Erin Palomba

Growing up in the northwest corner of Connecticut, Erin Palomba attended Lewis S. Mills High School in Region 10 – Harwinton/Burlington. When it was time to think about attending college, Palomba had a dilemma. “I knew what I liked — sports, theatre — but those were not areas I felt that I wanted a career in,” she said. “I always liked science, but wasn’t sure what I could do in that space, except maybe teach. The internet was quite new for broad use back in the early ’90s in terms of research, and I really did not know what I wanted to study in college.”

So, Palomba enrolled at Naugatuck Valley Community College to study Business Office Technology and worked at two paid internships while she figured it out. While working as a Student Administrative Assistant for the President’s Office at NVCC and as the Office Manager/Bookkeeper for a local Women’s Fitness Corporate Office, she earned an Associate of Science degree.

These experiences, along with her degree, qualified Palomba for a job opportunity at Western Connecticut State University as a secretary for the ConnCAP/Upward Bound Program in Student Affairs. “Once there, I was encouraged by colleagues to pursue a bachelor’s degree at WestConn,” she said.

Still quite interested in science, Palomba revisited the possibility of becoming a Biology teacher. But she pivoted to the Management Information Systems program with a concentration in Information Security Management fairly early on, and graduated in May 2005.

Palomba said she has worked full or part time since her sophomore year of high school. “I did work in my ‘professional’ career as an auditor, after being recruited by Deloitte & Touche LLP straight from WestConn in 2005,” she said. “Certainly, my studies at the university are what landed me the job at Deloitte. I did not pursue my M.B.A. until roughly six years after receiving my bachelor’s degree. In speaking with other professionals, their advice was to get some work experience first, to make the M.B.A. program more enriching — and I believe they were right.”

Nearly 20 years after graduating, Palomba looks back and reflects. “WestConn has a great combination of traditional and non-trad students with opportunities for everyone,” she said. “If you aren’t 100% sure on what you want to do, just start anyway and your path will find you! You could even start at a community college first before transferring to WestConn.”

Palomba now is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) with background and knowledge primarily within the Aerospace, Manufacturing and Insurance industries. She earned an M.B.A. in Computer Information Systems from Quinnipiac, and has worked for Stanley Black & Decker, United Technologies, and is currently Associate Director, Digital Technology Internal Audit at Carrier Corporation, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Once unsure about what to study or whether to attend college at all, Palomba is certain in the choices she made and the path she followed.

“I would recommend the information security field to anyone with an interest in technology,” she said. “The field is intellectually challenging and changes all the time … never a dull moment! I’ll also share a piece of advice that a colleague gave me, which was to start my career with an audit firm like Deloitte, PwC, KPMG or EY. While that may sound ‘boring,’ you get an enormous amount of training, it looks great on your resume and will certainly lead to other roles as it is frequently cited as a preference in job postings.”

Western Connecticut State University changes lives by providing all students with a high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals, scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.