Michelle Harrigan, C'13

Over a decade ago, Michelle Harrigan enrolled in a degree program where her passion and experience intersected—in emergency management.

In 1995, she had started working in New York as a stage manager. Her focus shifted in 1997, however, to emergency response when she started working for the American Red Cross.

She remained with the American Red Cross when she moved in 2000 to Richmond, where she enrolled in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies Bachelor of Applied Studies program in Emergency Services Management (ESM).

She selected the School of Professional and Continuing Studies program in 2000 because, at that time, University of Richmond was “one of only five schools offering a degree in emergency services management.”

When the ESM program shifted from classroom-based to online, she was able to follow her passion outside the Richmond area. As a result, she took a position in emergency management for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), and from there to her current position, emergency management planner for Prince William County emergency management.

Emergency and disaster responders require flexible scheduling. As she followed disasters and emergencies, she had to put her academic career on hold time and again. While she could participate online from anyplace in the world, should couldn’t always spare the time to work on classes.

It took over a decade before she began to see the light of Commencement at the end of the tunnel of a degree program she started in 2000.

What kept her going through the darker years? Harrigan responds with a laugh: “Lois Willis [my student advisor] pushed me to keep going, even when I wanted to give up. I would have gone insane without her.”

And what was her most meaningful experience as a University of Richmond student? Probably not what you’d expect. Daniel Zelinski’s “Asian Philosophies” class was, as Harrigan puts it, “more of a life lesson than a class.” She struggled in the class—it was hard, and Zelinski challenged her—but she learned from the class that, in a global workforce, managers must take it upon themselves to study and understand the cultures represented in the workplace. Understanding and accepting difference is vital to creating and maintaining a work environment that is both welcoming and efficient and to being a successful manager.

What she discovered as she continued her studies was that everything she learned in the classroom—both in major and elective coursework—had immediate applications on the job. She credits working on the degree for so long with helping thrive professionally, even earning promotions. Advancements in her career came as she applied lessons learned in classes—sometimes that very same week—to her professional activity.

Now that graduation day has arrived, Harrigan’s ready to be a boss. She’s been in middle management for a few years, but she feels both prepared and qualified to take a management position.

But if that doesn’t work out, she might just return to school, earn advanced degrees and start teaching.

She feels like her experience at the University of Richmond prepared for that, too.