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The
Faculty / Staff at the University of
Maryland:
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Darlene Iskra
LEAD Program Coordinator
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Research
Interests: |
Military; Gender, Work and Family |
Phone:
301-760-7634
| Email:
diskra@oiep.umd.edu
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DARLENE MARIE ISKRA, Commander, USN
(ret), M.A.
Commander Iskra retired from the U.S.
Navy in April 2000, after 21 years of
service. While in the service, she took
advantage of the opportunities the Navy
had to offer in the expansion of women’s
roles that occurred in the 1980s and
1990s.
She was one of the first female line
officers to graduate from the Naval
School of Diving and Salvage in
Washington, D.C. in May 1980, before
attending Surface Warfare Officer School
and reporting to her first ship, the USS
HECTOR (AR-7) in December 1980. As
Diving Officer she conducted many
underwater repairs, including an
underwater propeller change on USS
TOWERS (DDG-5) in Yokosuka Harbor,
Japan, which was a very innovative
repair at the time.
She served on four salvage ships,
working her way up the chain of command.
She was on the pre-commissioning crew of
the USS Grasp (ARS-51) as Operations
Officer from 1984-1987. She next served
as Executive Officer on the USS
Preserver (ARS-8), and split toured as
XO on the USS Hoist (ARS-40), deploying
to the Mediterranean and performing
various diving and salvage exercises and
operations. In May 1990 she was selected
for, and received orders to the USS
OPPORTUNE (ARS 41) as Commanding
Officer. She assumed command in December
1990 in Naples, Italy, becoming the
first woman commander of a commissioned
Navy vessel. While in command, the ship
served in Desert Shield/Desert Storm,
and also performed Humanitarian Service
during Hurricane Andrew relief
operations in southern Florida in 1992.
She subsequently served on several Navy
staffs until her retirement.
She has Master of Arts degrees in
National Security and Strategic Studies
from the Naval War College (1996), and
in Sociology from the University of
Maryland (2003). In 2002 she worked for
Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington
state as a Women’s Research and
Education Institute (WREI) Congressional
Fellow. During her fellowship, she
helped staff and pass an amendment to
the 2003 Defense Authorization Bill,
which forbade the Department of Defense
from requiring U.S. servicewomen to wear
the abaya garment while stationed in
Saudi Arabia. For this work, she was
awarded the University of Maryland,
College of Behavioral and Social
Sciences Phillips Award in 2005. This
award recognizes graduate student
excellence in research most likely to
affect public policy.
She was also awarded the Center For
Teaching Excellence, Distinguished
Teaching Assistant for Academic Year
2003-2004 and the Charles H. Coates
Graduate Research Award, University of
Maryland, 2000-2001, for her Master’s
thesis, which documented the continued
negative discourse regarding women in
the Navy over time. She is a PhD
Candidate, and teaches Sociology of the
Military and Sociology of Gender at the
University of Maryland, College Park.
She recently shifted her position at the
University of Maryland to Coordinator
for a Leadership Masters program for
Naval Academy Company Officers.
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