uscga badge
Search
Close this search box.
uscga badge
Search
Close this search box.
Home / Academics / Academic Majors / Management / Management Faculty and Staff / Michael Bellissimo

Michael Bellissimo, Ph.D., M.B.A

Lecturer Department of Management

Michael BellissimoMike Bellissimo is a newly appointed (2023) Lecturer in the Department of Management at the United States Coast Guard, teaching Organizational Behavior and Leadership. Prior to the Coast Guard, Mike was at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, working on his PhD, and consulting, as the Founder of BarBell Ventures, to health tech start-ups across the US. In addition to his duties at the Coast Guard, Mike remains a Research Fellow at Case Western where he studies leadership and team behavior under extreme crises. Mike’s recently completed PhD dissertation is titled “Reliability and Resilience at US Hospitals During the Global Covid-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Study on the Effect of Leader and Team Behavior on Crisis Response.” Mike’s particular focus has been on the crisis responsiveness of military healthcare which resulted in his publishing a case study on the Veterans Health Administration’s response to the pandemic. Prior to his PhD, Mike held leadership positions in healthcare at The Cleveland Clinic and Humana, and in the technology sector at Apple, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. When Mike is not teaching, he enjoys cycling, having completed a dozen treks from San Francisco to Los Angeles by bike and running, having finished both the Honolulu Marathon and the New York City Marathon. And, when not in New London, Mike spends time with his family at their home on Martha’s Vineyard.

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts in Communications, University of Pennsylvania- Philadelphia, 1981
  • Master of Business Administration, Northeastern University- Boston, 1985
  • Master of Science in Education, University of San Francisco- Coursework Completed, 2000
  • PhD in Management, Case Western Reserve University- Cleveland, 2023

Research

  • Bellissimo, M. (2020). (A Qualitative Study on) Hospital Leadership in Times of Crisis: How Leader Humility During the Covid-19 Pandemic Enabled Their Organizations to be More Resilient and Responsive to the Changing Needs for Care. Case Western Reserve University.
  • Bellissimo, M. (2021). (A Quantitative Study on) How Hospital Leadership During the Covid-19 Pandemic Enabled Resilient Response to the Changing Needs for Care. Case Western Reserve University.
  • Bellissimo, M. (2022). (A Case Study on) Crisis Response at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Case Western Reserve University.
  • Bellissimo, M. (2023). Reliability and Resilience at US Hospitals During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Study on the Effect of Leader and Team Behavior on Crisis Response. Case Western Reserve University.

Contact Information

Apply Now
Apply Now

Sponsor Family Application

Thank you for submitting your application to be part of the Sponsor Family Program. Your application will be processed in the upcoming week. Coast Guard Academy’s policy on background screening now requires all adults (everyone 18 and older living in the home) who volunteer to mentor, teach, coach or sponsor cadets, whether on or off Coast Guard Academy grounds, to be screened every 5 years. They are required to provide personal information (name, birth date and social security number) for the purpose of conducting a criminal background check.

The Security Officer at the Coast Guard Academy, CWO2 Gina Polkowski, is overseeing this process. Her email is: Gina.M.Polkowski@uscg.mil.

Sponsor Family designations fall into several different categories. Below are the guidelines to help you determine how best to meet the background screening requirement:

  1. If you are Coast Guard active duty you do not need to apply for an additional Background Check. You will be vetted through the Coast Guard system by CWO2 Polkowski.
  2. If you are a Civilian working for the Coast Guard you do not need to apply for an additional Background Check. You will be vetted through the Coast Guard system by CWO2 Polkowski.
  3. If you are non-Coast Guard Active Duty, you are required to provide proof of your current security clearance or National Agency Check that is to be emailed by your Command Security Officer (CSO)/ Security Office to CWO2 Polkowski at  Gina.M.Polkowski@uscg.mil.
  4. If you are non-Coast Guard civilian who has a current security clearance or National Agency check, you are required to provide proof of your current security clearance or National Agency Check that is to be emailed by your Command Security Officer (CSO)/ Security Office to CWO2 Polkowski at  Gina.M.Polkowski@uscg.mil.
  5. All civilians in the families who are 18 years or older and do not have a security clearance or a National Agency Check are required to be vetted through Mind Your Business, the third party vendor hired by the Coast Guard Academy for the vetting process.

After you complete your application, please e-mail the Sponsor Family Program Coordinator at CadetFamilySponsorProgram@uscga.edu. In your e-mail, you must include the e-mail address and phone number of every adult living in the home. The Sponsor Family Coordinator will then initiate the background check process and you will receive an email with further instructions.

Important things to note:

There is a Sponsor Family Training that is a one-hour training which we ask sponsors to attend once every four years. This training is designed to give you an overview of the program, what is expected of you as a sponsor, and what you can expect from your cadets. This training will also help familiarize you with the cadet regulations onboard CGA. You will be notified via e-mail once the training is scheduled.

The matching process of swabs to families will occur during July and August. Please bear with us and remain flexible through this process. There will be a meet and greet scheduled on Campus, typically in late August. This will give families an opportunity to formally meet their cadet if they have not already done so. Details on this will also be via email.

CGA Badge
Links from these pages to non-Coast Guard sites are provided as a customer service and do not represent any implicit or explicit endorsement by the United States Coast Guard of any commercial or private issues or products presented there.
learn more