Persistent Signal Catalog

Dr. Frances Okafor

Head, Persistent Signal Catalog

FAL-STAFF-233-FRANCESOKAFORReviewed 2026-06-12Head of Persistent Signal Catalog, appointed 2021

Authorized public contact for catalog taxonomy, accession standards, and public evidence records.

Frances Okafor maintains the Laboratories' standing catalog of anomalous detections. Her insistence on classifying entries strictly by observed behavior, rather than by presumed cause, has become the catalog's defining discipline.

Selected accomplishments

Reconciled fifty years of field logs into a single machine-readable catalog
Introduced the Class I / II / III behavioral taxonomy
Curator of the public catalog release

Current work

Maintains the public and retained catalog ledgers
Runs quarterly review of status changes from unresolved to explained
Oversees evidence-link standards for literature-derived records

Selected work

Institute record
FAL Catalog Circular 22-01
Behavioral Taxonomy for Persistent Signal Records
Cite in reading-room request
Institute record
FAL Public Release Memo 25-03
Evidence Requirements for Literature Entries
Cite in reading-room request
Staff citation
Okafor
F., Class Boundaries and the Problem of Cause-Led Cataloging
Cite in reading-room request

Institute service

Catalog accession officer
Member, Records Retention Committee

Disclosure control

What this public profile can and cannot answer.

Release limits

No private personnel, candidate, or contributor records are released through public profiles.
Restricted station details and unpublished review materials remain outside the public directory.
Profile text is maintained for routing and accountability, not as a complete employment record.

Committee record

Catalog accession officer
Member, Records Retention Committee

Office record

Switchboard extension 233
Records and Catalog Office, room R-118
Program: Persistent Signal Catalog