Former Training Center CO Now First Female CG Academy Superintendent

NEW LONDON, CONN. — Rear Adm. Sandra L. Stosz, former commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May from May 2007 until May 2008, on June 3 became the first female to oversee one of five U.S. service academies when she assumed the duties as 40th superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy.
Stosz, 51, is a 1982 graduate of the institution she now oversees. She is also the first member of her class to attain flag rank. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Government from the academy.
Stosz, then a captain, in May 2007 relieved Capt. Curtis Odom as commanding officer of the Cape May Training Center. Stosz was relieved in May 2008 by Capt. Cari Thomas, and was transferred to Coast Guard Headquarters where she was the executive assistant to the Commandant of the Coast Guard.
Stosz was awarded a Master of Business Administration degree from Northwestern University’s J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1994. In 2000, she completed an executive fellowship in national security through the MIT Seminar XXI program, and she earned a Master of National Security Strategy from the National War College in 2004.
In 2009, she attended the Navy’s Executive Business Course at University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler business school.
Her personal awards include two Legion of Merit Medals, four Meritorious Service Medals, two Coast Guard Commendation Medals and two Coast Guard Achievement Medals.
She had been serving as Director of Reserve and Leadership. As such, she was responsible for developing policies to recruit, train and support approximately 8,100 Coast Guard Reservists, according to a service website. She also served as a member of the Coast Guard Academy Board of Trustees and chairs the Commandant’s Leadership Advisory Council.
Stosz, as a surface operations officer served with 12 years at sea, including command of two cutters – an icebreaking tug on the Great Lakes and a medium endurance cutter that patrolled North Atlantic and Caribbean waters.
She and her crews executed many of the Coast Guard’s 11 missions such as drug and alien migrant interdiction, fisheries enforcement, search and rescue, polar and domestic icebreaking and ports and waterways security.
Between sea duty tours, Stosz specialized in personnel and resource management and program review. She served tours of duty as Chief of Officer Assignments and as Program Reviewer and Acquisition Funds Coordinator for Coast Guard major systems acquisitions, including the 225-foot buoy tenders and 87-foot coastal patrol boats.
She broadened her experience as the Secretary of Transportation’s military assistant and years later as the Commandant’s executive assistant. She has served as Director of Coast Guard Enterprise Strategic Management and Doctrine where she was responsible for aligning enterprise level strategic and management functions with the Commandant’s strategic intent.

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The following is from The White House Blog, posted by Admiral Bob Papp, Coast Guard Commandant:
The White House Blog
Coast Guard Admiral Becomes First Woman to Lead a U.S. Service Academy
Posted by Admiral Bob Papp on June 03, 2011 at 06:20 PM EDT
Today is a significant waypoint not only in Coast Guard history, but in American history. This morning Rear Admiral Sandra Stosz assumed command as the United States Coast Guard Academy’s first woman superintendent. This also makes her the first woman to command any U.S. service academy.
A 1982 Coast Guard Academy graduate and a surface operations officer with 12 years of sea duty, Admiral Stosz has plotted a course that includes many firsts for women in the military. Her performance in previous assignments as commanding officer for recruit training at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, N.J., the Director of Reserve and Leadership, and the commanding officer of two cutters, has demonstrated a commitment to building a diverse workforce without boundaries.
With this appointment, Admiral Stosz opens what I hope is one of the few remaining doors to women in uniform. This is a tribute not only to our country’s rich history of dynamic leaders and trailblazers but also our Service’s ongoing commitment to providing limitless opportunities for every man and woman who wears the uniform.
Admiral Stosz takes over a world class institution of higher learning and leadership development that continues to see increases in minority admissions. On June 27, the class of 2015 reports aboard and will be the most diverse class in history. Of the 290 offered appointments, 33 percent will be from underrepresented minority groups and 32 percent will be women.
I have every confidence that Admiral Stosz’s watch will continue in the finest traditions of Captain John Henriques—the first superintendent, and 38 others, including outgoing superintendent Rear Admiral Scott Burhoe. She will increase the prestige, quality of education and, most importantly, the character of the leaders who as commissioned Coast Guard officers will ultimately lead our Service while protecting the Nation from threats on the sea, protecting people who use the sea, and protecting the sea itself.
Admiral Bob Papp is the Commandant of the Coast Guard.