After earning a PhD. in Earth Science from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, in 2000, Dr. Cecil went on to serve as Chief Scientist of the Applied Sciences Program at NASA Headquarters and as Senior Science Advisor at NASA Langley's Systems Engineering Office, as the Lead Applications Scientist at the USGS 's Global Change Research Program, ​and as the first-ever Western Region ​Climate Services Director at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information​ (NCEI)​. Dr. Cecil has over 80 professional science publications including journal articles, books, and book chapters and he works in climate science applications and research, aerospace science and engineering, ​program management, and STEM.