Title: Staff assistant
Age: 22
Hometown: Arlington Heights, Ill.
Education: DePaul University
Last job: Diehard Bulls fan. It didn’t pay, but it is insanely gratifying.
Philosophy on phone etiquette: Always be attentive on the phone, because one day no one will want to listen to you, either.
Most bizarre incoming call: A slightly intoxicated man calling from California expressing his love for women … for 45 minutes.
Professional role model: I have a couple, so I like to combine the two. I admire Michael Jordan’s fiscal responsibility, drive and determination, combined with my sister’s political zeal and ability to micromanage.
Most embarrassing moment on Capitol Hill: I like to make up words, so my most embarrassing moments are when I get caught using one by someone in my office.
Interests outside of work: Being a hipster on the weekends and feeding the homeless.
Alyssa Palisi had possibly the best training for her new job as one of Rep. Jim Renacci’s (R-Ohio) staff assistants: screening calls for a late-night talk show.
Palisi co-hosted the “Silly Jilly” show on Chicago’s 103.5 KISS FM, and a man named Neal would call her every night. He would keep her and her colleagues on the phone for 30 minutes, telling them about the photos he took of trains.
“He’d always be whispering,” Palisi recounted. “And I’d be like, ‘Why are you whispering?’ And he’d say, ‘My parents are sleeping.’ ”
Palisi said her experience talking to all kinds of listeners for the “Silly Jilly” show has helped her take the wide-ranging constituent calls that come into a lawmaker’s office.
“It’s basically the same type of people calling your congressman that are calling into a radio station,” she said.
Palisi partially credits her interest in politics to her sister, Annie Palisi, who is Rep. Diane Black’s (R-Tenn.) chief of staff. The two are very close, she said, and they live together in Penn Quarter, though they don’t see much of each other during the workday.
“She’s always so busy,” she said. “Trying to get lunch with her is just not possible.”
Palisi has a background in corporate public relations and is looking at her new position in Congress as an opportunity to see what it’s like doing PR for just one person.
“I really thought D.C. would be the perfect place to get into politics and do the public-relations thing,” she said. “So it just ended up really working out.”
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