| David L. Johnson serves as the Assistant Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for Weather Services (National Weather Service), and the United States principal representative with the World Meteorology Organization (WMO). Johnson is responsible for the day-to-day management of NOAA's domestic weather and hydrology operations.
Prior to joining NOAA, Johnson served as the U.S. Air Force director of weather. He retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general, after a 30-year military career. As director of weather, he was one of ten directors at the Headquarters Air Force, Air and Space Operations, and was responsible for developing doctrine, policy, requirements and operational organizations to support Air Force and Army operations worldwide. He also served as one of NOAA's military deputies.
Notably, he organized, trained and equipped forces for the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, and managed a steady flow of accurate and focused environmental information to battlefield commanders. He was a key advisor in the development of the National Polar-orbiting Environmental Operational Satellite System (NPOESS).
Johnson's career is marked by his strong management and fiscal capabilities. During his time as director of weather, he led a massive reengineering effort that revised the organizational structure, training and operations of the 4,000-person career field. Under Johnson's steady hand, retention of weather-career airmen and officers grew to 97 percent, up from 74 percent previously.
Johnson guided the planning, programming and budgeting process implementation at the highest levels in the Air Force and in the Department of Defense. He has a world-wide perspective, having served in leadership positions on the Joint Staff with planning portfolios in Europe/NATO and Asia/Pacific. He secured funding for a new facility for the Air Force Weather Agency to house collection, analysis, modeling and career-field supervision functions.
Prior to his service as the director of weather, Johnson flew fighter, transport and special operations aircraft. He has over 3,800 flying hours including 78 combat sorties. Johnson commanded airdrop and air/land operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and was deputy commander of the Joint Task Force for Operation Support Hope in Rwanda. He was selected for early promotion three times.
Johnson is an honor graduate from the University of Kansas with a degree in geography, and earned his master's degree in human relations from Webster's University. He is a graduate of the National War College, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and from the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
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