DR. VINCENT W. PATTON III CYBERSECURE GROWTH COACH
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Vince Patton served as the Eighth 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. As the service’s top senior-ranking enlisted leader and ombudsman during that period, 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, career development, work environment and personnel matters affecting over 45,000 active duty, reserve, and civilian personnel service wide. He routinely addressed those specific issues before appropriate Senate and House committees in Congress, and the Commander in Chief, along with his senior-ranking enlisted counterparts of the other armed services.
Master Chief Patton’s military 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. His numerous military awards include the Distinguished Service Medal which is the nation’s highest military peace time recognition for performance of duty.
Master Chief Patton received his Doctor of Education degree from the American University in Washington, DC where his dissertation was on the development and implementation of the Coast Guard Enlisted Evaluation System. In addition, he earned a Master of Arts degree Counseling Psychology from Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois; a Master of Theology degree from Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California; and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Pacific College in Angwin, California. His military education includes is the U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Academy, U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy (with distinction), and the Department of Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. He enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard after graduation from Cass Technical High School in Detroit, one of the leading U.S. technical schools that the Peake Fellowship looks to as a national role model.
He accomplished the rank of Eagle Scout and was also a former Naval Sea Cadet during his high school years. He was selected as an Olympic Torchbearer for the 2002 Winter Olympics. In 2019, he was inducted in the Michigan Military Veterans Hall of Honor. He received an Honorary Doctorate in Public Service from Southern New Hampshire University in 2019. In November 2021 he was awarded the Rear Admiral J. Robert Lunney Patriot Award by the Navy League of the United States. He has also been named as one of the top 250 distinguished veterans by the Department of Veteran Affairs and was the Grand Marshal for the 2022 New York City and 2023 Detroit Veterans Day parades. He was also honored by the Detroit Lions as the ‘Hometown Hero’ for 2023.
Dr. Patton served as Senior Vice President for Leadership Development with New Day USA, as part of the company’s ‘Character Driven Leadership’ program. He currently teaches on Leadership and Ethics as an adjunct faculty member at Northeast Maritime Institute College of Maritime Science, Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He is also an ordained minister and 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, Veterans Justice Commission, and the Uniformed Services Benefit Association.
Master Chief Patton's leadership across his career of applied learning & teaching helps drive the innovations of the Peake Fellowship.