As Director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, the state climate office for Oklahoma, Mark Shafer manages a group that provides high-quality weather and climate information tailored to meet the needs of individual citizens and decision-makers in Oklahoma. He is a Principal Investigator for the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, one of the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments programs, a member of the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Program Implementation Team, and contributed to the development of Oklahoma's drought monitoring decision-support system. Dr. Shafer serves on the American Meteorological Society's Board on Societal Impacts and has co-chaired the annual Symposium on Policy and Socio-Economic Research for the past three years. He blends physical and social sciences, holding a Masters Degree in Meteorology and a Ph.D. in Political Science. His research interests focus upon communication between the scientific community and policy makers, particularly in managing societal response to extreme events, institutional factors governing selection of information, and the influence of scientific and technical information on the policy process.