Capt. Kate Higgins-Bloom did not expect to represent the Coast Guard at the White House and top think tanks. But an early assignment to the Hurricane Katrina response put her on a path of researching policy and shaping the service’s future. Senior Education and Fellowship Programs (SEFP) have had an immeasurable impact on her career, she told MyCG.
Each year, SEFP selects dozens of officers and civilians to represent the Coast Guard at prestigious think tanks, war colleges, and corporations. For more information on fellowship eligibility, please contact the SEFP program manager.
This article is the second in a series of interviews with Coast Guard senior leaders on their careers and SEFP’s impact. All interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
MyCG: What drew you to the Coast Guard?
Capt. Higgins-Bloom: I was looking for a college option with a strong engineering program, but more importantly, I really wanted to serve and have an adventure. After getting into the Naval Academy, I got a letter from a Coast Guard Academy (CGA) recruiter. When I was in elementary school, I saw the Coast Guard scrubbing ducks and saving people after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. That had really stuck with me, so I chose to put in a last-minute application. Then I visited CGA and was sold on the mission and the culture.
One of your earliest roles in the Coast Guard was supporting the service’s response to Hurricane Katrina. I'm curious how that impacted you and how you reflect on the experience now.
It was a transformational event. Before Hurricane Katrina, my entire Coast Guard career had been in law enforcement—mostly counter-narcotics and migrant interdiction in the Caribbean.
That was my path; it was the only thing I was interested in. I got to my first staff tour as a brand-new lieutenant and didn't particularly enjoy it. I told my boss I wanted to do more. So, they made me a collateral duty admiral’s aide, and I wound up supporting the Coast Guard Reserve one-star admiral who was the initial liaison to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Eventually, Adm. Thad Allen took over the response.
I got to see people and government at their worst, and then conversely, at their best and pulling together and creatively solving problems. I was struck by Adm. Allen's leadership. Though he had limited “direct” authority, he brought people together and got things done. I decided, “I want to do more of whatever this is.”
It also planted the seeds for me to do public policy work. I began to wonder how we got here and if there was a better way to do things. The search for answers took me to Harvard for my master’s in public administration (MPA).
In 2010, you got your MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). What attracted you to HKS?
After Hurricane Katrina, I captained Coast Guard Cutter Baranof. I spent a year in the Middle East at Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA). The mission was tremendous, and the crew was amazing. But I started to develop a lot more questions about the Coast Guard’s role in the grand scheme of things.
I decided to go for a public policy degree because I thought, I'm the implementer of the policies. At some point, I want to be part of the conversation on shaping policy. I had admired the program at the Kennedy School, and I had a friend who had gone through it.
Let’s talk about your White House fellowship, where you supported the Joining Forces Initiative. Can you tell me about that experience?
The White House Fellows Program is a premier leadership opportunity. It allows you to step out of your Coast Guard box and focus on leadership principles.
It was so useful to work in the interagency outside of the Department of Defense (DOD) structure to see how big decisions get made and how you need to be persistent while understanding the value of building the right coalition. Sometimes, we want to expand the tent at the expense of the ability to problem-solve.
Learning how to build the right coalition was so valuable in future endeavors.
You represented the service as a fellow at both the Center for New American Security (CNAS) and the Brookings Institution. After your time at Brookings, you directed Project Evergreen, the Coast Guard’s strategic foresight initiative. You drafted the 2019 Arctic Strategic Outlook, and you led efforts to draft the DHS Framework on Climate Change. How did your time in think tanks prepare you for those roles?
I appreciated the CNAS fellowship’s structure because I was newer to the think tank world. It helped me become more immersed in the national security enterprise and it set me up to better understand a lot of the strategic initiatives later.
The Brookings Fellowship was similarly well-suited to my interests; I was fascinated by competition below the level of armed conflict. I got very interested in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. I published an article on it discussing the concept of economic competition.
You’re also an alumna of Seminar XXI at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It’s clear you have an affinity for think tanks and the world of ideas. What drew you to MIT and what did you take from that experience?
Why do I do all these fellowships? I enjoy the big picture about why we do what we do, and how we can make it better. And I love that the Coast Guard is an organization that lets us be super tactical one tour and really strategic on the next one. In my last tour, I was writing a strategy on competition with China. Today, I’m thinking of how many crude oil tankers are piling up in Big Stone Anchorage ahead of a potential longshoreman strike. Both are important, and moving between these kinds of tours makes it easier for leaders to see the connections between strategic choices and operational realities.
Fellowships help keep your tank full of those ideas and those relationships. That was the case with Seminar XXI. I was really interested in joining the cohort. So many of my mentors had done it before me and had universally recommended it.
How has mentorship shaped your career in the service?
Mentoring is tremendously valuable. Almost every phase of my career is marked by somebody who saw my potential, advocated for me, and pushed me to take risks. I would never have thought that I was a candidate for the White House Fellowship, in particular, if two of my mentors had not encouraged me to apply.
The other kind of transformative mentoring I’ve gotten relates to feedback. When you’re a relatively high performer, sometimes people just tell you you’re doing a good job and to keep doing what you’re doing. I’ve had mentors who gave me legitimate feedback about things I was doing as a leader that were not necessarily helpful. So that’s what I think of as impactful.
You’ve served in a range of leadership roles. What does great leadership mean to you?
My answer has evolved over time, and I think it evolves for everybody in different ways. When I was commanding officer (CO) of the Baranof, leadership meant being a technical expert and taking care of the crew and their personal needs. Sometime that meant solving problems for them. Now, leadership is more about unleashing other people's potential so they can execute the mission. It’s about nurturing people and helping them realize their goals.
What’s the best piece of career advice you've ever received?
When I was pregnant with my first child, I was weighing my future in the service. An admiral told me, “Do what you want, but don’t leave before you’re gone. Don’t avoid taking risks based on some hypothetical future that doesn’t exist yet.”
-USCG-
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