I first met Jonathan Henson in 2002 while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard at Marine Safety Office Savannah in Savannah, GA and had the privilege of working closely with him for the subsequent two years. Jonathan was the unit’s Senior Investigating Officer, a position normally held by a person with a much higher rank. However, it was immediately apparent that he was not only fully capable of performing all of the duties of the position but excelled at them. I relied heavily on his perspective and judgment as a safety professional when investigating incidents involving injuries to commercial mariners, incidents involving commercial ships, and a wide range of maritime casualties throughout the ports that fell within my jurisdiction. Further, Jonathan exhibited outstanding leadership skills working with junior persons at the unit as they developed their professional skills and working with the maritime industry. He consistently demonstrated the ability to establish rapport with mariners and company officials through mutual respect and a professional approach. Beyond performing exceptionally well at his assigned duties, Jonathan’s perspective, experience and ability to articulate his recommendations made him a tremendously valuable resource that I counted on repeatedly. His intelligence and unshakable demeanor were exactly what we needed at a time when the tragedy of 9-11 was still fresh in all our minds and security threats to the port of Savannah were legitimate concerns, especially given the huge volume of container shipping and bulk chemicals that moved through the port. When a ship had a major fire in its engine room while at the dock in Savannah, Jonathan was one of the first people dispatched to the scene. His coordination with the ship’s crew and the local fire department was invaluable in ensuring no one was hurt and the fire was extinguished as quickly as possible. This was especially challenging given the initial poor response by the ship’s crew and substantial differences in strategies to fight fires on ships from what the local fire department normally employed to fight building fires. His efforts turned a potentially major problem for this multi-million dollar ship, its valuable cargo and the port into a situation that was satisfactorily resolved in a matter of hours. I highly recommend Jonathan for any position that requires a high degree of expertise, professionalism and communication skills. Jonathan is uniquely qualified and would be an asset to any organization.

I had the opportunity to work with Jonathan as he navigated his masters degree here at Eastern Kentucky University. He is an outstanding safety professional and I thoroughly enjoyed our discussions regarding opportunities for improvement in workplace safety. Jonathan is a progressive thinker in the discipline and has the ability to address safety performance improvement from both the strategic and tactical levels. His multi-faceted focus on safety is evident in the research he accomplished in his thesis where he looked at safety beyond a regulatory issue to include behavioral and organizational components.

I first met Jonathan Henson in 2002 while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard at Marine Safety Office Savannah in Savannah, GA and had the privilege of working closely with him for the subsequent two years. Jonathan was the unit’s Senior Investigating Officer, a position normally held by a person with a much higher rank. However, it was immediately apparent that he was not only fully capable of performing all of the duties of the position but excelled at them. I relied heavily on his perspective and judgment as a safety professional when investigating incidents involving injuries to commercial mariners, incidents involving commercial ships, and a wide range of maritime casualties throughout the ports that fell within my jurisdiction. Further, Jonathan exhibited outstanding leadership skills working with junior persons at the unit as they developed their professional skills and working with the maritime industry. He consistently demonstrated the ability to establish rapport with mariners and company officials through mutual respect and a professional approach. Beyond performing exceptionally well at his assigned duties, Jonathan’s perspective, experience and ability to articulate his recommendations made him a tremendously valuable resource that I counted on repeatedly. His intelligence and unshakable demeanor were exactly what we needed at a time when the tragedy of 9-11 was still fresh in all our minds and security threats to the port of Savannah were legitimate concerns, especially given the huge volume of container shipping and bulk chemicals that moved through the port. When a ship had a major fire in its engine room while at the dock in Savannah, Jonathan was one of the first people dispatched to the scene. His coordination with the ship’s crew and the local fire department was invaluable in ensuring no one was hurt and the fire was extinguished as quickly as possible. This was especially challenging given the initial poor response by the ship’s crew and substantial differences in strategies to fight fires on ships from what the local fire department normally employed to fight building fires. His efforts turned a potentially major problem for this multi-million dollar ship, its valuable cargo and the port into a situation that was satisfactorily resolved in a matter of hours. I highly recommend Jonathan for any position that requires a high degree of expertise, professionalism and communication skills. Jonathan is uniquely qualified and would be an asset to any organization.

I had the opportunity to work with Jonathan as he navigated his masters degree here at Eastern Kentucky University. He is an outstanding safety professional and I thoroughly enjoyed our discussions regarding opportunities for improvement in workplace safety. Jonathan is a progressive thinker in the discipline and has the ability to address safety performance improvement from both the strategic and tactical levels. His multi-faceted focus on safety is evident in the research he accomplished in his thesis where he looked at safety beyond a regulatory issue to include behavioral and organizational components.

I first met Jonathan Henson in 2002 while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard at Marine Safety Office Savannah in Savannah, GA and had the privilege of working closely with him for the subsequent two years. Jonathan was the unit’s Senior Investigating Officer, a position normally held by a person with a much higher rank. However, it was immediately apparent that he was not only fully capable of performing all of the duties of the position but excelled at them. I relied heavily on his perspective and judgment as a safety professional when investigating incidents involving injuries to commercial mariners, incidents involving commercial ships, and a wide range of maritime casualties throughout the ports that fell within my jurisdiction. Further, Jonathan exhibited outstanding leadership skills working with junior persons at the unit as they developed their professional skills and working with the maritime industry. He consistently demonstrated the ability to establish rapport with mariners and company officials through mutual respect and a professional approach. Beyond performing exceptionally well at his assigned duties, Jonathan’s perspective, experience and ability to articulate his recommendations made him a tremendously valuable resource that I counted on repeatedly. His intelligence and unshakable demeanor were exactly what we needed at a time when the tragedy of 9-11 was still fresh in all our minds and security threats to the port of Savannah were legitimate concerns, especially given the huge volume of container shipping and bulk chemicals that moved through the port. When a ship had a major fire in its engine room while at the dock in Savannah, Jonathan was one of the first people dispatched to the scene. His coordination with the ship’s crew and the local fire department was invaluable in ensuring no one was hurt and the fire was extinguished as quickly as possible. This was especially challenging given the initial poor response by the ship’s crew and substantial differences in strategies to fight fires on ships from what the local fire department normally employed to fight building fires. His efforts turned a potentially major problem for this multi-million dollar ship, its valuable cargo and the port into a situation that was satisfactorily resolved in a matter of hours. I highly recommend Jonathan for any position that requires a high degree of expertise, professionalism and communication skills. Jonathan is uniquely qualified and would be an asset to any organization.

I had the opportunity to work with Jonathan as he navigated his masters degree here at Eastern Kentucky University. He is an outstanding safety professional and I thoroughly enjoyed our discussions regarding opportunities for improvement in workplace safety. Jonathan is a progressive thinker in the discipline and has the ability to address safety performance improvement from both the strategic and tactical levels. His multi-faceted focus on safety is evident in the research he accomplished in his thesis where he looked at safety beyond a regulatory issue to include behavioral and organizational components.