The Howard County
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VOL.13, NO.10
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Retired admiral tells her story
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After growing up in Ellicott City, Sandy Stosz joined the U.S. Coast Guard. She rose to the rank of vice admiral, becoming the first woman to command an icebreaker ship, and the first to lead a U.S. Armed Forces service academy.
born at exactly the right time to benefit from Title IX,” she said in her 2012 testimony at a U.S. Senate hearing that marked the 40th anniversary of Title IX. “Athletics shaped and focused me and gave me the confidence to realize that, through perseverance and hard work, I could pave my own way to success.” She coupled this athleticism with a love of science, which she got from her chemical engineer father, Max Stosz. Stosz earned a bachelor’s degree in gov-
ernment from the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and a master’s degree in national security strategy from the National War College in Washington, D.C. In addition to completing an executive fellowship in national security through an MIT seminar program, she also has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
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Spent her youth in Maryland Stotz grew up in Maryland with three younger brothers, all fewer than four years apart. “My parents were both athletic, and since I was in constant company with three athletic brothers and their friends, it was natural for me to become a tomboy. I never played with dolls,” she said in a recent interview with the Beacon. Stosz was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, and her family spent some time in Takoma Park before moving to Ellicott City. She spent her school days at Northfield Elementary and Mount Hebron High School. There she played varsity basketball, set a record as a senior for the discus, and played tennis and swam at the Forest Hill Swim and Tennis Club. These sports were accessible to Stosz and other girls because of Title IX, the 1972 federal law that prohibited sex-based discrimination at any school or institution that receives federal funds. “I am continually thankful to have been
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By Robert Friedman Sandra “Sandy” Stosz, 63, fondly recalls her “tomboy years” in Ellicott City before joining the U.S. Coast Guard, working her way up to commanding vessels and becoming the first woman to be in charge of a U.S. military academy. Newsweek named Stosz one of the 150 Women Who Shake the World in 2012 — six years before she made history by being appointed superintendent of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. You can read all about Stosz’s 40 years in the Coast Guard in her autobiography, Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass: Leading in Uncharted Waters, published in 2021 by Koehler Books.
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