SUNY Maritime names first female president

Navy Rear Adm. Wendi Carpenter has been named the first female president of SUNY Maritime College.

Carpenter, commander of the Warfare Development Command and the Navy's first woman aviator promoted to the rank of admiral, was appointed Thursday by the SUNY board of trustees to run the Bronx campus, nestled under the Throgs Neck Bridge. She will start in the post in late August.

"Admiral Carpenter is among the Navy's elite, and she will be an outstanding addition to the SUNY leadership team," SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher said in a statement.

Carpenter succeeds John Craine, a retired Navy vice admiral, to head the first maritime college in the country, established in 1874. SUNY Maritime has an enrollment of 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students it prepares for careers in the maritime industry, government, military and private industry. Craine, who is retiring, has led the school since 2005.

Among the first women selected to become a naval aviator, Carpenter graduated from flight school at the top of her class. She was assigned as the first graduate instructor pilot in the T-44 advanced multiengine aircraft program at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, and in 2005 was promoted to admiral.

Carpenter is the daughter of a career Air Force officer who served during World War II, Korea and Vietnam. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 1976 and was commissioned in 1978 through Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Fla.

After serving as an instructor, in 1981 she was ordered to sea duty at Naval Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii, where she served as a mission commander, aircraft commander and instructor pilot in EC-130 aircraft. She completed a shore tour as an aviation assignments officer in Washington, D.C.

Carpenter has held five commands at the commander, captain and flag levels in logistics, training and aviation. In June 2008, she assumed command of the Navy Warfare Development Command, which works on new weaponry. She earned a master's degree in international relations from Salve Regina University.