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Top Recruiter: Family the driving force behind her success

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Chance Babin
  • Air Force Reserve Recruiting Service Superintendent of Public Affairs
While Master Sgt. Alisa Merriott was having arguably one of the greatest production years ever for an Air Force Reserve recruiter, she was also dealing with a great personal hardship. Her mother, Arline Kabele, had been diagnosed with stage-four brain cancer and was given three months to live. 

On a professional level, Merriott, lead health professions recruiter at Travis Air Force Base, California, gained 38 health care professions accessions in fiscal year 2016, which is believed to be a record within Air Force Reserve Command Recruiting Service. In recognition of her achievement, she won the coveted Col. Mike Mungavin Recruiter of the Year Award.

“That was a phenomenal year; not sure if I can top that,” Merriott said. “I don’t think anyone has put that many health professions applicants in before. Putting in that many people was a crazy amount of work and timing.” 

Health professions career fields are for officers and include doctors, dentists, nurses, and allied health and medical services corps members.

“Health professions is our most difficult specialty, and putting in 38 health professionals in a year is an amazing feat that will be hard to match. But if anyone can do it, she can,” said Chief Master Sgt. Thomas Zwelling, AFRC Recruiting Service superintendent, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. “Sergeant Merriott is the best of the best, not only as a recruiter but as a senior NCO. It’s an honor to serve with her as a member of Reserve recruiting.”

While a traditional accession for an enlisted Airman takes roughly two to four weeks, signing up a health professional is a much longer and tedious process. HP recruiters also have a much larger zone from which to recruit. For example, Merriott’s zone included seven continental states plus Japan, Korea, Guam, Hawaii and Alaska. 

“Since it takes up to approximately 10 months to put just one person in, anything can hold up that HP timeline,” Merriott said. “The year before, I had worked really hard to keep pushing to fill the needs for the McChord (Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington) aeromedical evacuation squadron, since they were really low on flight nurses. Every month I kept working harder to get more and more flight nurses. Next thing I knew, they were finally getting approved and ready for oath.”

Throughout her magical year of recruiting and the trying times in her personal life, Merriott relied on the strength she gained from the support of her family.

“My driving force is my family,” she said. “I have the greatest husband who is the biggest supporter to my accomplishments and keeps me grounded. I have a loving family that has always inspired me to do my best, no matter if it’s work, school or just making me feel special. My two daughters give me the fortitude to push on at all times.”

Before her husband and kids came along, Merriott had a strong support system from her parents. She lost her father in 2012 but said he was a huge supporter of her military career.

“I think anyone wants their parents to take an honest and genuine level of interest in what we do, but for me it was just fun to see their expressions,” Merriott said. “I am very blessed to have had two parents give me all the love and support anyone could give a child.”

Merriott’s path to becoming AFRC’s top recruiter in 2016 started when she was only a senior airman at Eglin AFB, Florida, in 1997. A recruiting team was searching for a few people to be part of a new task force to see if senior airmen would make good recruiters. After an extensive interview process, she was selected and sent off to recruiter school.

“I wanted to be a recruiter to help others get into the military, especially women,” she said. “I felt that if I could talk with young girls, they would see that the military was not just for a certain type, and if I could do it, anyone could.”

Merriott said she remembers early in her recruiting career talking to a young lady during a high school visit.

“The young girl told me, ‘I want to join, but I thought women were not encouraged to be in the military.’ That broke my heart and pushed me to get out more for other young people to see this was a great career and an awesome opportunity for everyone.”

While an active-duty recruiter, Merriott won many awards, including Airman of the Year for her unit and the Blue Suit Award, which recognizes the Air Force’s top recruiters worldwide. 

But the award she said is her favorite is the John L. Levitow Award at Airman Leadership School. The Levitow is the highest award for enlisted professional military education in the Air Force and is presented to the student who demonstrates the most outstanding leadership and scholastic achievement.

“That was the hardest I have ever worked, trying to keep up with recruiting goals while in leadership school,” Merriott said. “The leadership award is voted on by your peers, which proved to me that others see what drives you and that you are sincere in your goals.”

In 2002, while still on active duty, she made the move to health professions, where she really found her calling. Prior to becoming a recruiter, she worked as a radiology technician in the hospital at Eglin AFB. She was able to transition to the Reserve a year later. By 2005, she had won the Top HP Recruiter Award for the AFRC Recruiting Service. She was then ready to take her skills and training to the civilian sector. 

“I really enjoyed being an HP recruiter, since I loved working in the hospital. I wanted to still be a part of that somehow,” she said. “I knew that recruiting HP professionals is in demand in the civilian sector and thought this would be a good area for me to develop my resume.”

After getting valuable training in the Reserve, including becoming a certified medical staff recruiter, Merriott was able to land a job running a health division for a staff recruiting company in Cincinnati. In her typical fashion, she and her team won many awards, and she was soon promoted to lead one of the largest divisions in the company in Fresno, California, working to secure large state contracts for nursing homes and state prisons.

“The experience that I gained in the civilian sector is unforgettable,” Merriott said. “There are many opportunities for you to go after, but it’s up to you to be the dynamic force to make it happen. No one holds your hand or shows you how to do much. They just want you to make money and larger gross profits. 

“The civilian market is very competitive, and there is always someone better who is ready to jump in and take your business. You have to fight for each applicant and opportunity, or it will be gone. There is no time to be lazy, and being creative is how to explore new marketing and recruiting ideas.” 

She said her military training and recruiting background gave her the best foundation for learning and helping others succeed.

“The amount of teamwork that I brought with me allowed for future success in all my divisions and promotions for others around me,” Merriott said. “I was only out of the military for four years. I didn’t regret leaving and was happy for the chance to learn new viewpoints.” 

Since coming back to the Reserve, Merriott has been named the top HP recruiter for Western Recruiting Squadron each year, until her magical year in 2016, where she swept all the major awards in her category including the Top HP Recruiter, Top Lead Recruiter, Top Physician Recruiter and the Mungavin Award as the top recruiter in AFRC.

“For me, winning that award was a huge feeling of accomplishment in recruiting – a feeling that I have mastered the art of relationship building,” Merriott said. “Winning awards is never just a ‘me’ effort but a whole team concept. There are so many others who help me complete each package, which makes me feel good to see it all pay off. The award didn’t change my life, but now I feel honored to win an award named after a colonel I so highly respected and worked for years ago.” (Mungavin was commander of the Recruiting Service for eight years.)

Being able to share her accomplishments with her parents has always been a part of Merriott’s life. And she felt so lucky to have her mother around this past year to enjoy her most successful year ever in recruiting. 

“I was able to text her that night after the award ceremony. She had a hard time understanding all the medals, but we talked the next day, and she was so excited and very proud,” Merriott said. “She has always been a big supporter of anything that I do, and I love to include her in on as much as possible.”

Merriott said her favorite story her mother loves to share with everyone is the time she put her first officer in the Air Force back in 2004. The officer was going on a trip to Las Vegas and knew Merriott’s mom was a blackjack dealer at a casino. He made a point to go and see her. 

“He was standing at her blackjack table as she was working and said to her, ‘I just wanted to thank the mom of my recruiter; she changed my life.’ He then said, ‘I can see that the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.’ She still talks about that to this day and is my biggest fan. That applicant is still in and is now a lieutenant colonel. I am proud to have bee a part of his success.”