EAST MISSISSIPPI CHAPTER OF THE NWA & AMS
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Jared Beard

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Jared Beard is from a small town in Mid-Michigan, where his interest in weather started by watching storms roll off Lake Michigan and living through intense lake-effect snow events. Those early experiences sparked a curiosity that eventually turned into a career in meteorology.

Beard is a proud alumnus of Mississippi State University, and for the past six years he has worked as both a broadcast and aviation meteorologist. Beard’s career has allowed him to bridge science and communication—whether that’s explaining complex atmospheric processes on air or providing critical weather information for aviation operations.


Craig Herrera

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Craig Herrera joined FOX Weather in 2021 where he currently serves as a morning co-host on the ad-supported streaming weather service.

A five time local Emmy-award winning meteorologist, Herrera most recently served as a meteorologist at Seattle’s KING-TV (NBC). Previously, he was a part of the weekday morning news team at San Francisco’s KNTV-TV (NBC) on the weather reporting team at KCBS-TV, in Los Angeles and San Diego’s KGTV-TV (ABC). A Pacific Coast weather expert, the American Meteorology Society (AMS) sealed meteorologist has covered every major weather event spanning San Diego to Seattle.

A cycling enthusiast, Herrera is a five-time participant the AIDS LifeCycle, a seven-day bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to help raise awareness and money for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Herrera graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications and Journalism in 1995. He earned his certificate in Broadcast Meteorology from Mississippi State University in 2002. Born in Los Alamos, NM, he now lives in New Jersey with his husband.


McKenna King

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McKenna King serves as Chief Meteorologist at CBS News Texas in Dallas-Fort Worth, where she proudly serves as a member of the station’s First Alert Weather team. She brings extensive experience in forecasting a wide range of weather phenomena, including tornadoes, blizzards, hurricanes, and high-impact severe weather events. Her career has spanned diverse geographic regions across the United States, including the mountains of Boise and Salt Lake City, the beaches of Tampa, as well as Columbus, Ohio, providing her with a broad perspective on regional and national weather patterns.

A native of Utah, McKenna earned her bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism from Brigham Young University. She further advanced her career through the Broadcast Meteorology Program at Mississippi State University. Her professional work emphasizes clear communication, public safety, and preparedness during hazardous weather events.

McKenna’s appreciation for weather and the environment was shaped early in life, growing up with Yellowstone National Park practically in her backyard. That foundation continues to influence her interest in outdoor recreation and environmental awareness. She often finds herself seeking out challenging hikes and wide-open spaces. When she’s not forecasting, she can be found exploring with her golden retrievers, Polly and Woody.

Now based in Texas, McKenna is committed to delivering accurate, timely, and actionable weather information to the communities she serves. She appears on CBS News Texas newscasts at 5, 7, and 10 p.m., as well as on the CBS News Texas streaming platform.

Andrew Markowitz

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Andrew Markowitz currently works as a Meteorologist at Xcel Energy in Denver, CO where he has lived since 2022. His main responsibility is to support Commercial Operations in order to ensure grid reliability across one of the largest utility footprints in the United States. He focuses mainly on medium to long range forecasting in order to help traders mitigate risk and assess weather-driven movement in commodity markets.

He previously worked at Wood Mackenzie in Boston, MA as a Meteorologist and Market Associate, and at WorldAware in Annapolis, MD as an Environmental Intelligence Analyst. Growing up in Delaware, he has been passionate about weather since he was 5, particularly East Coast snowstorms. He graduated from Penn State in 2019 with a degree in Meteorology and a minor in Energy Business and Finance. At Penn State, he was President of the Weather Risk Management Club, Head of Business for Campus Weather Service, and Vice President of the Storm Chase Team. He went on 4 Chasecations while at Penn State and will be going on his 5th later this year. Andrew was also the 2023 Board Chair for the AMS Board for Private Sector Meteorologists and also served on the Board on Enterprise Economic Development. He was a member of the 2023 cohort for the AMS Early Career Leadership Academy. He was elected to the Board for Early Career Professionals and the Mind the Gap Committee beginning in 2026.

​In addition to his full time job as a Meteorologist, he has amassed over 170K followers on a professional weather TikTok account. His videos have reached over 50 million people while also providing live severe weather coverage across the United States, most notably Hurricanes Ian, Hilary, Imelda, Helene, and Milton, and several tornado outbreaks. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling all around the world, hiking, playing competitive pickleball, rooting on the Patriots, Mets, and Celtics, and trying new restaurants.
Mark Kimoto, President
Sadie Morris, Vice President
Grace Williams, Secretary
Riley Miranda, Treasurer
Lindsey Poe, Faculty Advisor
Michelle Saunders, Faculty Advisor
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EAST MISSISSIPPI CHAPTER OF THE NWA AND AMS
[email protected]
P.O. BOX 5448
MISSISSIPPI STATE, MS 39762

© 2026 East Mississippi Chapter of the National Weather Association and American Meteorological Society

  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Our Chapter
    • Executive Board >
      • President
      • Vice President
      • Secretary
      • Treasurer
      • Symposium Chair
  • Symposium XXIV
    • Registration
    • Keynote Speakers
    • Sponsors
  • Members
    • Meteorology Links
    • Internships
    • Videos
  • Previous Symposia
    • Symposium XXIII >
      • Keynote Speakers
      • XXIII Agenda
      • Sponsors
    • Symposium XXII >
      • Keynote Speakers
      • XXII Agenda
      • Sponsors
    • Symposium XXI >
      • Keynote Speakers
      • XXI Agenda
      • Sponsors
    • Symposium XX
    • Symposium XIX >
      • Keynote Speakers
      • XIX Agenda
    • Symposium XVIII >
      • XVIII Agenda
    • Symposium XVII >
      • XVII Agenda