Captain Kenneth J. Boda is the Deputy Director of Marine Transportation Systems at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters. He manages a broad portfolio of marine navigation, waterway, and bridge programs and is responsible for polar safety and security initiatives and ocean policy coordination.
Captain Boda is a 1997 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (with high honors). He is a career icebreaker sailor, having served ten years afloat as both Communications Officer and Operations Officer in USCGC Polar Sea, Supply and Training Officer in USCGC Eagle, and Executive Officer in USCGC Polar Star. He was the Commanding Officer of USCGC Healy during the historic Northwest Passage and North American Circumnavigation deployment of 2021, and North Pole mission in 2022. His staff tours include Marine Science Instructor at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Strategic Analyst at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, leader of the interagency Operational Science Advisory Team for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response, Division Chief for Icebreakers and Buoy Tenders and Deputy Chief of the Office of Cutter Forces at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters. Captain Boda served as the Director of Interagency Coordination and Special Assistant to the Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command.
He has earned masters degrees from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Physical Oceanography, and from the U.S. Naval War College in National Security and Strategic Studies (with distinction). Captain Boda is a 2016 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seminar XXI Fellow, and a recipient of the 2018 Department of Homeland Security Gary E. Carter Award for DHS Major Acquisition of the Year. He was recognized as one of ten “Great Captains” of the last sixty years by Soundings Magazine in March 2024. He has authored more than a dozen articles published in professional journals including the Marine Technology Society Journal, the International Oil Spill Conference Journal and U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings.
Captain Boda is married to the former Alison Baikal of Kensington, CT, and they have a 13 year old son Patrick. They reside in Dunkirk, Maryland.