“All In, All Good, All for One”Tim Gallaudet on Science, Leadership and the People Behind the Mission

Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, PhD, U.S. Navy (Ret.), has spent much of his professional life at the intersection of ocean science, technology and public service. His 32-year Navy career included command at sea, scientific research, leadership of Navy Meteorology and Oceanography Command and responsibility for what he described as the world’s largest fleet of oceanographic underwater vehicles. Then, in 2017, he moved into an entirely different environment when he was appointed to help lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

His new book, Holding Fast in Heavy Seas: Leadership for Turbulent Times, draws on all of it. But while the book is built around leadership, Gallaudet is quick to point out that the lessons are not exclusively his.

“I wrote the book really because I was asked when I led this civilian agency, NOAA, every day about what I thought on different leadership topics,” said Gallaudet. Unlike the Navy, he said, scientists and civilians in federal agencies are not routinely immersed in formal leadership training. His NOAA colleagues wanted to hear what he had learned.

“It’s a memoir, but it’s really focused on my thoughts on leadership,” he said, particularly what he learned “from really great people, not just senior officers and commanding officers, but junior sailors and civilians who’d really taught me a lot about how to be as a person with character and integrity.”

For the marine science and technology community, however, Holding Fast carries another thread. Gallaudet’s career is a story of a scientist who became a senior leader without losing his connection to science, technology or the people doing the work.

Science as the Common Ground

Gallaudet arrived at NOAA during the first Trump administration, a period he described as one of considerable uncertainty for federal science agencies. One of his challenges was reconciling proposed White House budget reductions with programs that he believed were important to public safety and research. “We found creative ways,” he said, and one of the clearest examples was uncrewed technology.

Gallaudet helped establish NOAA’s first drone program, initially funded at about $14 million annually. The program used aerial, surface and underwater vehicles to monitor the ocean and fisheries, map shorelines and coral reefs, study the atmosphere and improve hurricane track predictions.

“We were dealing with some heavy seas in terms of the White House wanting to throttle us back,” he said, “but we found ways to succeed by really appealing to the technology goals they had.”

For Gallaudet, this was familiar territory.

As Oceanographer of the Navy and Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, he oversaw a large fleet of oceanographic underwater vehicles. In 2016, China seized a U.S. Navy ocean glider, an event that, in his view, demonstrated the growing strategic value of understanding ocean temperature, salinity and currents for undersea warfare.

The incident also offered a leadership lesson. Gallaudet had already briefed senior Navy leadership extensively on the technology and the mission. When the glider suddenly became international news, there was no scramble to explain what his command had been doing.

Communication before the crisis mattered.

He [Bob Ballard] was my hero when I was a midshipman, but then when I became the NOAA administrator, I became his $6 million man.”

- Tim Gallaudet,
Rear Admiral, US Navy (ret)

Connecting with the Scientists

Perhaps the strongest connection between Gallaudet’s Navy career and his NOAA tenure was his ability to understand the people behind the science.

He did not arrive at NOAA simply as another political appointee. His professional background overlapped with much of the agency’s mission, and he made a conscious effort to use that common ground.

“I wasn’t trying to sell myself,” he said. “I was just being the type of leader I was in the Navy, approachable, authentic, and with total humility.”

That meant getting out of the office.

“I just kind of embarked on a whole effort to get to know people, visit them at their sites, communicate with them nonstop by email, social media, or however in person, and in a way that just showed appreciation for their work.”

He read scientists’ research and reports. He dove with NOAA scientists in the Great Lakes, Florida Keys and Hawaii. He went aboard NOAA ships and boats. A Navy weather forecaster himself, he sat down with NOAA forecasters and swapped stories about difficult predictions.

“We’re weather nerds,” Gallaudet said, “but we took a badge of honor in helping the public stay safe.”

The point was not simply to be visible. It was to understand the work.

“There was just connecting them on their work and showing that I really cared about their work and knew what it was about.”

That connection continues today. Gallaudet recounted recently reading about NOAA fisheries scientists conducting dives beyond 100 meters and personally reaching out to recognize their achievement.

“I just reached out to a couple dozen of them today to recognize that,” he said. “Just because I appreciate their work.”

From Ballard to NOAA

Gallaudet’s connection to ocean exploration reaches back to the beginning of his career.

As a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, he attended a lecture by Dr. Robert Ballard less than a year after Ballard discovered Titanic.

“I said, ‘I’m becoming a Naval oceanographer.’ And that’s what I did.”

The relationship eventually came full circle. As Gallaudet rose through the Navy, he began working with Ballard. Later at NOAA, the agency was providing approximately $6 million in support for Ballard’s exploration vessel Nautilus.

“He was my hero when I was a midshipman,” Gallaudet said, “but then when I became the NOAA administrator, I became his $6 million man.”

It is a small anecdote, but one that captures the arc of Gallaudet’s career: inspiration from ocean exploration led to naval oceanography, which eventually led to a position where he could help enable the next generation of marine science and exploration.

That commitment sometimes carried professional risk. Gallaudet said some political appointees discouraged him from communicating so directly with NOAA employees, fearing that engagement with the workforce could create political problems. He disagreed.

“As a leader, I thought that was garbage,” he said. “Let me please engage our workforce.”

He continued doing so.

Know Your People

For all the technology discussed in Gallaudet’s career, one of the simplest lessons in Holding Fast is decidedly low tech: know your people.

As a senior executive, Gallaudet made a habit of researching people he met, learning their background, education and work. He sometimes spent hours each week doing it. Months after a meeting, he might encounter an employee again and address that person by name.

“When you remember someone and you show you appreciate and value them so much to remember their name, especially if you’re really high up on the ladder, it just changes things overnight,” he said.

That philosophy grew from experiences in the Navy, but it became particularly important at NOAA, where scientists and technical professionals were navigating uncertainty surrounding budgets, programs and the future direction of federal science.

The book’s title captures how Gallaudet ultimately views that experience. Holding fast does not mean resisting change or remaining in a position regardless of circumstance. It means maintaining integrity while finding a path forward.

There were multiple occasions when he considered leaving NOAA. He stayed, he said, because there was still work to finish and because the scientists and employees doing that work mattered.

That may be the most relevant message in Holding Fast in Heavy Seas for the marine technology community. Autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, advanced sensors and increasingly sophisticated ocean observation systems are changing how humans explore and understand the sea. But Gallaudet’s experience suggests that the technology only carries the mission so far.

The people behind it still matter most.