Contact Information
CliMAS Address : 1301 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801
Biography
Dr. Trujillo-Falcón is a Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Department of Climate, Meteorology, and Atmospheric Sciences, in partnership with the Department of Communication.
He leads the Advancing Language Equity and Resilience in the Atmospheric Sciences (ALERTAS) lab, which is dedicated to improving the communication of weather and climate information in multiple languages through public and practitioner engagement. His innovative, interdisciplinary work has driven significant policy changes across the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS), setting a new benchmark for multilingual communication within government agencies. These accomplishments have established him as a national leader in the weather and climate risk communication field.
Before joining the University of Illinois, Dr. Trujillo-Falcón conducted interdisciplinary research for the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, and the NWS Storm Prediction Center. As an award-winning bilingual multimedia meteorologist, he has also worked in both radio and broadcast networks and continues to serve the public through MyRadar, a weather application accessed by 50 million individuals worldwide.
Research Interests
Dr. Trujillo-Falcón studies how multilingual speakers receive, understand, and respond to extreme weather and climate hazards. He collaborates with both practitioners and the public to advance technologies and effective risk communication strategies. He has applied risk communication frameworks in various contexts, including tornadoes, hurricanes, winter weather, fire weather, and climate change.
Interested students are encouraged to contact Dr. Trujillo-Falcón for research opportunities. You do not have to speak multiple languages to become involved! His lab applies science for the advancement of society– that includes all language groups.
Education
- Ph.D. in Risk Communication, University of Oklahoma, 2024
- M.A. in Organizational Communication, University of Oklahoma, 2021
- B.S. in Meteorology, Texas A&M University, 2019
- B.A. in Spanish, Texas A&M University, 2019
Awards and Honors
- Premio Orgullo Peruano, given annually to Peruvians in the United States who, with their outstanding track records of success, have managed to proudly and responsibly represent Perú abroad, State of Oklahoma, 2024
- Outstanding Achievement in Research, "for groundbreaking work in bilingual risk communication and instrumental role in transforming the way weather information is disseminated across the National Weather Service," CIWRO, 2023
- Telly Award (2x), for Spanish educational stories on how to stay safe against rip currents and high UV indices for the MyRadar weather application, 2023
- AMS Award for Early Career Professional Achievement, "for innovative and extensive collaboration in risk communication for Spanish-speaking communities and leadership as an exceptional member across multiple AMS Boards and Committees," AMS, 2022
Additional Campus Affiliations
Illinois Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Climate, Meteorology, and Atmospheric Sciences
selected publications
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Gaviria Pabón, A. R., Reedy, J. & Klockow-McClain, K. E. (2024). Systemic vulnerabilities in Hispanic and Latinx immigrant communities led to the reliance on an informal warning system in the December 10-11, 2021 tornado outbreak. Natural Hazards Review, 25(2), 04023059, https://doi.org/10.1061/NHREFO/NHENG-1755.
Tripp, D. D., Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Klockow-McClain, K.E., Reeves, H. D., Berry, K. L., Waldstreicher, J. S., & Nelson, J. A. (2023). Foundational needs of forecasters for probabilistic winter forecasting. Weather and Forecasting, 38(1), 3-15, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-22-0116.1.
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Gaviria Pabón, A., Ripberger, J., Bitterman, A., Thornton, J. B., Krocak, M. J., Ernst, S. R., Cassiani Obeso, E., & Lipski, J. (2022). ¿Aviso o Alerta? Developing effective, inclusive, and consistent watch and warning Translations for U.S. Spanish speakers. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 103(12), 2791-2803, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-22-0050.1.
Obermeier, H., Berry, K., Klockow-McClain, K. E., Campbell, A., Carithers, C., Gerard, A., & Trujillo-Falcón, J. E. (2022). The creation of a research television studio to test Probabilistic Hazard Information with broadcast meteorologists in NOAA’s Hazardous Weather Testbed. Weather, Climate and Society, 14(3), 949-963, https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-21-0171.1.
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Reedy, J., Klockow-McClain, K. E., Berry, K., Stumpf, G. J., Bates, A. V., & LaDue, J. L. (2022). Creating a communication framework for FACETs: How Probabilistic Hazard Information affected warning operations in NOAA’s Hazardous Weather Testbed. Weather, Climate and Society, 14(3), 881-892, https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-21-0136.1.
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Bermúdez, O., Negrón-Hernández, K., Lipski, J., Leitman, E. M., & Berry, K. (2021). Hazardous weather communication en español: Challenges, current resources, and future practices. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 102(4), 765-773, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0249.1.