Tanya Fischer, Emergency Management Major

Attending a university is a mix of studies and discovery.

For Tanya Fischer, who received her bachelor’s degree in organizational communication with a minor in disaster studies from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 2009, one such discovery came from within the disaster studies program, where she was introduced to the world of emergency management and disaster psychology.

“Through an internship with the Ulster County Office of Emergency Communications/Emergency Management, I found something I was quite passionate about,” she said.

During her time as an intern, she navigated through the emergency management community and explored various facets of organizations and spoke with people on whom the community depended.

After graduation, she worked with the Suffolk County chapter of the American Red Cross in a different capacity than she had intended, working with their community service program.

“I was a case manager for about a year and a half, and then changed gears and worked for a year and a half in both an elder care law firm and a debt collection law firm,” Ms. Fischer said, explaining that it was within the legal field that she realized that she had gotten off track from her initial interest in working within the emergency management field. Her lack of experience as a first responder made it difficult to break into her field.

She realized it was time to go back to school, but finding the right fit proved to be a challenge.

Ms. Fischer took a semester of online courses in a homeland security program but quickly grew discouraged because her peers were mainly men who already held jobs within the field. “I didn’t think I’d be able to break into the ‘boys club,’” she said.

She then found the M.S. in Emergency Management program at Adelphi. “I decided to apply, and after an initial meeting at an open house, I couldn’t wait to start,” she said. “Adelphi has provided an encouraging environment (that includes women!) and a challenging program that can provide me with the knowledge and experience to find my way into the field.”