Dr. Crystal Allen Craft joins maritime school MPT

Maritime Professional Training (MPT) announced it has recruited Dr. Crystal Allen Craft as vice principal of Academic Affairs.

Craft joins from Royal Caribbean where she joined as a project manager on newbuild and revitalisation, before becoming propulsion manager for the cruise operator’s entire fleet. Prior to Royal Caribbean, Craft was a surveyor at classification society ABS.

Her career began at New York Maritime College (SUNY) with a dual degree in engineering and humanities, followed by years as a licensed unlimited engineer with the American Maritime Officers (AMO). 

As vice principal of academic affairs, Craft will supervise the school’s instructors and support ongoing professional development, ensuring courses evolve in-line with changing market demands.

In 2022, Craft earned a doctoral degree in Leadership and Management in an Organizational Setting. Her study emerged from a gap in the existing literature regarding the need to create cohesion and a shared identity for seafarers to lower the human error rate on ships.

“Dr. Craft’s appointment reflects MPT’s unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation in seafarer training and assessment. Her remarkable blend of hands-on industry experience, academic achievement, and leadership acumen will not only elevate our training curriculum but also inspire the next generation of maritime professionals. We are thrilled to have her join our team as we continue to set the standard for maritime training worldwide,” said John F. Flanagan, academic principal.  

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MPT is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the US, and has trained tens of thousands of students in its 40-year history, it claims.