Meet NOAA’s Scientific Integrity Officer Cynthia J. Decker, Ph.D.
Dr. Decker serves as NOAA Scientific Integrity Officer (SIO), a position she has held for the past five years. In that job, she implements the procedures NOAA has established for the handling of research misconduct and interference with science in the agency. She has handled many allegations of misconduct, including those that have affected the highest level of the agency, trained countless employees in the policy and continues to work with the agency leadership to refine the implementation.
In addition to her duties as the SIO, Cynthia J. Decker is the Executive Director of the NOAA Science Advisory Board. She serves as the designated federal official for the Board, overseeing all of their activities and ensuring coordination of NOAA input to them as well as facilitating communication between the Board and various NOAA activities. She also oversees the work of the five standing working groups of the Board as well as their various ad hoc task forces. She represents the Board to other scientific federal advisory committees and some boards of the National Research Council.
Dr. Decker served as the designated federal official for the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee (NCADAC) from January 2011 – September 2014, working with the US Global Change Research Program to prepare the third National Climate Assessment, which was released in May 2014.
She received her Ph.D in Coastal Oceanography from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook University) and her Master’s in Zoology from Louisiana State University.
Prior to joining NOAA, she worked for the Oceanographer of the Navy (Deputy Chief, External Programs Branch) and the consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE, now the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, as Director of Research). She also spent time at the U.S. Office of Naval Research running a marine environmental research program, and for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, where she administered an estuarine management program on behalf of the state.