Rear Admiral Laura M. Dickey assumed the duties as the Deputy for Materiel Readiness at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters in July 2023. Reporting to the Deputy Commandant for Mission Support, RADM Dickey provides oversight and guidance for program management of Coast Guard engineering, logistics, acquisitions, contracting, and command, control, communications, and information technology.
The Mission Support enterprise is responsible for staffing, training, equipping, and sustaining the Coast Guard to ensure force readiness and delivery of operational outcomes. Her responsibilities include the execution of a $2.5 billion annual budget, leading over 10,000 personnel and oversight of 25 acquisition initiatives representing a $42 billion life cycle investment portfolio.
Previously, RADM Dickey served as Deputy Commander, Atlantic Area, where she was responsible for all U.S. Coast Guard missions within a geographic region spanning from the Rocky Mountains to the Arabian Gulf and encompassing five Coast Guard Districts and 40 states. From 2020 to 2022, she served as Commander of the Fifth Coast Guard District, where she oversaw the full range of Coast Guard operations in the Mid-Atlantic region from central New Jersey through North Carolina.
RADM Dickey also served as the Deputy Director of Operations for United States Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she was a principal advisor to the USNORTHCOM Commander on all operational matters regarding homeland defense, defense support to civil authorities, and theater security cooperation.
As a career cutterman, RADM Dickey has more than 12 years afloat conducting law enforcement, search and rescue, and homeland security operations throughout the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, Bering Sea, and the Arctic. She also served aboard six cutters and was the commanding officer for three of them: USCGC MIDGETT (WHEC 726), USCGC DEPENDABLE (WMEC 626) and USCGC CHINCOTEAGUE (WPB 1320).
RADM Dickey served in a variety of key staff positions, including as the Chief of Staff for the Seventeenth Coast Guard District, headquartered in Juneau, Alaska, where she was responsible for all Coast Guard missions in Alaska and the Arctic. From 2014 to 2016, RADM Dickey served as Vice President Biden’s Special Advisor for Homeland Security, Counterterrorism, and Africa. Her portfolio at the White House also included maritime security, the Arctic, the National Response Framework, and a number of other national security and humanitarian issues.
Moreover, she served as the Coast Guard’s Liaison to the U.S. Senate from 2009-2011, a period which included the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; Executive Officer of U.S. Coast Guard Patrol Forces Southwest Asia based in the Kingdom of Bahrain in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom; as a staff attorney at Maintenance & Logistics Command Atlantic; as a courts-martial prosecutor at the Navy Trial Services Office East; and as a Command Center Controller at the Atlantic Area/Fifth District Command Center.
Rear Admiral Dickey is a native of Wilmington, N.C. She is a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. She earned a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina in 2002 and graduated with honors from the Naval Justice School. She is also a 2012 graduate of the U.S. Naval War College and she has a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies. She is a member of the Bar of the State of North Carolina.