Captain Jean Marie Sullivan, USN

Captain Jean Marie Sullivan is the youngest child of a large Catholic German-Irish family. Her parents were U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officers, so she spent most of her youth overseas in countries like Saudi Arabia, Liberia, and Indonesia. She graduated from the University of Rochester and earned her commission through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) in 2000.

During her 24 years in the Navy, Captain Sullivan has served at sea on missile guided destroyers, an aircraft carrier, and an amphibious landing ship. From 2019 to 2020 she served as the 22nd Commanding Officer of the amphibious landing ship USS WHIDBEY ISLAND (LSD 41). Ashore, her assignments include the Director of Women’s Policy for the U.S. Navy, speechwriter for the Chief of Naval Personnel, Defense Legislative Fellow to Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, and a Special Assistant to 30th Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Greenert. She served in Naples, Italy from 2014 to 2016 as a special assistant to the Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa and Commander, NATO Joint Force Command Naples. She has also served as a White House Social Aide to President George W. Bush.

Prior to her current assignment, Captain Sullivan completed a tour serving in the Directorate for Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington D.C. In May 2023, she took command of the NROTC GWU unit and also serves as the Professor of Naval Science at The George Washington University.

She has a Master’s Degree in Organizational Management from The George Washington University and various personal awards and unit citations.

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