He has a unique distinction, and not one he particularly enjoys

Bill Parker has a unique distinction. And it's not one he particularly enjoys.

"I don’t wear being the only African-American as a Meteorologist-in-Charge in the National Weather Service as a badge of honor," he told AccuWeather in a recent interview. "I think that we need more," he said, adding that there are many other meteorologists working for the weather service "who I think are ready to be Meteorologists-in-Charge."

Across the 122 National Weather Service (NWS) offices throughout the country, at which more than 2,000 meteorologists are employed, 122 different weather experts fill the role of Meteorologist-in-Charge (MIC), an office's top position.

And Parker is the only Black man to fill that role.

"Many other minorities -- not just African-Americans -- are ready, but they just don’t get that opportunity," he said.

Since ascending to the rank of MIC at the NWS office in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2016, Parker has fulfilled the duties of his high-ranking job with excellence. His accolades include 14 awards for promoting STEM education and outreach for NOAA. He has been awarded the Volunteer of the Year Award from Volunteers for Youth Justice. He has been recognized as an African American Modern Day History Maker by KSLA-TV. He has been nominated to be inducted into Epsilon Pi Tau Technology Honor Society.

But for all five years he has held his MIC position, not once has another Black meteorologist filled the position at any of the other 121 NWS offices in the country.

"It's about putting action behind words. We can talk diversity and inclusion, the whole thing," he said, "but if we don’t take any action steps, then we’re gonna be right where we are 50 years from now."

Hurricane raised

Bill Parker grew up in New Orleans, where he experienced hurricanes firsthand as a child. He was also interested in math and sciences as a young student. While that might sound like the perfect formula for a future meteorologist, for Parker, it wasn't that straightforward.

As a child, Parker heard plenty of stories about the impacts of hurricanes such as 1965's Category 4 Betsy from his parents and grandparents. He remembers them talking about how much the city was affected.

He also remembers the days he would have school canceled because of an approaching storm, days he said he spent glued to the TV watching every update.

But it wasn't until a high school math course that he really considered the possibility of devoting his life to the field.

"I took a statistics class in high school, and in that stats class, what I would say pushed me to say, 'Hey, yeah I really wanna do this,' was one class where they talked about how meteorologists come up with their COP forecasts -- chance of precipitation forecasts," Parker told AccuWeather. "And so after that stats class I really, really decided that I wanted to go to college and major in meteorology."

That college decision wasn't an easy one for Parker. He couldn't attend the school he was initially drawn to, Florida State University, due to financial restrictions. Then he ran into the same troubles when considering Texas A&M.

But then his uncle came across a school while reading a magazine that would eventually change Parker's life.

"He saw that Jackson State University had a meteorology program, and he told me, 'You can afford to go there,' and so that’s how I ended up at Jackson State University, and the rest is kinda history," he recalled.

The power of an HBCU

Jackson State University is one of 107 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the United States, the large majority of which are located in the Southeast. Jackson State, about three hours north of Parker's Louisiana hometown, was the only HBCU in the country that offered a meteorology program at the time.

With less than 10,000 students, compared to more than 30,000 at Florida State and nearly 70,000 at Texas A&M, Parker said the focus he received from his professors was invaluable and a huge perk of attending an HBCU.

"Meteorology is a tough major. I think it's one of the toughest fields that you can go into, especially at the collegiate level," he said. "But I had some professors that believed in me when I didn’t believe in me ... most of my classes at Jackson State, especially meteorology classes, had no more than five people in it," he continued. Classes were small enough, he added, that "you often had one-on-one time with the teachers. It helped me get through the rigorous work."

Reaching MIC and clearing systemic hurdles

"Systemic racism is real," Parker said. "People don’t think it is, but it's real and it's been a long journey for me to move up in the weather service to become a Meteorologist-in-Charge. I don’t take it for granted."

As a college student, Parker said his focus was totally on the broadcast side of the world of meteorology. However, he was never able to find an open door.

The door that did open for him, however, was via the NWS. Following a summer internship with the office in Slidell, Louisiana, the weather service recruited him for a full-time position at the office in Jackson.

"The journey that I thought I was gonna take wasn’t the journey that I took," Parker said. "So whatever doors open up for you, don’t be afraid to walk through it."

For Parker, even once he was inside the door at the NWS, the lack of diversity continued to place hurdles in his path. One of the things he said he wishes he had understood earlier was the importance of relationships.

"Not all of my mentors were minorities. I had to have some mentors who were in the majority. I had to have some white males; I had to have some white females to also give me some guidance and some wisdom," he said. "So you have to build relationships, you have to build relationships with those who are in your field."

Along the way, Parker also had to learn how to be leadable and recognize that doing it all on his own wasn't a plan for success. Part of what fueled his willingness to sacrifice that sense of self was his understanding of the bigger picture of his job, not just for himself but for others.

“You gotta be willing to make some sacrifices in this career field. You have to be willing to be the one sacrificing for others and help others who get into the field," he said. "I think that this field is a great field and it’s a service field. It serves people, and you have to be willing to serve people. And, in order to lead, you gotta be willing to follow at some point in time. That was probably one of the biggest things that I had learned is that, ‘Hey, you know -- you don’t know everything, Bill.’"

Diversity requires action

As a MIC, Parker now has the opportunity to be part of more than just advocating for more diversity within the NWS.

"I definitely reach out to young students and minority students and I try to mentor them, I try to grow them," he said. "If I have an opportunity to hire minorities and they're qualified, I’m the first, as an African-American and as a minority, who’s looking at giving women and minorities opportunities."

But Parker also recognizes that not everyone thinks that way. That's why he has pushed the weather service to be about more than just words and conversations about diversity and inclusion. He's urged the organization to take action steps and to lay out plans that will lead to meaningful change.

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"I talk to them all the time about not just talking diversity but putting actions behind your words," he said. "I think that’s what’s most important, is a lot of time there’s a lot of talk about diversity, there’s a lot of talk about inclusion but there is no action behind the words."

Mentoring and reaching the next generation

One of the most important places Parker takes those action steps isn't in an office conducting interviews or at NWS headquarters talking policy.

Rather, it's in classrooms with young minds. And in order to get in those classrooms, Parker said he and his peers must be intentional.

"You can’t wait for the invitation, you have to reach out," he said. "When I was in elementary school, I knew that the police force was coming, Officer Friendly we used to call him. Officer Friendly was gonna come and talk about safety in the neighborhood and talk about what a police officer is and what he does."

"Well, we need to do the same thing in the field of meteorology. We need to make [it a] purpose to go out into these communities and to reach out to these children and expose them to our field but also give them hope that they can become a meteorologist as well if they find that interest to do so," he said. "When it comes to meteorology and the other physical sciences, there's just not enough exposure."

To better reach minority and underserved communities, Parker reiterated that exposing them to those physical science fields is crucial not just for interesting more people in the career fields like meteorology, but also for the importance of spreading weather safety knowledge.

The weather doesn't discriminate

Exposure and subsequent interest in the field of meteorology should be for all people, Parker says, because weather affects all people.

While his fellow meteorologists may be majority white, the storms they forecast certainly don't always target majority white areas.

"Weather doesn’t discriminate," Parker remarked, pointing out that dangerous storms "don’t care if you’re Black or white ... don’t care if you're rich or poor."

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