The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy's next superintendent will be a woman, the first appointed to the position in its 80-year existence.
The announcement was made by the U.S. Transportation Department on Saturday.
Retired U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Joanna Nunan will lead the 1,000-person academy on New York's Long Island in just a few weeks, according to the department. She will be succeeding Jack Buono, who resigned in June.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Nunan is "the right leader at the right time" for the academy after several sexual misconduct allegations over the years.
"Her years of experience as a senior military leader — including command at sea — have prepared Rear Adm. Nunan to shape the future of the [academy] and help ensure the safety and success of its extraordinary midshipmen," said Buttigieg.
In 2021, the academy suspended its Sea Year program, which sends cadets to work on container ships, oil tankers, and passenger liners, among many other vessels, for the second time since 2016 when a cadet alleged a cargo ship supervisor got her drunk and raped her.
In December 2020, the Transportation Department agreed to a payout of $1.4 million for a cadet who allegedly was hazed and sexually assaulted by his academy soccer teammates.
Nunan is a Bridgeport, Connecticut, native who retired this year as the Coast Guard's deputy for personnel readiness. She graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, in 1987. Later she obtained her MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has three Coast Guard merchant mariner licenses.
Nunan has served as a military adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and military assistant to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, later to be the Coast Guard's assistant commandant for human resources.
She supervised the Coast Guard Academy and served on its board of trustees while positioned as the Coast Guard's deputy for personnel readiness.
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