J. Whitehead & Associates was founded by Rear Admiral Joel Whitehead, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired) to provide general consulting to maritime, homeland security, admiralty law firms and P&I Clubs. JWA’s consulting services specialize in the areas of governmental affairs and regulatory compliance, strategic communications, support to admiralty law firms and P&I Clubs, Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Admiral Whitehead brings to bear over 35 years of experience in the United States Coast Guard collaboratively working at all levels of the maritime industry including shipping companies, U.S. and foreign port authorities, pilot associations and state, federal and local maritime and homeland security authorities. Initially trained as a commercial vessel inspector and casualty investigator, he has inspected over 2,000 U.S. and foreign flag vessels and has conducted hundreds of marine casualty investigations. His long service with the Coast Guard has included federal crisis management during 9/11, the 2008 Midwestern floods as well as hurricanes IKE and GUSTAV in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and many other states. He was also intimately involved in the emergency response in the EXXON VALDEZ oil spillas well as duringthe first “Superfund” (CERCLA) hazardous chemical spill in the United States. Admiral Whitehead culminated his Coast Guard career as Commander of the 8th Coast Guard District in New Orleans, with responsibility for 11 of the 14 busiest ports in the U.S., the inland waterways system and the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico.

Admiral Whitehead was educated at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the Rockefeller College of Public Administration at the State University of New York at Albany and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he was a National Security Fellow. Admiral Whitehead is a Governance Fellow with the National Association of Corporate Directors and a National Director of the Navy League of the United States. He is a licensed merchant marine officer with licenses as 2nd Mate upon Oceans and Master of Vessels of Less than 1,600 Gross Tons upon Oceans. He holds a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance.