Staff Members

Charles E. Konrad II
Director & Professor
Carolina Hall 305
919-962-3873
konrad@unc.edu
Website

Charles, "Chip," Konrad, II, grew up in Roanoke, VA, where he spent lots of time following the weather, poring over maps, collecting rocks, and hiking the mountains. He earned a B.S. in Geophysics from Virginia Tech, an M.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Georgia.

Chip became a professor at the University of North Carolina in 1993. His research focuses on the synoptic climatological characteristics of extreme weather and their impacts across the southeastern United States. He has much expertise across a wide range of areas in climatology and meteorology, including heavy precipitation, tornadoes, hurricanes, cold air outbreaks, heat waves, and winter weather.

Chip has published numerous research articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Monthly Weather Review, Weather and Forecasting, the International Journal of Climatology, Climate Research, and Applied Geography. He also co-authored on the Southeast Technical Report for the National Climate Assessment, and has served as the Director of the Southeast Regional Climate Center since 2010.

Christopher Fuhrmann
Deputy Director & Regional Climatologist
Albert & Gladys Coats Bldg 202
919-843-2704
fuhrman1@email.unc.edu

Originally from Connecticut, Chris moved to North Carolina in the mid-90s and has lived in the South ever since. He earned a B.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from UNC-Chapel Hill and an M.S. in Geography from the University of Georgia. Chris began his career at the SERCC before joining the faculty in the Geosciences Department at Mississippi State University. He also served as the Mississippi Assistant State Climatologist. Chris returned to the SERCC in the Fall of 2022 to direct the Center’s applied research program and lead various climate monitoring and outreach efforts in the region.

Chris’s research interests are in the fields of applied and synoptic climatology, where he studies the effects of weather and climate on society and the role of large-scale circulation features on the distribution and intensity of surface weather events. He is also interested in these relationships in the context of climate variability and change. Chris has published articles on tornado outbreaks, heat waves, winter weather, and the linkages between climate and various aspects of society, such as agriculture and public health. He was also a co-author on the Southeast region technical report used for the 2014 U.S. National Climate Assessment. When he’s not working, Chris enjoys playing chess with his son, Jackson, and singing country music songs with his daughter, Caroline.

William G. Schmitz
Service Climatologist-Meteorologist
Albert & Gladys Coats Bldg 203
919-843-9721
wschmitz@email.unc.edu

William spent most of his youth in California near San Francisco. He moved to Vermont in the early 1990’s so that he could experience some real weather. When the March Super Storm of 1993, came plowing up the East Coast, it planted the passion and ambition for Weather/Climate that would drive William along his career path. In 1998 he obtained his Associates Degree in Physics, and subsequently transferred to Plymouth, NH where in 2001 he graduated with a Bachelors in Meteorology.

William's first job was with Aquila Inc., a Kansas City, MO, based energy company that was spinning up a Weather Derivative Desk. While in Kansas City, William was a Climate Data Analyst and managed a global database of weather data.

William then went on to Work with a small group called GuaranteedWeather and finally with the Southeast Regional Climate Center in 2005. Within the SERCC, William is the Service Climatologist and is responsible for climate research associated with the Southeastern U.S., and educating current and new users on how the SERCC can be of assistance to them.

Julia Cardwell
Graduate Research Associate
Albert & Gladys Coates Bldg 201-B
jmcard@email.unc.edu

Julia is originally from Maryland but has been in North Carolina since 2015. She attended Davidson College and worked at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality in Raleigh before starting a PhD in the Department of Geography at UNC in 2020, where she is advised by Dr. Konrad. Her research interests include extreme events and federal and state recovery efforts. She is currently working on her master's project which attempts to model the role of physical and social variables in predicting concentration of federal recovery aid after Hurricane Matthew and Florence within North Carolina.

Bryttani Wooten
Graduate Research Associate
Albert & Gladys Coates Bldg 201-B
bwooten@unc.edu

Bryttani is originally from Richmond, Virginia but graduated from Penn State University in 2021 with a B.S. in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science and a minor in Geography. Throughout her undergraduate career, Bryttani’s weather interests transformed into a more general interest in climate change and extreme weather events. In 2021 Bryttani joined SERCC and the UNC Department of Geography as a Masters + PhD student advised by Dr. Konrad and Dr. Danielle Purifoy. Her current research interests are the intersection of extreme weather and the health of Black mothers and babies in the Southeast United States..

