Cmdr. Jonathan Heesch, NOAA, currently serves as the Commanding Officer of NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker, homeported in San Diego. Previously, Heesch served as Staff Officer, Marine Operations Safety Management Branch, and as the Fleet Executive Officer based in Norfolk, Va. In this role he served as a Safety Management System Internal Auditor and received qualifications as a certified ISO 9001 system auditor, International Safety Management Code Auditor and Designated Person Ashore.

Heesch began his career of service to the nation in 1998, when he joined the Marine Corps. After initial training, he was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. In 2003, Heesch changed his military occupational specialty to Meteorological and Oceanographic Forecaster and supported the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in Combat Operations in Iraq before completing his bachelor’s degree in Natural Science and Mathematics and an associate degree in Meteorology.

He was accepted to the NOAA Corps in 2007 serving aboard multiple NOAA Ships as Navigation, Operations and Executive Officer roles from Georges Bank off the shores of New England to the Sunken Caldera of Maug in the Northern Marianas Islands. He has filled shore-based roles as the Assistant Chief of the NOAA Corps Officer Training Center at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., and as the Chief, Port Operations at NOAA's Gulf Marine Support Facility in Pascagoula, Miss.