Vice Admiral William “Dean” Lee entered the U.S. Coast Guard in 1981 and retired in 2016 after serving nearly 36 years as a commissioned officer in various assignments along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts.  He concluded his career as Commander, Atlantic Area, serving as the operational commander for a force of 21,000 active personnel conducting all U.S. Coast Guard missions from the Rocky

Mountains to the Arabian Gulf, spanning across five Coast Guard Districts and 40 states.

VADM Lee now serves on the Board of Directors for Safe Boat International, and previously served on the Board of Advisors for HELINET, a privately held aviation company in Van Nuys, California.  He has been a Senior Fellow and Honorary Professor of Military Science since 2016 at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, VA.   Admiral Lee is also a private consultant who specializes in Corporate Leadership Development for various clients around the country, and speaks routinely at corporate seminars on the topics of leadership, ethics, and character development.  His most passionate and self-satisfying work, however, is as a board member with HARP, a non-profit program designed to help victims recover from the ravages of drug addiction brought on by the current OPIOD epidemic.  He generally spends every Tuesday in jail providing hope to those who need it most.  It is through this program that he has learned the most valuable lesson of his adult life:  “Judge not.”  

 Vice Admiral Lee is a native of Richmond, Virginia.   He holds a Master’s Degree from George Washington University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Alabama.   He and his wife Mary have 2 grown children, and 3 grandchildren.