team chartered to grow a new Microsoft consumer weather service to serve the entire Microsoft ecosystem. Prior to joining the private sector, Dr. Colman enjoyed a long and diverse career with NOAA where he worked at The National Weather Service’s forecast office in Seattle, Washington; NOAA’s Environmental Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado; and was the Acting Director of NOAA’s Meteorological Development Laboratory in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Dr. Colman holds a Sc.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Earth Sciences and Mathematics from Montana State University. He Chairs the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics (NASEM) Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC). Dr. Colman is a member and Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), and, prior to being elected President, he served in several different roles within the Society. Dr. Colman is also a member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences and served for seven years as a co-chair of the NOAA Science Advisory Board Environmental Sciences Information Working Group (EISWG).