Robert Prestley Email & Phone Number

Boulder, Colorado, United States

I work in the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Laboratory (MMM) in NCAR. In my role as an Associate Scientist, I primarily play a scientific support role, working with colleagues including Rebecca Morss and Julie Demuth to advance social science research to support meteorological science. Currently, my primary focus is on analysis of interviews conducted with broadcast meteorologists and emergency managers as part of an effort to improve visual products produced by the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center during tropical cyclones. I have also been involved in analysis of survey data collected from National Weather Service partners, to understand their understanding, uses, and preferences of probabilistic winter weather forecast information. Previously, I've analyzed data collected from Twitter dung the 2017 hurricane season (Harvey & Irma) to understand the types of image content posted by authoritative sources during these storms and to understand what factors influence engagement with tweets (including image content, tweet text content, presence of multimedia, which source is tweeting, etc.). I also assisted in efforts to build timing guidance for key winter and fire weather parameters for use by National Weather Service forecasters.

Boulder, Colorado, United States

Lexington, Ky

During my time as a grad student at the University of Kentucky, I served as a graduate teaching assistant for three semesters. I primarily acted as a test/assignment grader, and as a liaison between students in large lecture classes and the instructor. I assisted the Introduction to Communication (Fall 2017), Mass Media and Culture (Spring 2018), and Patient-Provider Communication (Fall 2018) courses. I also served as a research assistant my final semester (Spring 2019), assisting on several projects led by Dr. Jeannette Sutton.

Louisville, Kentucky Area

Project Title: An Analysis of Twitter Usage at the National Weather Service in Louisville, KYProject Mentor: Ted FunkI worked at the National Weather Service in Louisville, KY as part of the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship program. My research focused on analyzing over 5000 tweets over a two-year period to assess which posts by the office were well-received by users and which weren't. I also assessed whether the switch to a dedicated Decision Support Services desk had any impact on posting frequency. Finally, I investigated the timeline of posting before, during, and after high-impact events. This research continued my focus on information sources and weather information and increased my knowledge of social media vocabulary and social media analytics. I prepared an oral presentation that I presented at the NOAA Symposium, and presented a poster presentation at the 2016 National Weather Association meeting.

Bryan/College Station, Texas Area

Project Title: Trust and Information During Hurricane IkeProject Mentor: Dr. John Nielsen-GammonI spent eight weeks conducting research using a survey of Houston area residents conducted shortly after Hurricane Ike made landfall in 2008. The project developed my research skills and proficiency with Microsoft Excel. The culmination of the project was a poster presentation that I've presented at the 2016 American Meteorological Society annual meeting and that was awarded 2nd place in the 2015 Penn State Earth and Mineral Sciences Undergraduate Poster Exhibition.

Sheboygan, Wisconsin Area And State College, Pennsylvania

Over the summer of 2014, I worked for the north Sheboygan Walmart as an overnight stocker in dry grocery and household, which involved downstacking products in the backroom, stocking products in the correct location in the store, and rotating and ensuring products were in the right place. During the school year I worked at the Atherton St. Walmart in State College, PA as a produce associate. I was responsible for keeping produce items stocked, rotating produce stock, and ensuring that the freshest produce was available to the customers. I frequently had to balance 20-30 hours at work per week with demands from classes and extra-curricular activities I was involved in.

Sheboygan, Wisconsin Area

For six years, I delivered a variety of different newspapers to about 60 residences, which took about an hour each morning before going to school.

Master'S Degree, Communication, General, 3.80

I completed my Master's degree in Communication in 2019, as well as graduating with a graduate certificate in Risk Sciences. My coursework.

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Major: Meteorology, Minor: Psychology, 3.81

Activities and Societies: Emergency Management Club, Campus Weather Service, Chi Epsilon Pi, Pride of the Lions Pep BandI graduated.