Capt. Tina Peña never saw herself in the Coast Guard—until Hurricane Andrew and the Coast Guard’s response prompted an abrupt career change. She left a budding career in the financial world behind to join the service. Almost thirty years later, she is the Coast Guard fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. In August, Peña was selected for promotion to the grade of Rear Adm. (lower half).
The Senior Education and Fellowship Program (SEFP) Panel’s choice to send her to the Council for a year has opened a world of possibilities, 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 is the final article in a series highlighting the impact of SEFP on Coast Guard senior leaders. All interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
MyCG: What drew you to the Coast Guard?
Capt. Tina Peña: In 1992, Hurricane Andrew devastated Miami, my hometown of Fort Lauderdale, and the surrounding areas. I was right out of college, and I was dating a guy in the Coast Guard at the time. He was very junior, an E-3, but he and his shipmates were going out and doing rescues and really helping people.
I, on the other hand, was sitting in a comptroller’s office at this company, making some grumpy guy rich. I thought to myself, what am I doing? When I saw the good work the Coast Guard was doing, I asked, “How do you do that?” That’s how it all started.
What did you study in college?
I studied finance.
You do everything you think you're supposed to in life, right? I went to college—I was the first person in my family to do that—I got a degree, then got a job. And I quickly realized that I didn't really enjoy what I was doing. Then I saw this opportunity and everything that the Coast Guard was doing, and I thought it was amazing. I thought, they’re getting paid to do this. How do I do that?
It's safe to say it was relatively unconventional transition from finance to joining the service. How do you reflect on making such a big transition?
I had never run a mile in my life. I had to lose 40 pounds. I had to change so much just to qualify to serve. But I knew it was what I should be doing. Sometimes you just know something's right, and I knew it was right. So, I never looked back.
I think, though, many of the people in my Officer Candidate School (OCS) class thought, what are you doing here? I think I looked like Private Benjamin to them. But I knew I was supposed to be there.
You pursued one of the hardest specialties in the service: piloting helicopters. Why did you want to be a helicopter pilot?
Initially, I asked to go to a ship, and I had a great tour. When I screened for command of a ship as an Lt. j.g., an 82- or an 87-foot patrol boat were the options. However, the 82s were being phased out, and the 87s hadn't yet been brought in; I ended up in a limbo after I screened for command.
So, there was no place to put me on an 82 because there were no women Machinery Technician chiefs (MKCs) with whom I could share a stateroom, and the 87s hadn’t yet been commissioned. During that limbo, we were deployed and one of the aviation detachment pilots said, “hey, why haven't you thought about aviation?” I started looking into flight school, and I never looked back. I never passed up an opportunity that came my way.
You’ve also been involved in various law enforcement missions over your career. How did that shape you?
It's been a long time since I’ve put on body armor and done law enforcement per se. In the law enforcement mission, I learned that many of the people that we’re interdicting as “drug runners” aren’t the cartel leaders. These are often people in very poor countries who are coerced into smuggling drugs. That experience humanized these people for me and taught me that life isn't as black and white as it may seem.
But I would say what has really shaped my career—and me as a person—is search and rescue (SAR). Being able to be the entity or the group or the person that can intervene on somebody's worst day and make a true impact and a difference—that really shaped me.
You have master’s degrees in public administration, industrial administration, and military strategic studies. What drew you to each of those programs?
I started my public administration degree during my temporary separation from the Coast Guard in 2005. I'm an only child, and my mom was really sick, so the idea was that I would work on a degree while taking care of her.
I thought public administration was a good fit for my career. And the degree was flexible enough that I could do it while taking care of her.
When I returned to the service, I did a tour in Atlantic City as an Assistant Aeronautical Engineer. Essentially, we took care of all the aviation assets and the team that maintained them. The Coast Guard’s engineering career path fits well with Purdue’s industrial administration degree. Basically, it’s a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) master’s in business administration (MBA). It really honed the processes that we use in Coast Guard Aviation Engineering.
As for the strategic studies degree, as I finished my tour as CO of Air Station New Orleans, I knew that my personal shortcoming was strategy.
A friend’s husband is a strategist and Navy veteran, and I talked to him often about strategy. He was an alumnus of the Naval War College and highly recommended I apply to one of the War College programs.
I did and was selected for the Air War College, an incredible program. I learned a lot.
Ultimately, you can't just be an operator and tactician your whole life. Strategy is what they're going to hire you for. And honestly, I didn’t feel like I'd be valuable to my team if I didn't understand strategy as a more senior officer.
You’re representing the Coast Guard at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). What will your research focus on, and what do you hope to gain from that experience?
I came in thinking I would pivot to the Pacific and learn about we're doing right now on China and the Arctic. But I’d also like to explore a range of policy areas that are not necessarily related to the service. I don’t know where any of this will take me, but what I love about the Coast Guard is that the world is my oyster. It’s great to be able to choose my areas of focus, even they are not directly tied to the Coast Guard’s world.
What does great leadership mean to you?
You know when you don't see it, right? You know when you have a leader who's not listening to the team. I know a great leader when I see one, because their team feels included. Even when their ideas aren’t used, they know they had an opportunity to provide input and were heard.
I think that’s what great leadership does; it lifts everyone. It doesn't minimize or exclude.
What’s the best piece of career advice you've ever received?
A family member once said, “you’ve got to be ready when you get your breaks. Don't miss your opportunity.”
-USCG-
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