Gregory Higgins

Gregory Higgins (Ret.) concluded his Coast Guard career in September 2024 after more than two decades of service. His staff assignments included serving as Command Center Chief for the Joint Pacific Area and Eleventh Coast Guard District Command Center from 2022 to 2024, where he led a 33-member team overseeing Coast Guard operations across the Pacific, Indian, and Arctic/Antarctic Oceans. From 2020 to 2022, he was a Program Reviewer in the Coast Guard’s Office of Budget and Programs, securing $350 million annually for aviation acquisitions and establishing recurring operational funding for uncrewed aircraft systems. In 2021, he temporarily served as Financial Data Team Lead, overseeing the service’s migration to Oracle Federal Financials, ensuring data integrity for $497 billion in transactions. From 2017 to 2020, he led the Workforce Analytics & Forecasting Enlisted Team, modernizing human resource data analytics systems and optimizing workforce planning for the 33,000-member active-duty enlisted workforce. Earlier in his career, from 2006 to 2008, he served as a Facilities & Resources Planner at the Eighth Coast Guard District in New Orleans. Cmdr. Higgins’ operational assignments included serving as a deck seaman aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Elm from 1998 to 1999, deck watch officer aboard the Cutter Alert from 2004 to 2006, and Operations Officer aboard the Cutter Steadfast from 2008 to 2010. He served as a Command Duty Officer and Search and Rescue Controller for the Thirteenth Coast Guard District in Seattle, WA, from 2010 to 2013. He served as the first Commanding Officer of the Cutter Kathleen Moore from 2013 to 2015, homeported in Key West, Florida. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 2004 and a Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering from the University of Miami in 2017. His work, “Simulation-Based Multi-Mission Cutter Scheduling Evaluation for the United States Coast Guard,” was published in the Proceedings of the 2017 Winter Simulation Conference. Now retired, Cmdr. Higgins resides in Port Angeles, Washington, with his wife and their two children. He continues to pursue his passions for leadership, operations research and data science, and community involvement.