Sarah Brister

I am a 12 year active duty veteran of the United States Coast Guard. During my time in the Coast Guard, the primary responsibilities I held were to act as small boat coxswain, aid in ship’s navigation, and assist in unit leadership. I worked in numerous mission sets, including search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, and maintenance of marine aids to navigation. When I departed the Coast Guard in 2022, I decided to use my GI Bill to get an education in the field of GIS.

After I completed a post-graduate certificate in GIS I was hired as a cartographer in NOAA National Ocean Service’s Office of Coast Survey. My duties and responsibilities were to assess new hydrographic information and apply it to the nautical charts that NOAA provides free of charge to anybody in the United States. I was brought onboard in September 2024, and due to my prior extensive experience in the maritime realm, I was able to quickly train and become a fully functional member of my team. In only six months, I was able to update approximately 300 charts, and helped my team catch up on 100% of their backlog of new hydrographic data. Unfortunately, on February 27, I became a victim of NOAA’s purge of probationary employees, and am currently in search of a new role.