James Marshall Shepherd is an American meteorologist, professor at the University of Georgia's Department of Geography, director of the university's atmospheric sciences program, and 2013 president of the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

[6] Shepherd grew up in Canton, Georgia, where he first became interested in meteorology in the sixth grade.

[9] Shepherd initially worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) as a research meteorologist for twelve years.

[14] Shepherd has written that African Americans may be more vulnerable to the effects of global warming, such as heat-related deaths.

[15] He has also spoken out about the United States federal government shutdown of 2013, and has argued that it significantly delayed research into the use of global climate models in the United States, and that it also prevented members of the National Weather Service (NWS) from attending the National Weather Association (NWA)'s annual conference.