Sandra L. Stosz

Sandra Leigh Stosz (born 1960, Takoma Park, Maryland) is a United States Coast Guard rear admiral who was chosen by the Commandant of the United States Coast Guard ADM Robert J. Papp to become the Superintendent of United States Coast Guard Academy in 2011. As such, she is the first woman to lead a United States military service academy. At the time of her appointment to head the Coast Guard Academy, she was the Coast Guard's Director of Reserve and Leadership.

Early career
Stosz, a 1982 graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, holds a master of business administration degree from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois. Stosz is the first female graduate of the Coast Guard Academy to achieve flag rank. In 1990, as a Coast Guard lieutenant, Stosz became the first woman to command a Coast Guard cutter in the Great Lakes. The cutter was USCGC Katmai Bay (WTGB 101), which, homeported in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, has operated since her 1979 launching in the Great Lakes as a unit of the Ninth Coast Guard District. The Katmai Bay is a 140-foot ice-breaking tug, with a crew of 17 (3 officers and 14 enlisted). She has also served as the Commanding Officer of United States Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, New Jersey.

Flag officer
In her role as leader of the Coast Guard Reserve, early in 2011 she announced plans to raise the Coast Guard Reserve to 8,100 personnel from the 7,600 reservists available in 2010; the reason was partly experience with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, during which the Coast Guard struggled with insufficient reserve personnel to support the active-duty contingent.

Personal
Stosz is married. In a People Magazine profile, she described her Coast Guard career as her lifetime adventure. Her parents were chemical engineers Max Stosz and his wife Joy. Sandra Stosz has three siblings, all brothers.

She has described her "most enjoyable assignment" as being her initial tour, once completing her studies at Coast Guard Academy, as an ensign on the icebreaker USCGC Glacier (AGB/WAG/WAGB 4), which took her to Haiti, New Zealand, various South Pacific islands, and Antarctica.

Recently, in April of 2013, Stosz expressed to a United States Coast Guard Academy cadet that her favorite colors were "blue and shades of purple."