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Maine Maritime Academy Hires Alan J. Chace to Direct New Center for Professional Mariner Development

Posted on: February 18, 2020

CASTINE, Maine—Dr. William J. Brennan, President of Maine Maritime Academy (MMA), recently announced that the college has hired Alan J. Chace to direct the new Center for Professional Mariner Development (CPMD), the academy’s training facility located in Bucksport. The CPMD provides specialized courses for professional mariners, academy-enrolled students, and workforce development.

Chace brings 27 years of academic and naval experience to the position of CPMD director. A retired United States Naval Commander, he spent 19 years abroad and at sea as an Information Operations Officer and a Foreign Area Officer. His postings included the US Embassy in Tokyo, NATO in London, and United States Naval Forces in Seoul, Korea. For the last seven years, he has been involved in higher education as a military professor, professional development coordinator, and a project manager, most recently at Cape Cod Community College in Barnstable, Massachusetts.

“The new Center for Professional Mariner Development supports our mission by providing critical training for our alumni and other professionals while also directly benefiting our undergraduate students by helping to offset tuition costs,” said President Brennan. “Maine Maritime Academy is fortunate to have Alan leading the development of this important new venture.”

“I am excited to start up the new center, and to be making local connections,” said Alan Chace. “We began running classes at the new facility as of Saturday, February 8th, and we have an additional five courses that will run between now and the end of the month in Bucksport.”

Alan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and Japanese from Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania and his Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island.

The new training center includes an existing 20,000-square-foot administration and instruction building, which houses classrooms, offices, training and simulator spaces, and conference rooms. Maine Maritime Academy occupied the property in early February following renovations that were planned for the building. A state-of-the-art, multi-purpose firefighting training facility will be built on the property in the spring and is expected to be operational in the fall of 2020. Courses requiring the use of a pool will continue to be held at the Castine campus.

Maine Maritime Academy is a co-educational, public college on the coast of Maine offering programs of study in engineering, management, science, and transportation. The college serves approximately 950 undergraduate and graduate students in career-oriented degree programs. The job placement rate for MMA graduates regularly exceeds 90 percent within 90 days of graduation and the college is consistently recognized for providing a high-value education by organizations such as the Brookings Institution, Washington Monthly, and U.S. News and World Report.