Brian Penoyer

Captain Brian Penoyer is the U.S. Coast Guard fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A specialist in coastal operations and a designated Coast Guard marine safety professional, he reports to CSIS from his previous assignment as acting chief of congressional and governmental affairs, where he was responsible for all Coast Guard engagement with the Congress, and with state, tribal, and local elected officials. Prior to that assignment, Captain Penoyer was a special assistant for Admiral Thad Allen and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Hull Lute during the BP DEEPWATER HORIZON oil spill, a temporary assignment during his tour as deputy commander of Coast Guard Sector Baltimore, where he was responsible for all Coast Guard missions and operations on the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries. He has held several other operational and staff positions during his 22-year career, including positions on Admiral Allen’s staff in Louisiana during the response to Hurricane Katrina, on the Department of Homeland Security’s Operational Integration Staff during the initiation of HSPD-5 and the issuance of the National Response Plan, at Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville on 9/11/2001 and focusing heavily on antiterrorism and protection of the military sea-lanes of communication in preparation for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, as Coast Guard liaison to the Department of the Interior, in Alaska focused on the safety of life at sea, and in New York focused on support of military shipping across Europe and the Middle East during the 1991 Gulf War. In over a decade of operational assignments, he has conducted missions in marine and navigation safety, shore and afloat antiterrorism, large coastal security surge operations, search and rescue, oil and hazardous material spill response, defense support operations, and coastal ports and waterway management.

Captain Penoyer earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1988 and holds an M.A. in environmental policy from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in national security policy from the Naval War College. He has received numerous personal, unit, campaign, and service military awards during his career, including five Meritorious Service Medals.