Ian Callander
SM student, Department of Environmental Health
Ian Callander’s career in the Coast Guard began as a fluke. While at Boston Latin High School, Ian wandered into a room with a Coast Guard Academy recruiter. No one in his family had a military or nautical background, but Ian, intrigued by what he heard, was accepted to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London and graduated with a bachelor of science in management in 2001. “Training at the academy was really aimed at developing leadership,” Ian says. In the seven years since graduation, Ian has held a variety of demanding jobs for the Coast Guard: engineering officer, marine inspector, and assistant chief of the Waterways Safety Branch. Most recently he served as the branch chief of the Sector San Francisco Boarding Team (commonly known as the sea marshals), charged with using Homeland Security guidelines to target high-risk vessels and conduct security enforcement boardings. “So many new missions were thrown at us following September 11,” he says. “I witnessed the limitations of existing safety guidelines.” Ian describes the hazards of boarding an unfamiliar ship or conducting a boarding of large commercial ships from small boats or by helicopter. Ian hopes to improve the conditions for his fellow Coast Guard personnel when he returns as a health and safety officer. He says, “There are only about twenty health and safety officers among forty thousand active-duty Coasties.”
Master’s student, Department of Environmental Health