FORMER COAST GUARD CAPTAIN OF THE PORT OF BOSTON
PROMOTED TO REAR ADMIRAL

Admiral Whitehead is married to the former Martha Millaras of Waterford, Conn. They have two daughters, Christine and Katherine who attend college in Washington.

The U.S. Coast Guard is a military, maritime, multi-mission service within the
Department of Homeland Security dedicated to protecting the safety and security of America.
 

WASHINGTON - Captain Joel R. Whitehead, who was Captain of the Port and commanded Marine Safety Office Boston from 1999 to 2001, has been promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard. While Captain of the Port, he served as federal on-scene coordinator in the multi-agency response to the June 2000 oil spill from the Venezuelan tankship Posavina in Chelsea Creek and managed the Coast Guard’s involvement in Sail Boston 2000.

Commissioned an ensign in the Coast Guard in 1975 after graduating from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a bachelor’s degree in history and government, Whitehead also has a master’s degree in public administration from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a National Security Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and served for 3 years as a member of the Kennedy School’s Alumni Executive Council and was its Chairperson until 2003.

Whitehead is currently the Assistant Commandant for Governmental and Public Affairs, as well as the Chief of Congressional Affairs at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington. Before his current position, Whitehead was the Chief of Staff of the Eighth Coast Guard District headquartered in New Orleans, where he directed the service’s immediate response to the Sept. 11 attacks along the Gulf Coast and the nation’s inland river system. The Eighth District is the largest Coast Guard district, encompassing 26 states from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border in North Dakota.