ALUMNI NEWS
Facing COVID-19: Stories from three alumni working on and behind the frontlines.
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veryone has had to deal with our changing world, and 12 months of new expectations, disrupted routines, and the need for different habits. For three Cazenovia alumni, COVID has upended their work world more than a normal amount: they’ve been working on the frontlines, behind the scenes, and keeping it all together for their companies, institutions, and governments all this time. For some, the pandemic meant adapting to offices at home and Zoom work meetings. For others, their professions demanded much more: being frontline healthcare responders; doing analysis and background planning for health care response; creating solutions on the fly to adapt to fluctuating conditions on a large college campus. Whether as an emergency management planner, a business continuity expert, or a frontline first responder, alumni Joseph Hernon ’09, Daniel Riordan ’06, and Mark Allen ’11, have had unique experiences. They describe here what those conditions were like, the challenges they faced, and how their Cazenovia years provided a sound base for their readiness to tackle some truly unusual circumstances. Though they graduated in different years, the career and personal lives of these three alumni have intertwined over the years. Joe Hernon was best man at Dan Riordan’s wedding. Joe, Dan, and Mark trade phone calls when one or the other needs an update or an interpretation of pandemic policies, procedures, federal guidelines, or field insights. Their shared college heritage and their legacy of bonds as members of the Cazenovia College family supersede their locations, roles, jobs, and life stations, and they’ve been pleased to be collaborators in the past, as well as during COVID-19’s uncertainties and conditions.
On the Ground: Emergency Management/Business Continuity Administration Joseph Hernon ’09 B.S., Criminal Justice and Homeland Security Studies Manlius, New York Director of Emergency Management and Business Continuity, Syracuse University
Q. What has been the most challenging aspect of the COVID-19 situation regarding your professional responsibilities? A. Constant change and dealing with the unknown, where the rules are always 16
Cazenovia College Magazine: Winter/Spring 2021
York State lockdown, the New York on Pause, then after that we started all the planning and preparation of how to open the doors again. When the students went home we became community partners, donating supplies to the county where they were needed. I spent several months in the county emergency center working as a Syracuse University liaison to the county, supporting the county’s mission. When you try to move a large organization like a university, you commit to a plan in such circumstances, then you may have to throw it out the window due to state regulations or other factors changing. I think we became a nimble organization due to the need to adapt. We did have a mumps outbreak on campus previously and that put in place some policies, procedures, and structures for a little bit of an outbreak of something. This was a much bigger deal, but our earlier experience gave us thoughts and processes for how to engage different partners. We were able to refer to that exercise and deploy it.
Q. How have you been called upon to help, specifically? What has that involved? changing and you A. I played on both sides of the fence, don’t know what both administrator and front-line worker. will happen next. In the fall, I was on the front lines, movThat is always ing positive-testing students to isolation, problematic in checking supplies, etc. I wasn’t directly any scenario. treating any patients, but we definitely Underestimating, found that a hands-on approach was overestimating needed. On the administrative side, I was the virus, sitting making sure everything was balanced. with public health It did result in some long days and long Millerand with Cazenovianights, College folks our being out on campus supporting students at 9/11 Memorial. faculty members and leadership, deciding campus services then answering emails when to go online for the remainder of until late at night, but we gave it our all. the semester, no one’s ever done anything like this; it was just unimaginable. Once My Air Force specialty is chemical-radiothe Chancellor made the decision to go activity-nuclear weaponized response, remote, then dominoes fell all over the but the same concepts you’d use to handle country, then we experienced the New those kinds of emergencies are not too
