Rear Admiral Brian K. Penoyer serves as Assistant Commandant for Human Resources (CG-1) where he oversees all aspects of military and civil service personnel management, including recruitment, assignments and hiring, workforce policies, and pay and benefits.
Previous flag assignments include Commander of the Eleventh Coast Guard District, responsible for the safety, security, law enforcement and environmental stewardship operations from the California-Oregon border to Peru including Arizona, Utah, and Nevada; Commander, Coast Guard Force Readiness Command; and Commander, Fourteenth Coast Guard District.
Rear Admiral Penoyer has extensive operational experience with a specialty in coastal operations. During his career, he served as the Commander of Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston and Deputy Commander at Coast Guard Sector Maryland/National Capitol Region and Sector Jacksonville, Florida. He was the liaison in the office of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security during the Deepwater Horizon incident, deployed during Hurricane Katrina to Louisiana, and again during the Hurricane Sandy to New York. In his first assignment for the Coast Guard, he deployed throughout Europe and the Middle East during the 1991 Gulf War.
Rear Admiral Penoyer’s staff assignments include serving as the Chief of Staff at the Fourteenth Coast Guard District, Deputy Chief of Coast Guard Congressional Affairs, Military Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Department of Homeland Security’s Chief of Contingency Planning. He also served as the Coast Guard’s liaison to the U.S. Department of the Interior and Coast Guard representative on the National Response Team. Rear Admiral Penoyer holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Maryland and a Master of Arts in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College. He is a 2015 recipient of the Coast Guard’s Type I Incident Commander qualification.
Rear Admiral Penoyer is a native of the Chicago area, and a proud University of Chicago graduate. He is married to Hildi Baker of Madison, Wisconsin, a nurse and equally proud University of Chicago graduate. Together they have two daughters, Scotia and Teslin.