 Geoff
Crider ’04 never thought he would be working in terrorism
preparedness, few even thought of the term when Geoff came to
Oglethorpe in the fall of 2000. A communications major, Geoff hoped
to become a public relations consultant. In his senior year, he
began an internship at BearingPoint, a business consulting firm,
working on a project for the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. After graduation, they offered him a full-time job.
“The transition was difficult at first because it required me to
learn a lot about public health and all the behind-the-scenes
preparedness efforts that have been going on since September 11 in a
relatively short amount of time,” Geoff said.
Geoff recognizes that his courses in rhetoric, business and
persuasive writing and the core curriculum built a strong foundation
for his future.
“My Oglethorpe education definitely prepared me for this job. I
feel that if I had gone to any other school, I wouldn't have been
able to jump into a field and career completely outside of what I
studied.”
The CDC’s Coordinating Office of Terrorism Preparedness and
Emergency Response, where Geoff works, receives over $1 billion in
funding for 115 projects around the country including the Strategic
National Stockpile. Geoff and five other BearingPoint consultants
help the CDC analyze and evaluate each project quarterly.
“There’s a lot of jargon I get caught up in,” he says. “I’ve
become really familiar with words like bacillus anthracis (Anthrax)
and Yersinia pestis (Plague), especially on lab and research
projects.
“We are helping make important decisions on matters that would
have an effect on the entire country if another terrorist attack
were to occur. My big realization is that we are making a
difference, albeit one that’s not visible to the public.”
-by Mark DeLong (The
Carillon, Fall 2005)
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