Influential Woman · Maritime Operations
Adrienne Brown
Marine Superintendent, Not Specified
Tampa, FL
Her Story
About Adrienne
When I was young, I told my daddy I wanted to drive boats, and it stuck. Maine Maritime was the only place I looked at for college, and my dad took me there when I was in high school. I graduated from Maine Maritime Academy in 2015 and went straight to work a couple months later as a deckhand. I've stayed in the maritime industry my entire career, working in the oil field offshore in the Gulf of America and doing transits from South America to North America. I worked my way up through every position - deckhand, cargo mate, third mate, second mate, and eventually senior officer in charge of the watch. For the last five to six years on ships, I ran the night watch from midnight to noon, driving the ship, operating it, and making sure my crew knew what we were doing for the day. I lived on ships for half the year, doing even time rotations of either 28 days on and 28 days off, or 21 and 21. Just a couple of months ago, I made it shoreside, which is actually a big deal in my industry - it's a milestone that many of us who go to maritime academies hope for someday. Now I'm a Marine Superintendent with a company that does worldwide operations supporting our military and operating vehicle carriers. As part of a team of three, I talk to our vessels daily and stay on top of inspections and maintenance happening all over the world. I handle everything from documentation and budgeting to maintenance, ship voyages, and scheduling. It's dynamic work that never stops, especially with all the different time zones, and I love it. One of my proudest achievements is all the junior officers I trained over the years - they've reached out to thank me for how I taught them and for treating them like humans, and they're all doing really well now.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Adrienne
01What do you attribute your success to?
I really, in large part, give it to my dad. When I was young, I told him I wanted to drive boats, and he was like, okay, kiddo, and it stuck. Maine Maritime was the only place I actually looked at for college, and he took me when I was in high school. He taught me all my values - he taught me to never give up, do the best you can, do it right the first time, and be diligent about it, and just proactive and pursue tenaciously. I'm very much so like him, so it wasn't really a hard rulebook to follow. He taught me that you never give up, you work as hard as you can, you can have anything you want as long as you're willing to work for it, and never take the easy way out because it's not worth it. My dad taught me how to structure my success. I've always wanted to do this since I was young, and being wired like my dad and following what he taught me has been the foundation of everything I've achieved.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
For my industry, one of our number one things, and I also give this advice, is do not take it home with you, because it's not gonna stop. My boss that I have now, and I adore this, he says, you know what? It's still gonna be here, even when we're not. He tells me to enjoy your family, enjoy your time, enjoy your hobbies, and live when you're not on the clock. That's the most important thing, because it's all gonna be there when we're not here. We are in a 24-hour kind of operation, so that's probably one of the most valuable pieces, especially to women in the career field, because we care, right? We're like, oh, we gotta keep on going and do the best we can. But you have to know when to put it down to save your own sanity, and that's really important.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
If you're gonna do something, you better do it right the first time. That's one of my main ones, and that's a big one for me. My other values, both professionally and personally, are communication, respect, and honesty - I feel like those are kind of run-of-the-mill, but they're paramount for me and just how I live life, professionally and personally. Another big personal one is don't never lose your sense of adventure. Because of the life we're allowed to lead, especially when you do work on ships, you have an opportunity there to go see and do what a lot of people don't, and you need to take advantage of that wonder and availability.
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