On Sept. 24, Adm. Thad Allen (ret.), M.P.A. ’86, former commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, returned to his alma mater to share his experiences as national incident commander of the BP oil spill for the first time on a college campus.
Adm. Allen spoke to students and alumni from the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration on “Unprecedented Events. Unprecedented Leadership Challenges” and received the university’s Colin Powell Public Service Award from Russell Ramsey, B.B.A. ’81, chairman of the GW Board of Trustees, and GW President Steven Knapp in the Jack Morton Auditorium. The award is in the spirit of its namesake, former Secretary of State and Ret. Gen. Colin Powell, M.B.A. ’71.
Dr. Knapp told Adm. Allen, a 2006 GW Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award recipient, that his career has been “in service to our nation.”
“Although you retired from the Coast Guard this past June, you still hold the national incident commander position to this day,” said Dr. Knapp. “In this way, you continue your service to our nation as you, unquestionably, put our nation’s needs well above your own.”
Adm. Allen called the award an “extraordinary honor.” “It’s been my pleasure to be affiliated with this institution,” he said.
In his 39 years in the Coast Guard, Adm. Allen served in leadership roles during some of the country’s most challenging times. He was chief of staff of the U.S. Coast Guard after 9/11 and was the government’s point person during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the BP oil spill last April. Adm. Allen continued as national incident commander after he retired from the Coast Guard in May.
A 1986 graduate of the Trachtenberg School, Adm. Allen is an active GW alumnus, serving as an advisory board member for the Trachtenberg School, an adviser on the school’s curricula and a student mentor. In the spring, Adm. Allen will teach a course in “Leadership in Complex Organizations” in the Trachtenberg School. Adm. Allen was a student of the school’s director Kathryn Newcomer.
In his remarks, Adm. Allen spoke about the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill and told the audience that the best response is when there’s a “unity of effort” among the entities involved.
“You need to be adaptable, you need to be to be flexible, you need to engage in lifelong learning and keep yourself as wide open to new ideas as you can, and be able to adapt and learn during the situation,” he said.
“We don’t know what the next unprecedented event will be,” he added. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t be successful. That doesn’t mean we can’t deal with it. That doesn’t mean we can’t do better than we did in the past.”
Following his remarks, Adm. Allen participated in a panel discussion with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson, moderated by Ron Carlee, executive in residence of the International City/County Management Association.
Ms. Jackson called Adm. Allen a “great leader” and said his call for flexibility, adaptability and knowledge sharing during crises is exactly what needs to happen.
“One of the things I’m always amazed by is to meet great leaders who have a measure of humility, because they recognize at the outset that they’re up against something they don’t know,” she said. “That is true of my friend the admiral.”
The event was hosted by the Trachtenberg School.