Rear Admiral Allen B. Worley has been the Superintendent of the United States Merchant Marine Academy since November 2008. The tenth person to hold this post since the institution’s dedication in 1943, Rear Admiral Worley heads a federal academy with a student body of 1,000 midshipmen and a waterfront campus covering more than eighty acres.

The Academy, operated by the U. S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration, is located at Kings Point, New York. It is one of the nation’s prime sources of licensed merchant marine officers and is renowned internationally for its maritime education and training programs.

Admiral Worley was born in Roanoke, Virginia. He graduated with a BS in Physics from the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland in 1974. He earned a MA degree with dual specialties in Business Administration and Personnel Management from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, and an MA degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. In addition to certification as a Naval Aviator, Admiral Worley is a qualified Surface Warfare Officer.

Admiral Worley served in a number of operational assignments in the Navy, flying the H-46 Sea Knight, including assignment as Commanding Officer, Helicopter Combat Support Squadron FIVE, and Aviation Department Head (Air Boss) aboard USS WASP. His staff duties included Deputy Political Advisor USACOM/SACLANT; Federal Executive Fellow in the US Department of State’s 38th Senior Seminar at the Foreign Service Institute; Commanding Officer of the US Naval Support Facility, Diego Garcia; and, Deputy Director, Programming Division (N80B) in the Office of the CNO in the Pentagon.  His final assignment with the Navy was as Professor of Naval Science and Head, Department of Naval Science at the University of Illinois / Commanding Officer of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC).

Admiral Worley retired from the Navy with the rank of Captain. After his retirement he served as the Interim Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Champaign County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Admiral Worley most recently served as Superintendent of the Texas Maritime Academy, Texas A&M University, Galveston.