Ms. Carla Grantham
Liaison for Diversity, Recruitment Strategies
United States Coast Guard
Carla Grantham is a veteran professional with over 27 years of
experience and various certifications in organizational strategic
planning, talent management, and, integrated communications work
involving federal Executive Office and Legislative Branch officials
and public and social sector senior executives. Ms. Grantham’s current
appointment is as the Liaison for Coast Guard Diversity Recruitment
Strategies. In this role, she is the Coast Guard’s representative to
targeted external communities and organizations and Capitol Hill
constituencies for advancing diversity-inclusion priorities. Her key
responsibilities find her creating, leading and facilitating efforts to
raise awareness and increase accessibility to the broad range of Coast
Guard educational and vocational opportunities for underserved
populations. Prior to her current assignment, Ms. Grantham was
retained by the U. S. Department of Energy’s Chief Financial Officer
(CFO) as his Talent Management Executive. In 2007, Ms. Grantham was expressly recruited to be the
Director of Recruitment and Corporate Communications for Analytic Services Inc., a medium-sized
non-profit corporation dedicated to assisting the national security, homeland security, and public safety
communities. Carla retired in early 2007 from the U.S. Coast Guard after completing over 22 years of
military service, which included nearly seven years of dedicated service to the U.S. Navy. In her
capstone Active Duty position with the Coast Guard, she performed as the Deputy Director of their
Leadership and Professional Development office and was instrumental in guiding the organization’s
newly defined core competencies model and workforce professional development strategy to final
publication. Ms. Grantham also completed assignments as the Executive Speechwriter to the
Commandant of the Coast Guard – the organization’s CEO equivalent --; as Director, White House
Finance and Budget Management; and, as the Chief of Human Resources for the Coast Guard’s most
geographically and culturally-diverse operational district. Ms. Grantham earned a Master of Arts in
Communication from Washington, DC’s American University and a Master of Business
Administration from National University in San Diego. She will have achieved certification as a
Professional Certified Executive Coach by the conclusion of 2012 and is also a Master Trainer of Peter
F. Drucker’s organizational strategic visioning and management tool, “The Five Most Important
Questions”. She is also certified both as a Diversity Professional and as an Administrator of the Myers
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). In addition to her work as an Adjunct Professor in the School of
Communication at American University, Ms. Grantham is a highly sought-after coach, public speaker,
facilitator and trainer to audiences which have in recent times included senior scientists from the US
Department of Agriculture’s Research Service, senior Law Enforcement Officers with the Department
of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, and, the membership of the Federal Asian Pacific American
Council (FAPAC). Ms. Grantham has been recognized with numerous military and civilian
meritorious, commendation and team awards and was most recently honored with the esteemed
National Society of Black Engineer’s (NSBE) inaugural “Champion of Champions” Award, also
included her mother "Rosebud," and the influence she had on Grantham's life in her speech. "She
taught me the value of education, the value of being considerate and kind, the importance of manners.