Erik S. Anderson is a career civil servant and former military officer with significant senior leadership experience. Prior to his appointment to NAVFAC Hawaii, Erik held various leadership roles at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Through these roles, he served as a principal advisor to the agency’s Administrator on issues related to business strategy, organizational effectiveness, human capital management, program performance, and organizational oversight. Earlier in his career, Erik served as a line officer on active duty in the United States Coast Guard. He started his role as the NAVFAC Hawaii Business Director in December 2025.
Erik attended the United States Coast Guard Academy and graduated with honors where he holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science. He also holds master’s degrees from the University of Maryland in Business Administration (MBA) and Operations Research (MS). Additionally, he is a graduate of OPM’s Federal Executive Institute, where he completed executive leadership training. He also completed course work through the Naval War College. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner License as master of unlimited tonnage vessels.
Erik’s work at USDA-APHIS included leading the agency’s Program Assessment and Accountability staff. In this role he ensured agency programs operated effectively, efficiently, and aligned with agency strategic goals and priorities. He also led the agency’s business analytics function, which completed robust studies of agency funding allocations, resource utilizations, and workforce alignments. He helped guide significant reorganizations of the agency’s programs and business services. He also served as the Deputy Administrator for Policy and Program Development, where he oversaw the agency’s strategic planning, budget formulation, regulatory development, economic analysis, program evaluation, and environmental compliance staffs.
During Erik’s 20 years on active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard he served on six ships, completing more than 11 years of sea time, including three separate tours in command at sea. His shore assignments included stints at Coast Guard Headquarters. First, he served as the Chief of Operations Analysis and Evaluation Division and oversaw the development of predictive and explanatory models to improve business decision-making processes and for budget requests to Congress. Later he served as the national program manager of the visual aids-to-navigation program. In this he role he established Coast Guard policies on the maintenance and repair of the more than 100,000 buoys, beacons, and lighthouses that make up the U.S. aids-to-navigation infrastructure.
As a federal civilian employee at USDA, Erik received two administrator’s awards for exceptional performance in resolving significant program shortfalls and was named as the supervisor of the year. His military decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal (three awards), Coast Guard Commendation Medal (three awards), Coast Guard Achievement Medal and other unit and service awards.
Last Updated: 7 January 2026