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Martha
LaGuardia-Kotite
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Martha
LaGuardia-Kotite, was born in New Orleans and grew up in Destin, Florida. Author of four time award winning book, So Others May Live: Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers Saving Lives, Defying Death, (The Lyons Press) with a Foreword by Governor and First Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge. The book was selected for the Commandant of the Coast Guard’s professional reading list, won best adventure award for Boating Writers International and Book of the Year by the Foundation for Coast Guard History. Martha’s book features some of the rescue swimmers who had a staring role in The Guardian, a feature film with Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner.
Recently, she served as then Commandant Admiral Thad Allen’s Press Secretary during the Haiti earthquake in January through the end of May, supporting his role as the National Incident Commander for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. For two months this summer, Martha was the liaison officer to Okaloosa and Walton counties for the BP oil spill response. When not on active duty, she is working on her next book about inspiring and courageous women who have served in the U.S. military since the 1970s titled Changing the Rules of Engagement.
A graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, she has served for over twenty years in the Coast Guard. Immediately following graduation and her commissioning as Ensign, she was assigned to a 210’ cutter, RESOLUTE, operating in the Pacific. Martha served as the cutter’s Public Affairs Officer during the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. A year and a half later, she served as an Executive Officer and boarding officer aboard a 110' patrol boat, PADRE, patrolling the Caribbean and southern Atlantic Ocean. This assignment was followed by a tour as the Assistant Operations Officer for Coast Guard Group Key West where she helped coordinate a massive response of Coast Guard ships, aircraft and personnel to rescue thousands of Cubans and Haitians fleeing their countries on anything that could float. Later, Martha was selected to be the District 13 Public Affairs Officer in Seattle. Here she dealt with a myriad of issues of public, media and congressional interest including oil spills, tribal whaling, law enforcement and rescue cases of regional and international concern.
After hours, Martha interned as a reporter for NBC's KING-TV in Seattle and completed the University of Washington Film and Video Program. She provided edits for feature film scripts featuring the Coast Guard and acted as field producer and editor for many television segments and documentaries, which featured the Coast Guard including Dateline NBC and Discovery Channel.
Transferred to the east coast, she served as the Surface Operations Officer and Governmental Affairs Officer for the Captains of the Port at Coast Guard Sector New York. By 1999, Martha LaGuardia took a reserve commission. Working in the corporate world, she became a Public Relations Director for a firm in Manhattan. She was recognized for leading her IBM team to develop one of IBM’s "top five news stories in its history" and successfully landed client’s placements in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and numerous trade and business magazines.
Martha was awarded numerous medals for her leadership and performance while serving as an officer in the Coast Guard including a Commendation Medal for her production and direction of a suicide prevention training video that documented the aftermath of what military families experience from the loss of a loved one.
A Commander in the reserves she has served as an Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer for FEMA Regions 2 and 4 and is assigned to Sector Mobile as the Senior Reserve Officer.
The history of the rescue swimmer program and one of the heroes in her book was portrayed on the Weather Channel’s series, How Weather Changed History. Martha remains an active promoter of the Coast Guard speaking to schools and venues around the country for both children and adults as noted on her website:
www.mlaguardiakotite.com
She served on the Board of Directors for the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association, is a member of The Author’s Guild and the National Press Club, member of the Military Writers Society, a life member in the Ancient Order of Pterodactyls and member of the Reserve Officers Association.
A wife and mother of two boys, she lives in Florida with her family.
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