Since 1980, Tom Wrublewski has been a physical scientist with the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS).

Rear Admiral Samuel P. DeBow Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1953.  He earned his B.S. degree in Commerce and Engineering from Drexel University.  When RADM DeBow graduated in 1976, he became a commissioned officer in the NOAA Corps.  Sam earned his M.S. in Hydrographic Sciences from the Naval Postgraduate School, and was also a Senior Executive Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.  RADM DeBow served almost 30 years as an active-duty officer and is the prior Director of the NOAA Commissioned Corps and the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.

Commander Pamela Chelgren-Koterba, born in 1950 in Annapolis, Maryland, grew up in various places across the United States. She was the third of seven children in the family of Captain John Chelgren, a distinguished U.S. Navy officer, and Ruth Henderson, a talented singer. Growing up, Pam played the piano and flute.  She studied bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated in 1972. During her time at Berkeley, she worked at the Space Sciences Laboratory, contributing to the OGO 5 satellite data verification. In 1972, Pamela joined the NOAA Corps.

David Vallee is the Hydrologist-in-Charge of the National Weather Service’s Northeast River Forecast Center. The center provides detailed water resource and life-saving flood forecasting services to National Weather Service Forecast Offices and the hundreds of federal, state and local water resource entities throughout the Northeast and New York. David has worked for the National Weather Service for 30 years, serving in a variety of positions including Senior Service Hydrologist at the Taunton Weather Forecast Office from 1993-2000 and as Science and Operations Officer from 2001-2006.

Doug Whiteley is the Division Chief of the Research to Operations and Project Planning Division (ROPPD). As Chief of ROPPD, Doug oversees pre-formulation and early formulation for new satellite systems as well as the execution of studies for project alternatives, such as foreign partnerships leveraging data and/or instrument exchanges, small-sats, payload hosting, commercial alternatives, and technology maturation to identify specific potential solutions to NESDIS top-level requirements.

Suzanne Tully McCarthy was born in 1936 in Roanoke, Virginia. She is of English, Scottish, Northern European, Scandinavian, and Germanic descent, with her maternal grandparents, Emma Row Arbenz and Herman Leonard Arbenz, hailing from Wheeling, West Virginia. Her paternal grandparents were Mary Clarcia Jarrell and Richard Grant Tully, with roots in West Virginia and Virginia. Suzanne pursued her education in mathematics, earning a B.A. from the College of William and Mary in 1957. She furthered her studies with an M.S. in numerical analysis from Johns Hopkins University in 1975.

Mr. Stephen Gill was born in Lake Placid, New York in 1948.  He earned his BS and MS in Oceanography from New York University School of Engineering and Science.  Gill came to work for NOAA in 1975 as an Oceanographer for the National Ocean Service.  From 1997 to his retirement in 2016, Mr. Gill served as Chief Scientist for NOAA/NOS Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services.  

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Captain Albert “Skip” Theberge, Jr. was born in 1946 in Coquille, Oregon.  When Skip was three years old, his family moved to Santa Cruz, where he learned to surf and because fascinated with the ocean.  He graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a professional degree in geological engineering. Skip also has a master’s degree in management from the Naval Postgraduate School.  In 1969, Theberge was commissioned as an ensign in the ESSA Corps, which soon became NOAA Corps. He retired with the rank of captain in 1995, after nearly 27 years of commissioned service.

Dr. Varanasi had a notable career as the science and research director of NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center, where she served from 1994 and became the first woman to lead a fisheries field office. She dedicated over 30 years to applying chemistry to address critical biological questions and enhance environmental policy. After retiring from NOAA, she contributed to the University of Washington's College of the Environment and was involved in collaborative efforts between NOAA and the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India.

Mr. Robert Hansen was born in on Earth Day, April 22, 1949, in Bayshore, New York.  He was the first in his family to attend college, and earned his Bachelor’s and then a Master's Degree in Geography from the University at Albany.  Mr. Hansen came to work for NOAA as a cartographer in Aeronautical Charting.  He then worked as a technical information specialist for the National Ocean Service, chief of the NOAA Map Library, constituent affairs specialist, NOAA Historian, and retired as the national outreach coordinator for Education.   

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