Dr. Vince Patton served as the 8th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard from May 1998 until his retirement from more than 30 years of active service in November 2002. His illustrious career included staff and operational assignments throughout the country, both afloat and ashore throughout the United States along with a joint military service assignment in Cuba and Haiti. Among his numerous military awards includes the Distinguished Service Medal, which is the nation’s highest military peacetime recognition for performance of duty.

As the service’s top senior enlisted leader and ombudsman, Master Chief Patton was the principal advisor to the Commandant of the Coast Guard, his directorates, and the Secretaries of Transportation and Defense, with primary focus on quality-of-life issues, career development, work environment and personnel matters affecting over 45,000 active duty, reserve, and civilian personnel service wide. He routinely addressed these specific issues before appropriate Senate and House committees in Congress, and the Commander in Chief, along with his senior enlisted counterparts of the other four-armed services.

Vince received his Doctor of Education degree from The American University, a master’s degree in counseling psychology at Loyola University at Chicago, a B.S. in social work from Shaw College and a B.A. in communication from Pacific College. His extensive military education includes the Department of Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, U. S. Army Sergeants Major Academy, and the Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Academy.

After his retirement from the U.S. Coast Guard in 2002, Vince was an assistant professor at University of California Berkeley teaching ‘Philosophy of Ethics,’ for two years, and was also a seminary student, at Graduate Theological Union, earning his Master of Theology in Applied Religious Studies and becoming an ordained minister. Soon after, he spent seven years with Military Advantage, a division of Monster Worldwide and the world’s largest military membership organization known as ‘Military.com,’ in the capacity as Director of Government Partnership & Alliances. Later he spent four and a half years with the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) as executive director for the educational foundation. He also served as president and CEO of Warriors4Wireless, a nonprofit career development program designed exclusively for transitioning military servicemembers and veterans, training them for careers in the wireless telecommunications infrastructure industry in construction, installation and maintenance of cellular towers and broadband systems. Most recently he spent 8 years with NewDay USA Financial LLC as Senior Vice President for Leadership Development, where he worked closely with staff members on their development of leadership and management skills as part of the Character Driven Leadership Program, with special emphasis placed on ‘Up & Coming’ employees who progress into supervisory roles and responsibilities.

Currently, Vince maintains three specific individual roles at Northeast Maritime Institute. He is President and CEO for the Northeast Maritime Institute Foundation and is responsible for the nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that focuses on student scholarship opportunities, and partnership development with the maritime industry. He is also chairman of the board of trustees for Northeast Maritime Institute, which is the governing body for the College of Maritime Science. As an adjunct faculty member for the College of Maritime Science, he teaches Leadership and Ethics and Introduction to Public Speaking courses.

He is actively involved with several other public service and nonprofit organizations, serving on boards with the National Coast Guard Museum, U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps, and the Uniformed Services Benefit Association.