Douglas Hilderbrand
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
About Douglas Hilderbrand
Douglas Hilderbrand currently serves as the National Weather Service Preparedness and Resilience Program lead at their headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. In this role, he leads the Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors, StormReady, and SKYWARN programs. Hilderbrand is currently the AMS Chair of the Weather Band Committee, a member of the newly established Committee on Spirituality, Multifaith Outreach, and Science (COSMOS), and past commissioner of the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise Commission.
For the past 22 years, Hilderbrand has held several roles within the National Weather Service, including as a communications specialist, a NOAA-wide team lead to better quantify and communicate forecast uncertainty, a research and innovation transition to operations lead, and as a NOAA policy adviser for weather and satellites. In all of these roles Hilderbrand brought colleagues and external partners together to achieve success. For example, the Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador program has grown to over 12,000 organizations working together to strengthen community resilience to weather, water, and climate threats. This coalition of organizations, as an example, has helped reduce lightning deaths dramatically since 2016 with a record low in 2021.
Hilderbrand received his Bachelor of Arts degree in geology from Bucknell University, a Master’s degree in geology from the University of South Florida, and a Master’s degree in meteorology from North Carolina State University.