天美影视传媒

USA Faculty and Alumni Elected to Meteorological Leadership Positions

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Posted on February 6, 2025

Joy Washington

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天美影视传媒 Meteorology Adjunct Instructor Alan Sealls is the 2025 president-elect for the American Meteorological Society.

Professor of Meteorology Dr. John Lanicci, in the Department of Earth Sciences, and USA graduate Stephen B. Bennett have both been elected to the executive council.  The American Meteorological Society focuses on weather, water, and climate sciences and services.

 

Alan Sealls

Sealls is an AMS Fellow and Certified Broadcast Meteorologist who retired from a 37-year broadcast career, where he served, in part, as the chief meteorologist at WPMI-TV in Mobile. He was elected as president-elect and will begin his term at the 106th AMS Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas, starting in January 2026..

鈥淚 am honored and elated to be elevated to this position. I will work to support the AMS president and AMS membership and staff, and as I prepare to take on the role as president in January of 2026,鈥� Sealls said. 鈥淢y immediate goal is to maintain and promote excellence in the Society. I plan on providing support for those of us in weather and related fields along with the services and education we provide to the public.鈥�

Sealls has received 29 regional Emmy nominations. He has received numerous awards including being a 16-time regional Emmy winner who went viral on YouTube for his 2017 coverage of Hurricane Irma.

Sealls earned his Bachelor of Science in meteorology from Cornell University and a Master of Science in meteorology from Florida State University.  Sealls has been a member of the American Meteorological Society for more than 35 years.

 

Dr. John Lanicci

Lanicci is a professor of meteorology and academic director of the Coastal Weather Research Center in the Department of Earth Sciences at South. He joined the USA faculty in 2017.

鈥淚 am pleased to be serving on the AMS council,鈥� Lanicci said. 鈥淚 can tell you that the council essentially functions as a governing body for the American Meteorological Society. Members of this organization are involved in all important business decisions of the society, working with the full-time staff and the senior leadership on policy matters about the governance of the society, which has approximately 13,000 members around the world.鈥�

Prior to Lanicci鈥檚 academic career, he spent 27 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a colonel in 2006. There, he was a weather forecaster, supporting two early NASA space shuttle missions; a research meteorologist; chief of meteorological models; staff at the Pentagon; on faculty at the Air War College; and a commander at the department, squadron and wing levels. Lanicci has co-authored an introductory textbook and two chapters on environmental security, authored/co-authored 25 peer-reviewed journal articles and technical reports, and made more than 75 conference presentations.

He has been a member of the American Meteorological Society for more than 35 years and is a founding chair of the Committee on Environmental Security. Lanicci earned a master's degree and a doctorate from Penn State University.

 

Stephen B. Bennett

Stephen Bennett, J.D., has spent more than 25 years connecting climate change and extreme weather to financial applications. As the chief scientist and co-founder of Demex, he leads efforts to deploy innovative reinsurance programs for severe convective storms. Bennett鈥檚 career spans meteorology, law and finance.

鈥淢y goal is to maximize the value of AMS meetings for the members,鈥� Bennett said. 鈥淚 believe that our council must clearly define the pressing and strategic issues of our members and then encourage new meeting formats such as breakouts, discussions and lightning talks.鈥�

Bennett holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree in meteorology from South and a J.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago鈥檚 School of Law.

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