The Office of Organizational Excellence provides strategic thinking, challenges the status quo, enables change, and creates connections both internally and externally to support the NWS to become the agile and effective organization needed to build a Weather-Ready Nation. The Office explores the forces and factors influencing the NWS and develops strategies to meet the increasing demand for weather, water, and climate services across the Nation. The Office executes a partnership strategy for the NWS that builds and sustains relationships across the weather, water, and climate enterprise to achieve the vision of a Weather-Ready Nation, and supports engagements with Enterprise partners. The Office understands the mix of values, interactions, and operations of the NWS workforce to ensure their organizational health and supports a high-performance culture that achieves strategic goals. The Office also advances NWS policies and programs for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, including the NOAA Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan, NWS DEIA Strategic Action Plan, NWS Human Capital Strategy, and NWS Organizational Health Action Plan. The Office maintains and continuously improves the policies, procedures, roles, and governance authorities that link NWS Headquarters and Field functions and ensures the organization is meeting its science, service, and workforce requirements now and in the future.
NWS VISION
National Weather Service (NWS) people and
processes continuously adapt and improve,
resulting in a healthy, engaged workforce that
provides high quality service to the public.
Courtney Draggon is performing the duties of Director of the Office of Organizational Excellence at the National Weather Service (NWS). In this role, she leads and manages activities that enhance NWS efforts to build a Weather-Ready Nation...
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Andrea Bleistein is the Deputy Director for the NWS’s Office of Organizational Excellence, supporting activities enabling NWS to become the agile and effective organization needed to build a Weather-Ready Nation (WRN)...
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Lara Pagano is the Organizational Health and Culture Lead where she supports initiatives and activities that aim to improve organizational health and culture across the entire agency...
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Julia Swanson is the Governance Lead in NWS Office of Organizational Excellence leading efforts to update the Governance to help the NWS become more agile, efficient, and effective...
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Cindy Elsenheimer is the Partnership Engagement Lead for the NWS’s Office of Organizational Excellence, leading our efforts to implement the NWS Partnership Strategy and building on the momentum of developing key partnerships across the weather enterprise with the NWS...
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Patricia Brown is the Acting Team Lead for the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Program...
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Mary Dunbar is one of the Lead National Special Emphasis Program Managers and Equal Opportunity Specialists for the NWS Office of Organizational Excellence’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Program Team...
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Lisa Schmit is the co-lead of the Tiger Team Task Force, which is housed within the NWS’s Office of Organizational Excellence (OOE), supporting implementation of recommendations to improve the diversity and culture of the organization, while enhancing the employee experience...
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Bethany Perry serves as the Coordinator for the NOAA Central Region Collaboration Team, a position she has held since its creation in 2009...
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Bali White - As an Equal Employment Opportunity & Diversity Management Specialist within the National Weather Service's Office of Organizational Excellence, Bali White drives initiatives crucial for fostering Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) within the agency.
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