CAPTAIN RICARDO M. ALONSO
Captain Ricardo M. Alonso currently oversees the Office of Marine Environmental Response Policy at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington DC. He leads a staff that administers, develops and maintains the Coast Guard’s marine environmental response program and provides guidance to operational field units. He also serves as the Vice Chair for the National Response Team and Chairs the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research.
Most recently he served as the Division Chief of the Industry Preparedness & Incident Coordination Division at Coast Guard Headquarters. Prior to these assignments, he was the U.S. Coast Guard Fellow at the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute in Falls Church, VA where he undertook important research on the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United Sates, human mass migration studies and improvements to area contingency plans in relation to the Endangered Species Act and the Historical Preservation Act. From 2013 to 2016, he served as the Commanding Officer of Marine Safety Unit Texas City, TX. There he was responsible for carrying out the Coast Guard’s Homeland Security, Marine Safety, and Marine Environmental Protection missions in the Ports of Galveston, Texas City and Freeport, in over 120-miles of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, a 4,000 square-mile region of the Outer Continental Shelf and the entrance to the nation’s largest petrochemical complex.
He previously served at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Office of Personnel Management where he coordinated the worldwide assignment of all senior Prevention specialty officers which ensured proper development and staffing for mission execution for the service. Prior to that assignment, Captain Alonso served as the Chief of Planning, Readiness and Incident Management at Sector San Juan, Puerto Rico where he ensured the safety, preparedness, and environmental protection of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There he led in a number of major responses to hurricanes, oil spills, hazardous materials incidents, and worked closely with governmental and industry partners in increasing preparedness and resilience to a variety of contingencies and threats. In addition, he also served as the Chief of the Investigations Division in San Juan, where he led in the investigations to a wide variety of high profile marine casualties and environmental crime cases of national impact.
Other previous assignments include Marine Safety Office New Orleans, Louisiana where he served as a Port State and Domestic Marine Inspector, Chief of Facilities and Waterways, and Command Center Chief; and Marine Safety Office Morgan City, Louisiana as Chief of Marine Environmental Protection and as an Investigating Officer.
CAPT Alonso is a certified Type-1 Incident Commander and a Federal On-Scene Coordinator. He holds a Master’s of Science degree in Environmental Science and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA.