Eric Goldman

Excited to welcome Allison James to the Amazon Crisis Management Program! 🎉 This week, David Pomerance spent every day training her on our internal processes and making sure she’s ready to help him support the AMER region. Her skills and enthusiasm are the perfect fit for our team! 🚀 Welcome aboard, Allison! #TeamGrowth #CrisisManagement #AMER #amazon

Jillian M. Ringhauser, Master of Science - Emergency Management Wow. What a ride it’s been. I’ve never considered myself academically gifted. 15 years ago, I was told I wouldn’t graduate high school. During my undergrad, I struggled to balance my education with my work/personal life. I remember seeing all these students at graduation with their stoles and honor cords and thinking, “They look so accomplished and I don’t.” After graduation, I joined AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps where I vividly remember thinking to myself, “This is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing with my life.” In 2017, I accepted a position as a Regional Planner with NYS Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services where I managed planning, training, and exercise efforts across Long Island. When COVID-19 first hit, I served as the Planning Section Chief for 6 months at the Jones Beach Testing Site where I was a one-woman army more often than not. Since my education stipend from AmeriCorps was set to expire the following year, I decided to apply for grad school (because what better time, right?). I couldn’t have imagined how intense the next 2 years would be, but calm seas never made for a skilled sailor, I suppose. I started my classes while still serving as the PSC at Jones Beach. During my midterms, I moved to Washington and started an emergency management position with the United States Senate. In between finals, I was helping to plan a Presidential Inauguration. January 6th occurred in the first week of my second semester. 2 weeks later we held the Presidential Inauguration. 2 weeks after that was the start of an Impeachment Trial. What an introduction to a new job and a graduate emergency management program, right? I remember getting my acceptance letter from John Jay College (CUNY) and thinking, “I’m going to try to get a 4.0 GPA just to see if I can do it.” Then that first year of grad school hit me like a freight train and I thought “There’s no way I can get a 4.0 while dealing with all of this.” But the biggest lesson I learned throughout this journey is “Do it even if you don’t think you can.” I’m the poster child for Imposter Syndrome. I've never considered myself as brilliant as those around me. But I decided to do everything I could to get a 4.0 GPA because if nothing else, I couldn’t say it was for lack of effort. 2 long and hard years later, I was awarded my master’s degree with a 4.0 cumulative GPA and got the regalia I was once envious of. If you told me 15 years ago that I would go from a possible high school dropout to working for the United States Senate and graduating with my master’s degree from the #7 ranked graduate emergency management program in the country with a 4.0 GPA, I would’ve thought you were out of your mind. And yet, here I am - proving my Imposter Syndrome wrong every chance I can. Who knows what the next chapter is on this journey but one thing is for sure, I’m nowhere near done. Do it even if you don’t think you can.