First female service academy superintendent named

Written by: LTJG Stephanie Young

Earlier today, the Coast Guard announced that Rear Adm. Sandra Stosz will be the first female Superintendent of the United States Coast Guard Academy. Stosz, currently the Director of Reserve and Leadership, will become the first, and only female to lead a U. S. service academy when she assumes command of USCGA next summer. Today’s announcement came with the release of the 2011 flag officer assignment list, detailing key leadership positions across the service.

“Rear Admiral Stosz has dedicated her career to developing professional Coast Guard men and women,” said Adm. Bob Papp, commandant, U.S. Coast Guard. “We are also extremely proud to be the first service with a woman at the helm of our academy. The Coast Guard has always led by allowing men and women equal access to all career fields and assignments.”

Stosz, a 1982 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, is the first female Coast Guard Academy graduate to achieve the rank of flag officer and is a surface operations officer 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.

The smallest of the five federal service academies, the Coast Guard Academy was the first military service academy to accept women among their Corps of Cadets in 1976, which now includes over 1,000 officers in training.