The Weather Program Office is celebrating the career of Jessie Carman, Division Chief of Earth System Research and Modeling. Jessie retired at the end of December 2024 after more than 40 years of federal service, including 12 years at WPO.
Jessie joined WPO—then called the Office of Water and Air Quality—in 2012 as the Associate Project Manager for Research, Earth System Prediction Capability. She later became the Program Manager for Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Prediction, and after nearly five years in that position, she shifted to her Division Chief role in January 2023.

In late 2024, she received NOAA’s Silver Sherman award from John Ten Hoeve, WPO’s acting director at the time. These are given by each member of NOAA Senior Executive Service to recognize employees who perform beyond their duties, excelling in their work for the betterment of the program they support. A recent example of her work was when NOAA determined that it was necessary to do a federal register notice to respond to the request for rulemaking related to the Weather Modification Reporting Act. No one in OAR had done one before, yet she jumped in and figured it out, working with colleagues in Fisheries. She then worked nights and weekends to compile and analyze the thousands of responses and set us up to be able to respond to any inquiries from Congress or the Administration after her retirement.
“Jessie has been a dependable member of WPO since 2012, serving in several critical roles including the Earth System Prediction Capability Program Manager, ICAMS Coordinator, S2S Program Manager, Acting WPO Deputy Director, and Division Chief of the Earth Systems Research and Modeling Division,” says John Ten Hoeve. “Her consistent leadership and dedication to WPO has enabled many research projects and partnerships to flourish, making the office significantly stronger.”


Jessie brought invaluable knowledge and experience to WPO. In addition to earning her masters and PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard, she served in the U.S. Navy for 30 years holding positions of Staff Oceanographer, Meteorologist, Department Head at the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center in Monterey, and Commanding Officer of the Naval Central Meteorology and Oceanography Center in Bahrain. In her last eight years with the Navy, she served as a permanent military professor and chair of the oceanography department for the U.S. Naval Academy.