Deborah Deister began her maritime career in the summer of 1979 as a part-time file clerk for Azalea Fleet, Inc. “I never thought 41 years ago that my little part-time job to put some summer cash in my pocket would turn into my future, my livelihood, and a career in the industry,” she said. During her 25 years at Azalea Fleet, Deborah gained experience in a multitude of roles, ranging from accounting, purchasing and billing to safety, dispatch and traffic management. Learning the inner workings of each department and how they complimented each other would prove invaluable.
In 2003 she accepted a position at Lash Marine Barge Line in downtown New Orleans where she dispatched barges to the lower Mississippi River and East and West Canal. The scope of her duties also included scheduling cleaning, repairs, loading, and towing of barges back to the city. Hurricane Katrina forced the company to relocate to Mobile, Alabama, though Deborah declined to make the move. “I had a daughter in high school at the time and didn’t want to uproot her from school and her friends,” she said. “But, as luck would have it, Darrow had an opening.”
With a member of its dispatch team retiring, Deborah came onboard at Cooper Consolidated in September 2005, even though it meant making a 120-mile roundtrip commute each day. “I was warned before taking the job that driving 60 miles one way every morning would get old fast,” Deborah remembered. “But I told them if they gave me the opportunity, they’d see what I was made of and I wouldn’t let them down.” Fifteen years later she’s still making the commute, and going strong. “It’s just a normal part of my day now,” she explained.
As a Dispatcher for Cooper Consolidated’s Darrow and Mile 207 fleets, Deborah truly loves her job and the role she plays within the company. “Each day is different with new and unique challenges and customer needs to juggle,” she said. “There’s great satisfaction in doing the best I can and getting through even the most trying of days knowing that I got as much accomplished as possible. There has never been a burning hoop placed in front of us that we haven’t figured out how to jump through.”
She values her colleagues and appreciates that the dispatch team cannot be successful working solo. “We all need each other,” she stressed. “We can’t do our jobs without what I call ‘the big picture team’ – boat crews and operators, the maintenance department, safety team, management, and customers.” Deborah has worked side-by-side with some of these “big picture” teammates, some for only a day, others years, and a few she’s never actually met face-to-face, but speaks with daily via radio, phone, text and email.
“I have been so lucky to have gotten to know, learn from, care about, grow with and truly respect so many wonderful people in this industry,” Deborah said. “They don’t pay me to make friends, but it has certainly been an added bonus to have made some lifelong friends along the way.”