Impact and excellence: This Coast Guard captain is keeping New York’s waters safe while charting a course for future generations

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of the Advance/SILive.com Black History Month special series, “Impact & Excellence,” which profiles Staten Islanders who are making a significant and lasting impact in the community. Are you someone you’d like to nominate for an “Impact & Excellence” profile? Email their name and brief nomination to advice@siadvance.com.)

STATEN ISLAND, NY – As Captain Zeita Merchant leads the missions of the United States Coast Guard (USGC) as commanding officer of one of the nation’s busiest port complexes, she is also charting a new course for future generations.

Since joining the USCG in 1997, the Chicago native with the sweet Southern sled acquired growing up in Mississippi, has quickly risen through the ranks, continued her education, and received many accolades — all while tearing down the barriers of color and gender along the way.

Her current position is historic for the Coast Guard, as she is the first-ever minority to hold the position of Captain of New York Harbor. As a black woman, it’s something she wants young people — like the Girl Scouts and high school girls she often mentors — to notice.

“I try to champion the opportunities for women and minorities in this country, especially in the Coast Guard,” Merchant said, noting that she does not take responsibility for her example lightly, and she is grateful to have this.

“For me, this is an opportunity to really show where we are as a nation, where we have opportunities open and available to anyone who wants them,” she said. “If you don’t see it, you don’t think it’s possible.”

Coast Guard Sector 1, based in Rosebank, spans more than 6,000 square miles, all the way to Albany, and includes facilities and waterways carrying hundreds of billions of dollars in cargo and tens of millions passengers across the waters of New York and New Jersey each year. .

The merchant monitors everything.

More than 1,000 Coast Guard personnel, not to mention 1,400 volunteers, rely on his advice daily in their efforts to keep the waters safe for travelers and valuable cargo.

Being “first” is nothing new for Merchant.

In most of her Coast Guard leadership roles, she was either the first minority or the first woman to hold the position — and most of the time she was both, she said.

“But it’s not about that anymore,” she insisted, noting that progress has opened many doors.

“We don’t care about ‘firsts’ anymore,” she said. “We really try to focus on allowing everyone to reach their full potential. It’s about seizing opportunities that didn’t exist before.

They did not exist for Merchant’s parents, Mary and the late AG Merchant, whose formal education ended sooner than either would have liked.

“They had to sacrifice themselves to work,” said the captain.

But they encouraged her to “dedicate time, effort and hard work to my education and to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to me”, she added. “Nothing was stopping me, so shame on me if I didn’t take advantage of it.”

Though she rose through the ranks to run one of the nation’s busiest and most economically important resorts, Merchant began her Coast Guard affiliation under the same humble circumstances that many young people find themselves in. today, she said.

In fact, growing up landlocked in Jackson, Mississippi, Merchant didn’t even know the USCG existed.

A campus visit with a Coast Guard recruiter at tiny Tougaloo College in Mississippi opened her eyes to the career opportunities — and college debt relief — that awaited her in the Coast Guard, and she s is quickly registered.

“He was able to provide me with a scholarship to finish my studies and a job,” she recalls the recruiter who took the time to explain several career options to me. “I had already accumulated a lot of debt.”

His childhood dream of becoming a doctor ended there.

But, from then on, Merchant was a rising star.

Today, she is actually a doctor. She holds a doctorate in business administration. She also holds two master’s degrees, is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Education Leadership in Homeland Security course, and is a fellow of the XXI National Security and Foreign Affairs Seminar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (MIT).

During her career, she has commanded marine operations at Marine Safety Unit Chicago, served as general manager of Marine Safety Unit Texas City, chief of port operations at the Miami sector, and marine inspector and port operations officer at the Marine Safety Office of the New Orleans.

Upon arriving in New York, she welcomed new opportunities to reach young people in a whole new community, she said.

Merchant, a former Girl Scout herself, has a strong working relationship with the Girl Scouts of Greater New York and regularly speaks at their gold medal ceremonies. Students at The Harbor School, a public high school on Governor’s Island that focuses its curriculum on water, also benefit from her generosity.

“We continue to set up programs where we bring students here to see our operations,” she said, proudly opening the front door to show students “what’s going on in and around the water in New York”, one of the most strategically important ports in the country. and, unfortunately, its number one terrorist target.

Expanded diversity will surely follow, she said.

“New York is one of the most diverse cities in the country,” she said. “Why can’t each entity reflect this diversity? I am extremely proud to represent [women and minorities] as such, ensuring that New York is protected from a safety and security perspective, and also showing diversity in this current area.”

In addition to receiving numerous professional, academic and community service awards, the Merchant’s uniform is decorated with a host of personal military honors, including three Meritorious Service Medals, six Coast Guard Commendation Medals, three Coast Guard Medals of Excellence, three Military Medals for Outstanding Volunteer Service, and four Commanding Officer’s Letters of Commendation, among others.

Although she said she knows she doesn’t look like the typical Coast Guard officer, Merchant makes it her mission to show young people that it doesn’t have to stay that way.

“I hope they’ll be inspired by seeing what women of color are doing,” she said. “I hope people decide to educate themselves more and understand the opportunities that are available to them – beyond what they see every day.”