Andrew Robinson
Graduate Research Associate
Albert & Gladys Coates Bldg 201-B
arobi120@unc.edu

Andrew comes to SERCC from Hendersonville, NC and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he is advised by Dr. Konrad. He recently graduated from UNC Charlotte with an M.S. in Earth Science and B.S. in Earth and Environmental Science and minor in Philosophy. His research interests broadly include climate change, meteorology, and their applied impacts. More specifically, he is interested in work related to extreme heat and its local variability across intra-urban spaces and various microclimates. In his M.S. thesis, Andrew examined localized climate change impacts across major population centers in the different geographic regions of North Carolina. He is currently working on a project which examines impacts of various synoptic weather patterns and land use/land cover on the spatial distribution and intensity of intra-urban UHIs.

Lauren Babinetz
Graduate Research Associate
Albert & Gladys Coates Bldg 103
babinetz@unc.edu

Lauren joins SERCC from Washington, DC, having hailed from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania and graduating from the George Washington University in 2022 with a B.A. in Geography and minors in Biology and Geographic Information Systems. After graduating, she worked as a Geospatial Systems Specialist at Waymap, collecting and processing remote sensing data to assist blind and low-vision people in navigating public transit. Her interests in spatial data from Waymap and emergency management from her tenure as a whitewater kayaking guide combined and in 2024, she joined SERCC and the UNC Department of Geography as a PhD student advised by Dr. Konrad and Dr. Paul Delamater. Her current research interests are the spatial intersections of extreme weather events and gender-based violent crime.

Liv Davis
Graduate Research Associate
Albert & Gladys Coates Bldg 103
livdavis@unc.edu

Liv is originally from Capitola, CA and graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington in 2023 with a B.A in Geography and a B.A. International Studies with a minor in Atmospheric Science. Her research interests are primarily developing extreme weather resilience decision support tools for targeted interventions for vulnerable populations. In 2024, she joined the department of Geography and SERCC as a PhD student advised by Dr. Chip Konrad and Dr. Paul Delamater.

Valerie Scull
Undergraduate Research Assistant

vscull@unc.edu

Valerie grew up in Barnegat, New Jersey, along the Jersey Shore before moving to Chapel Hill in 2017. She is currently a sophomore undergraduate student at UNC, with a major in Environmental Studies, and minors in Public Policy and GIS. Growing up, when she wasn't staring at the clouds, she was always watching the Weather Channel and asking for meteorology books for her birthdays. Living through several major hurricanes and winter weather events, Valerie developed a fascination with severe weather and the after-effects of these storms. After taking weather and climate classes under Dr. Konrad and expressing interest in continuing work with him and his team, she was invited to join the SERCC as an undergraduate research assistant.

Alex Henson
Undergraduate Research Assistant

cliffah@ad.unc.edu

Alex was born in Champaign, Illinois, but has lived most of his life in High Point, North Carolina. When Alex was growing up he would always watch “Storm Chasers” with his younger siblings, which led to his interest in extreme weather and atmospheric sciences. After years of making weather projects and installing a personal weather station in his backyard Alex was accepted into Chapel Hill with a major in Geography, following a climatology pathway, and with a minor in Environmental Science. In the fall of 2022 Alex joined SERCC as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. When Alex is not at the Climate Center you may also find him at the Meantime Coffee Co. where he works as the CHRO.

Haley Schierlmann
Undergraduate Research Assistant

hschierlmann@unc.edu

Born and raised in Hickory, North Carolina, and later calling Waxhaw home, Haley has been dedicated to environmental advocacy since her early years. Currently pursuing dual majors in Geography and Environmental Science with a specialization in water and climate, along with a minor in Marine Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Haley's academic journey has been marked by a profound interest in climatological dynamics and anthropogenic forced feedback loops. This passion was ignited during her enrollment in Dr. Konrad’s Intro to Weather and Climate class, complemented by the insights gained from Dr. Laura Moore’s Coastal Environmental Change course. As a testament to her commitment to research and addressing environmental challenges, Haley joined SERCC in February 2024 as an Undergraduate Research Assistant, excited to contribute to the groundbreaking methodologies and initiatives of the team.

Yi Peng(July) Yang
Applications Programmer

julyyang@email.unc.edu

July grew up in Taiwan, an island country located in East Asia. She originally pursued her M.S. in Natural Resource Management from National Taiwan University in 2015. Along the way, she participated in many natural resource monitoring and data collecting, which inspired her with a passion for GIS and web map development. She then joined a coding boot camp to learn Swift and self-taught JavaScript. In 2016, she decided to come to the United States to pursue her second M.S. in Geospatial Information Science and Technology from North Carolina State University. She joined SERCC in August 2020 as a developer, mainly in charge of SERCC/Convergence tools maintenance and development, and also provided troubleshooting to anything related to code. Her passion for coding and geospatial information technology is still growing. Learning how others solve technical issues and reading the source codes behind beautiful web maps are great habits of hers.