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Home / Academics / Academic Programs / Prestigious Scholarships Program / Fulbright | Kristopher Thornburg

Kristopher Thornburg

2021 Fulbright Arctic Initiative

In fall 2020, LT Kristopher Thornburg was selected for the Fulbright Arctic Initiative III program. LT Thornburg will represent the U.S. Coast Guard in the Fulbright Arctic Initiative program, which brings together a network of scholars, professionals and applied researchers from the United States, Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden for a series of three seminar meetings and a Fulbright exchange experience to address key research and policy questions related to creating a secure and sustainable Arctic. The third cohort of the Fulbright Arctic Initiative will stimulate international research collaboration on Arctic issues while increasing mutual understanding between people of the United States and member countries of the Arctic Council. Using a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach, Fulbright Arctic Initiative III will address public-policy research questions relevant to Arctic nations’ shared challenges and opportunities.

LT Thornburg’s Fulbright Arctic Initiative research will examine strategic international collaboration for Arctic maritime domain awareness to support the first strategic objective within the USCG Arctic Strategic Outlook: Improving Awareness. LT Thornburg will analyze the approaches other Arctic nations’ coast guard organizations use to gain and maintain Arctic maritime domain awareness, determine strategic international alignment points, identify measures of effectiveness, and highlight strategic intersections with Indigenous and First Nation citizens with regard to social and environmental security. LT Thornburg will spend ten weeks in Norway to collaborate with researchers at the University of Tromsø. He will also attend weeklong seminar meetings in Canada, Norway, and Washington, D.C. The Fulbright Arctic Initiative is a program of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

LT Kristopher Thornburg is a native Iowan and a permanent cutter man. He earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering with a focus on human factors engineering from the University of Iowa. Before entering service in the Coast Guard, he was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. LT Thornburg served in three cutters, including CGC ALERT (WMEC-630) as Assistant Navigator, CGC ALDER (WLB-216) as Operations Officer, and currently CGC HICKORY (WLB-212) as Executive Officer in Homer, Alaska. He applied his specialty knowledge in human factors engineering to CG acquisitions during his shore tour at CGHQ as a team member in the Human Systems Integration Division (CG-1B3), where he gained valuable systems engineering experience. While at CGHQ, he earned a Master of Arts degree in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security, where he received the Outstanding Thesis Award. Kris’ research interests are interdisciplinary and center on security studies in a variety of settings. Kris is a proud father and grateful husband. He and his amazing wife stay busy with their three small children.

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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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