AFIA inspector named 2015 Officer of the Year

  • Published
  • By Argen Duncan
  • Nucleus editor

An Air Force Inspection Agency division chief has received recognition as the Air Force-level Personnel Field Grade Officer of the Year for 2015.

AFIA Inspections Director Lt. Col. Teresa Darrow said her commander called her to tell her she won the award in mid-July as she was on her way back from a business trip. She was excited.

“You work hard throughout your career, so to win an award like that, it’s pretty special,” she said.

Darrow has been stationed at Kirtland for the past two years of her ongoing 21-year Air Force career. She won personnel officer of the year awards at the major command level in 2014 and 2015, but this is her first Air Force-level award.

To compete for the award, Darrow filled out a form listing her duties, her community service activities and her self-improvement efforts.

A board scores the applications at the major command level, and then sends winners to the Air Force-level board, which chooses the top winners.

Most of the points in the scoring come from job duties, she said.

“I didn’t win this award just for myself,” Darrow said. “I had a lot of people helping me.”

She said AFIA personnel are bound together as a team, and she couldn’t have won without the collaboration and support from teammates, her husband and her two children.

At work, she conducts inspections and interviews at various Air Force installations around the country.

Off work, she takes care of her family, participates in fundraisers and supports her son’s hockey team.

Darrow often advises people to apply for awards, since they might just win.

“If you don’t put a package in, you won’t win,” she said.