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Royce W. James, Ph.D., Captain, USCG (Permanent Commissioned Teaching Staff)

Professor, Physics Department of Physics
CAPT Royce James

Prior to joining the Coast Guard, Dr. James served with AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) as a Team Leader, then graduated from US Coast Guard Boot Camp class Y-149 in 1996. CAPT James attended New Mexico State University under the Coast Guard’s College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative (CSPI) program. While at NMSU, he held Internships at the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Facility and at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and served as a regional Rape Crisis Advocate for Doña Aña county, NM.

CAPT James worked as a Project Engineer at the Command and Control Engineering Center (C2CEN) and from there was selected for the Academy Instructor Masters program. Dr. James earned a Master of Science Degree from Columbia University, and began teaching at the academy in 2004. CAPT James completed his Doctorate in Plasma Physics at Columbia’s Plasma Physics Lab through Steven’s Institute of Technology in December 2008. Since then he has been the PI of the Coast Guard Academy Plasma Lab (CGAPL), Department Equity Officer, Science Lecture Coordinator, Internship Coordinator, Co-founder/Director for CGA’s Science Partnership for Innovation in Learning (Project SPIL), Genesis & Spectrum Council (CGA’s Black and Gay Student Unions) and the Science Department Diversity & Inclusion Officer.

CAPT James, a 2019 Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA) winner for Professional Achievement in Government, is a founding member of the Black Lives of Unitarian Universalist’s Organizing Collective, is the co-founder of the New London Freedom School, is a co-founder and Chair of the American Physical Societiy Division of Plasma Physics’s (APS DPP) Diversity Equity and Inclusion Organizing Collective Committee (DEI-OCC), co founder of the Coast Guard Spectrum Affinity Group, founding Science Technology and Mathematics Magnet School Board Member, and Member of the Nuclear Energy Advisory Council for the state of CT (currently on leave of absence).

Recently, CAPT James served as the Air Force Institute of Technology’s innagural Chief Diversity Officer and Visiting Professor in the Engineering Physics Department with research primarily in fusion energy, laboratory and space based magnetized plasmas, plasma interactions with electromagnetic radiation (with emphasis on high energy lasers), CubeSat payload and spacecraft development, and plasma water treatment. CAPT James returned to the Coast Guard Academy faculty this summer as a full professor, remains the PI of CGAPL, and is the Collaboration for Space & Energy lead. Dr. James’ family, three daughters, son, and wife, the Reverend Jessica James, Unitarian Universalist Minister, currently live in New Haven, CT with their two dogs Ebi and Levi.

Education

  • Ph.D., Stevens Institute of Technology, 2008
  • M.S., Columbia University, 2004
  • B.S., New Mexico State University, 1999

Contact Information

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.

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