John Ogren was born in 1966 in Blue Island, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He was fascinated by the weather from an early age. He grew up listening to his grandfather's stories about the deadly 1967 oak lawn tornado outbreak. In high school, John became really interested in earth science and was "hooked" after a six-week weather unit in science class. Mr. Ogren attended Western Illinois University, where he graduated in 1988 with a degree in geography and a minor in broadcasting and communications. John always knew he wanted to work for the National Weather Service and was offered his first position as a meteorologist intern for a Weather Service Office in Appalachia. In 1992, Ogren promoted to warning coordination meteorologist at the NWS office in Wichita, Kansas. After nearly ten years in Kansas, John moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as the national program manager for the warning coordination meteorologists, working closely with FEMA on disaster preparedness.  In 2002, John came to Indianapolis to work as meteorologist-in-charge for a weather office there, before becoming deputy regional director of the Weather Service Central Region. In 2010, John returned to Kansas to serve as the NWS training center director.