Aimee M. Devaris is the Deputy Director for the Alaska Region of the National Weather Service (NWS). She has served as the Acting Director since December 2011. The NWS Alaska Region provides weather and water forecasts, warnings, and information, including specialized alerts for volcanic ash and tsunami danger. The region has several forecast centers in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, and a number of remote weather stations covering the expansive state.
The lure of an Alaskan adventure drew Ms. Devaris to the NWS after attending a recruitment seminar at Texas A&M University. She began her NWS career as an intern at the remote weather service office in Kodiak, Alaska, in 1994, worked through the ranks as forecaster and eventually a manager at the Juneau, Alaska, Weather Forecast Office, and assumed programmatic responsibility for the region’s public, marine, warning, and service delivery programs in 2001 at the regional headquarters in Anchorage.
Ms. Devaris made the move to NWS Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, in 2005 to serve as the Chief of the NWS Performance Branch. She provided leadership for the NWS’s quality assurance activities by measuring performance through forecast verification and assessing customer satisfaction with service delivery. In this role she oversaw the service assessments for Hurricane Charley, the Baltimore Harbor Ferry Accident, and Hurricane Katrina. Ms. Devaris was awarded a DOC Silver Medal in November 2006 for coordinating the NWS role in the recovery mission for the grounded Selendang Ayu cargo ship in the Bering Sea.
Ms. Devaris then served as the Executive Officer for the NWS Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services (OCWWS) coupled with a matrix position within NOAA to lead the budget planning to support the NWS Strategic Plan. Her role spanned the daily management and direction of OCWWS, including policy formulation, operational procedures for field offices, performance management, and strategic outreach, in addition to the broader NOAA leadership role in the formulation of plans and projects supporting the fulfillment of NWS mission responsibilities.
In 2008, after serving on detail as the NWS Chief of Budget Formulation and Program Analysis, Ms. Devaris returned to the “Great Land” as the Deputy Director of the Alaska Region.
Ms. Devaris holds a Master of Science degree in Engineering and Science Management from the University of Alaska Anchorage (2005) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from Texas A&M University (1994).