Fox 29 Meteorologist Drew Anderson joined Penn State Brandywine’s Earth Sciences department as a part-time lecturer in August, writes Christina Billie for Penn State Brandywine.

He received his bachelor of science in meteorology from Penn State and immediately jumped into broadcast news, working as a meteorologist at NBC in Lancaster and NBC in Scranton.

He’s currently a meteorologist at FOX 29 in Philadelphia. In 2014, he started teaching at Penn State Abington and a few other local universities as an adjunct professor.

Last semester, he taught “Natural Disasters: Hollywood vs. Reality,” which gave him a chance to show how the science in the films wasn’t realistic.

This semester, he’s teaching a meteorology class called “Weather and Risk,” about how businesses save money by making better decisions based on the weather.

“I think it’s really cool when you can bring the everyday part of science into the classroom,” he said.

Anderson is originally from West Chester, so he’s glad to be back in this area. 

Though Anderson primarily worked in weather and meteorology, he’s also anchored a talk show and has done science reporting, which earned him an Emmy Award.

He’s been teaching meteorology, Earth science, and geography courses for about a decade at different Penn State Commonwealth campuses.

He’s also taught Earth Science and communications at two other local universities.

He’s always wanted to teach and joined the Penn State Brandywine faculty because of his past time on campus as a student and because it’s close to his home.

“I thought it would be really fun to teach somewhere I was a student,” he said.

He’s been fascinated by television and FOX 29’s morning show, “Good Day Philadelphia,” since he was in the third grade.

His mother saw how interested he was in the show and connected Anderson with someone from the station.

He got to know the meteorologist who allowed him to go on the air and help with the weather forecast, both down at the shore in New Jersey and in West Chester. 

“It’s so surreal to have this full-circle moment, where I’m back to where my career kind of started,” Anderson said.

In addition to his time on the air, Anderson has also been an extra in films with Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Adam Sandler.

He’s traveled extensively, including to Antarctica. While on the road, he shoots videos from around the world, which he then shares with his students.

Find out more about Drew Anderson at Penn State Brandywine.