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August 8, 2001
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an online newsletter for and by NOAA employees
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Calling him a "renaissance man," NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations has named Captain Christopher McMahon NOAA's Team Member of the Month. Active in the U.S. Maritime Service, this captain is an ordained minister with graduate degrees in business, counseling and theology. He has traveled the globe aboard vessels engaged in worldwide trade, served as associate professor and sailing master at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (under the Department of Transportation), and is current head of the Academy's Global Maritime and Transportation School. He is also one of NOAA's biggest fans. Considered a "resident expert" in expanding maritime opportunities, Chris collaborates with NOAA and other government, industry and environmental representatives on the I-95 Corridor Coalition. This group is studying the massive transportation problems between Boston and Washington, DC, a region that is already at maximum air, highway and railroad capacity. Mike Henderson, head of NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, says that Chris has traveled the world by ship and learned how other countries are handling and automating their large ports. "Chris understands that we must make changes partly because we can't compete if we don't, but that the changes have to be smart." Chris works closely with NOAA Corps and NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. With a focus on training and marine transportation, his work is boosting NOAA's Promote Safe Navigation initiative. He is a strong proponent of NOAA's efforts to upgrade its hydrographic surveying capabilities, ensuring this agency's leadership in nautical charting. As director of the Global Maritime and Transportation School, Chris oversees the initial training program for NOAA Corps. When NOAA Corps' training facility at Fort Eustis, Virginia was closed down in 1995 and officer recruitment frozen, Chris stepped in to help fill the training void. Senior officers about to go to sea went to the Global Maritime and Transportation School for refresher training. When the recruiting freeze was lifted four years later, the first new recruits in four years continued to attend the school for basic officer training. Courses were adapted to fit NOAA's special needs as a research rather than transportation agency, and Chris is pictured as really bending over backwards to make this happen. He has since worked to improve the training program with each new class. To date, 60 NOAA Corps graduates owe much of their shipboard skills to Chris, who continues to inspire them with dynamic speeches at their graduation ceremonies. Chris's visions for the future? He believes that, in part, the solution to the I-95 congestion lies in expanding marine transportation to include high speed passenger ferries between major port cities and providing large capacity barges to transport trucks. He also believes NOAA Corps can share a vital international role with the Department of Transportation. Since one of the most critical problems facing developing countries is a lack of efficient transportation systems and ports, Chris envisions teaching representatives from developing nations how to manage inter-modal transportation. |
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