I feel blessed to be able to say I truly love my job. I am even more pleased to be back home in Louisiana. I grew up in Gramercy in St. James Parish where I graduated Valedictorian from Lutcher High School in 1995. In 1999, I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Geosciences focusing on meteorology and a minor in communications from Mississippi State University.
I began my broadcast career that same year with WAKA, the CBS affiliate, in Montgomery, AL. I spent almost six years in Alabama as weekend, then later, morning meteorologist. Central Alabama was a great weather market to earn my stripes. We had very active severe weather seasons and were close enough to the coast that hurricanes were still a major concern. Hurricane Ivan kept us on the air for 48 hours with a non-stop 16 hour stretch. That was excellent experience for what I'm sure will be future hurricane watch and hopefully all clear calls here.
In the summer of 2005 I moved to Memphis as weekend meteorologist with WPTY/WLMT. This was another city with a large coverage area where we dealt with everything from tornadoes and hailstorms to occasional snow and ice. Hurricane Katrina kept us going up there as well, not only providing information for evacuees, but the storm still had a lot of punch as it moved through North Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.
The opportunity to do the job that I love surrounded by my family is a dream come true. It was really a sacrifice to live elsewhere. Whether you are born and bred as I like to say of myself or a transplant, Southeast Louisiana is in your blood. I've always worked hard to give the best forecasts that I can and I suspect subconsciously a little extra in there for the home team.
I never imagined my homecoming having much more of an impact on the region than providing good weathercasts, but with the rebuilding efforts here on the Gulf Coast I'm more happy to be here. I want to be here and I'm available to actually make things happen even if it's in a very small way.
