As Director of the National Weather Service International Activities Office, Courtney Draggon is responsible for supporting the NWS mission and operations through international engagement. The International Activities Office mission is to provide significant strategic and technical leadership to the global weather, climate, and water community so that the community can make increasingly well-informed social and economic decisions. It also provides leadership in facilitating the agencies collaboration with the global hydro-meteorological community.
Ms. Draggon holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from American University’s School of International Service. Prior to joining the federal government, Ms. Draggon worked for the State Department as well as in the non-profit sector doing conflict resolution training for water engineers in resource scarce countries. Most of this work was conducted in Turkey and Cyprus.
Ms. Draggon has worked for the NWS since 2004, starting as a Presidential Management Fellow. During her tenure at NWS, Ms. Draggon has served as regional focal point for Asia, Central American, and the Caribbean. In this capacity, she negotiated bilateral agreements and activities with China, Korea, and Mexico. As the Americas focal point, she coordinated and lead preparations for several World Meteorological Organization (WMO) meetings in the region, including the WMO Hurricane Committee and the WMO Quadrennial Regional Association IV (Americas) meeting.
Prior to becoming International Activities Office Director, Ms. Draggon was the office’s Deputy Director. She worked on a variety on international hydro-meteorological issues ranging from disaster preparedness activities in hurricane-prone regions to education and training to build forecaster competencies in developing country met services
As Deputy Director, Courtney served as overall WMO focal point. She has participated in and led many U.S. delegations to a variety of WMO meetings including the World Meteorological Congress and WMO Executive Council (EC) sessions. She has served as Alternate Head of Delegation to the WMO Congress and EC and has represented the WMO Permanent Representative at various EC working group meetings. In her role as Director, Courtney also sits on two WMO working groups for capacity development.
Ms. Draggon grew up in the Washington, DC, area and has lived with her family in Chile, Brazil, and the Republic of South Korea. She is married with two children.