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Dr. Collins and her students travelled to the 106th American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting from January 24–29, 2026, arriving just ahead of the winter storm so they could participate in the meeting. The conference hosted over 6,000 registered attendees in Houston, TX. and featured over 2,400 oral presentations, more than 1,200 posters, and 90 exhibitors. Dr. Collins and her students attended various sessions from science communication to societal impacts of weather hazards.

Cassie O'Connor, PhD student in the School of Geosciences at USF, was one of those students who attended the AMS Annual Meeting. She was part of the graduate student panel Sunday at the AMS Student Conference; she shared her experiences about grad school with undergraduate students. She also co-led a workshop on Science Communication during the AMS Student Conference. Dr. Jennifer Collins, Cassie’s PhD advisor, was a moderator who role played a scientific communication scenario with the students and Dr. Laura Myers (Co-PI from the University of Alabama on Dr. Collins’ NOAA VORTEX grant on tornado risk perception) was a speaker and moderator. This workshop allowed for students to learn more about effectively communicating their science, giving students the opportunity to work with professionals in small groups to learn tips and practice their skills. She also served her final term as the co-chair of the AMS Board on Student Affairs (BoSA) Student Outreach and Engagement Committee (which she served for the past 3 years). In this role, she ran the social media pages, providing updates and pictures from the event.  In addition, Cassie presented part of her dissertation research during the AMS Weather Ready Nation conference. She presented on Mental Health Challenges in the Weather Enterprise. She hopes that her talk helps everyone know you are never alone in this world and allows for more conversations to occur about this vital topic in the future. She provided specific recommendations, findings from her research, to the weather enterprise including those in Broadcasting, National Weather Service, and Emergency Management.

Brooke Page, PhD Candidate in the School of Geosciences at USF, under the advisement of Dr. Jennifer Collins, also participated in the 106th AMS Annual Meeting. She presented her research poster titled "Risk Communication Encouraging Protective Action Decision Making for Tornadoes" in the student conference and the main conference to both peers and professionals in the field of meteorology. This project, funded by Dr. Collins’ NOAA VORTEX grant, and in collaboration with researchers from the University of Alabama and Auburn University, is important to understand how best to encourage people to seek shelter when they receive a tornado warning.

Written by Cassie O’Connor, Brooke Page, and Dr. Jennifer Collins