Work in Progress podcast with Stephen Keck and Christopher Cruz of the U.S. Coast Guard on helping service members prepare for the transition to civilian careers
Work in Progress podcast with Stephen Keck and Christopher Cruz of the U.S. Coast Guard on helping service members prepare for the transition to civilian careers

Coast Guard veterans: Highly-trained and ready for work

A conversation with Stephen Keck and Christopher Cruz, U.S. Coast Guard Career Investment Division
-

In this episode of Work in Progress, I am joined by two leaders of the U.S. Coast Guard Career Investment Division, Chief Stephen Keck and Deputy Chief Christopher Cruz. We take a look at how the Coast Guard is preparing its service members for the vital jobs they do in active service to the country and giving them the training, credentials, and degrees they need to succeed in the civilian workforce, including in critical national security roles.

Transitioning from active military duty to a civilian career can be one of the most stressful times of your life according to today’s guests. Fortunately, there are people in every branch of the military to help prepare service members for that big step.

Both Keck and Cruz are veterans and both understand that service members learn remarkable skills while serving their country, skills that are vital to our nation’s security. They also know that sometimes it’s helpful to have a degree or industry-recognized credentials as they make that transition from active duty to veteran.

In the podcast, we discuss the training that the U.S. Coast Guard provides for active duty service men and women. They also explain how those Coast Guard Sentinels can get credit through civilian industry-recognized credentials for those military jobs. For example, merchant mariner is a national security role that Coast Guard veterans are highly-qualified for and the program Keck and Cruz run make it easier for those veterans to qualify for those jobs.

We also talk about other credentialing opportunities, two- and four-year college, and the durable skills a veteran leaves the military with.

You can listen to the entire conversation here, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 338: Stephen Keck, Chief, U.S. Coast Guard Career Investment Division; Christopher Cruz, Deputy Chief, U.S. Coast Guard Career Investment Division
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

Gain access to Essential Stories that Drive Change

Receive compelling updates and in-depth analysis of the latest trends Shaping the Veterans.
Select how often you'd like to receive insights:

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.