Mary M. Cairns, past STAC Commissioner and Meteorologist, retired in 2010 after 34 years of Federal Service. For the last two and a half years of work, she was the Reduce Weather Impact Solution Set Coordinator in the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System’s office where she coordinated and provided oversight to the aviation weather programs for NextGen. Prior to the FAA, Ms. Cairns was with NOAA for over 32 years, where she began as a Cooperative Education Student with the Wave Propagation Laboratory, and in the following 17 years was a Research Meteorologist at Program for Regional Observing and Forecasting Systems (PROFS), the PROFS Deputy Director, and Chief of the Verification Program Branch, Forecast System Laboratory/Aviation Division. From 1994-2002 Ms. Cairns served as the first Science and Operations Officer for the NOAA/NWS Forecast Office in Reno, Nevada before joining the staff at the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research (OFCM) in Silver Spring, MD. She received a B.S. in Meteorology from San Jose State University, San Jose, CA in 1978 and a M.S. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO in 1988. She is a graduate of the NWS 2000 Senior Leadership Potential Program, and the Department of Commerce Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program.
Ms. Cairns has also been very active in the AMS, and is an AMS Fellow. Her participation includes a Member, American Meteorological Society, 1976-present; STAC Commissioner 2010-2012; Past STAC Commissioner (2013-2014); Member and Chair, AMS Annual Meeting Oversight Committee; Committee on Weather Analysis and Forecasting, 2002-2008, Chair, 2005-2008; Committee on Aviation, Range and Aerospace Meteorology, 1996-1998; Committee on Probability and Statistics, 1993-1995. She has also been involved as a Member of the National Weather Association, 1991-present; NWA Council, 2002-2004; Awards Committee, 2001-2005, Chair, 2004-2005; Aviation Committee, 1992-1996. Other volunteer work included: Member, American Geophysical Union, 1990-present; Fellow, NOAA/Cooperative Institute for Atmospheric Sciences and Terrestrial Applications (CIASTA), 1997-2002; Chair, CIASTA Council of Fellows, 1997-2002. Member, NOAA/ERL EEO Committee, 1984-1986. She has authored over 50 publications, and made numerous presentations at AMS and NWA conferences, as well as other local and national workshops and meetings. Currently she is serving as the first Chief Editor of the Glossary of Meteorology, and also as lead Chair for the 2016 AMS Annual Meeting.
Ms. Cairns spent the majority of her career focused on the improvement of operational forecasts and services. Her early work centered on the development of the prototype AWIPS system, the NOAA/NWS meteorological display system, in the area of forecast evaluation. After her work at Deputy Director of PROFS, Ms. Cairns used her experience and applied it to aviation forecasting, and originated the Real-Time Verification System developed at FSL (now the Global Systems Division in the Earth System Research Laboratory) and currently in operational use at the NWS/NCEP/Aviation Weather Center. Before moving to OFCM, she was the Science and Operations Officer at the Reno, Nevada NWS Forecast Office. Her work there in addition to forecasting included training staff, real-time mesoscale modeling, research projects with the Desert Research institute including precipitation estimation from the
WSR-88D and mesoscale model data assimilation. She was also a member of the original National Digital Forecast Database Integrated Work Team, developing the concept for the NDFD, leading the group in the concept of operational products. At OFCM Ms. Cairns supported interagency policy and requirements work, in particular as the Assistant Federal Coordinator for DOT (FAA) Affairs, Aviation Research and Services before moving to the FAA to head the newly established NextGen Reduce Weather Impact efforts.