About two weeks after announcing her departure from WROC-TV (Channel 8), Stacey Pensgen has been hired as a meteorologist at WHEC-TV (Channel 10).

Pensgen will join the NBC affiliate the week of Aug. 5, according to a press release from the station. She will make her first on-air appearance Aug.12 and anchor forecasts weekdays at 5, 6, 7 and 11 p.m.

A Fairport native and former competitive figure skater who once dreamed of earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, Pensgen became Channel 8’s chief meteorologist three years ago, succeeding Scott Hetsko. He moved to ABC affiliate WHAM-TV (Channel 13) a year after his September 2015 heart transplant.

Pensgen worked at WROC, a CBS affiliate, for about five years prior to being promoted. Before that, she was a part-time meteorologist and reporter at WHAM-TV (Channel 13). She earned a bachelor of science degree in meteorology in 2007 from The College of Brockport.

Initially, it wasn't clear whether Pensgen was replacing Jeremy Kappell in the role of chief meteorologist at WHEC.

Later, Channel 10's director of marketing and creative services, Kevin Kalvitis, explained that Pensgen shares the chief meteorologist title with Rich Caniglia, who has been a meteorologist at the station for 20 years.

"Internally, Stacey and Rich are co-chief meteorologists at News10NBC," Kalvitis wrote in an email. "However, as an organization we are less focused on 'titles' and much more on 'team.'"

The station hired Kappell in October 2017 and fired him in January after an on-air segment in which he referred to Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park as “Martin Luther coon King Jr. Park.” Kappell said he jumbled his words; the station characterized the utterance as a racial slur. He is suing WHEC over his dismissal, saying it violated the terms of his three-year contract and has resulted in lost wages and emotional distress.

MGREENWO@Gannett.com