Article Provided By ORTA Team
Figure 1: Ember – NOAA Canine Ambassador (Official AKC registration name Pandora Haleakalā Glowing Ember) working at NOAA Office of Education’s Career Fair May 29, 2024. (Photo Credit: NOAA)
The NOAA Office of Research, Transition, and Application (ORTA) in Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) is pleased to announce that Ember, ORTA’s Ken Vierra’s certified K-9 Caring Angel Therapy Dog, has been recognized by NOAA’s Ambassador Program as a Canine Ambassador! Ken and Ember have been participating in several outreach events for NOAA.
Ember is a Keeshond who has been following in her late cousin Nikita’s footsteps. Nikita and Ken participated in NOAA outreach events, and Nikita had the honor of being the first NOAA Canine Ambassador (Figure 2).
Ember has been working several events for NOAA, bringing copious amounts of pleasure, joy, and stress relief. She has participated in OAR team building events, ORTA’s STEM and outreach events, and the Department of Commerce 2024 Youth Summit held at the Herbert C. Hoover Building (HCHB) in downtown Washington, DC in June 2024 (Figure 3). Ember and Ken were invited to participate in the NOAA Day on the Hill in July 2024, where she was once again “star of the show,” and she will be participating in upcoming outreach events, including one at Millersville University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Figure 2: Nikita, NOAA’s First Canine Ambassador (Photo Credit: NOAA).
The job of a Canine Ambassador is to provide stress relief, care, and comfort to the NOAA workforce as well as be a magnet at outreach events. Ember, a “living teddy bear,” has enticed students and adults alike to visit the NOAA information tables to learn about NOAA’s mission and the innovative work ongoing at NOAA. NOAA’s mission spans from the surface of the sun to the bottom of the ocean.
Figure 3: Ember working at the 2024 Department of Commerce Youth Summit (Photo Credit: NOAA).