Brian McNamara

Dr. Brian McNamara joined the School of Professional Advancement after 25 years of active duty service with the U.S. Coast Guard. In his legal tours, Brian served as the chief of the service’s marine safety law practice group, deputy counsel for regional operations along the Gulf Coast and Western Rivers, and attorney-advisor for the Marine Casualty Investigations National Center of Expertise. Based on his military criminal law experience, the Judge Advocate General appointed Brian to the bench as a collateral duty court-martial judge from 2017-2020.

Brian developed his passion for teaching as an instructor with the Coast Guard’s Maritime Law Enforcement School and began his career as a Deck Watch Officer for a Coast Guard cutter conducting North Atlantic fisheries patrols and Caribbean counter-narcotics operations. He finished his career as the Logistics Department Head and Commanding Officer of Military Personnel for Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, where he led the teams providing personnel, budget, weapons, and engineering support for all service operations in Southeast Louisiana. He has taught law as an adjunct professor for Tulane Law School and Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida.

He is currently fulfilling a three-year appointment to the National Academies Marine Board, which began on Nov. 1, 2024.