Working in a male dominated field with a degree in theater, Erin Tiffany ‘13 redefines what it means to work in project management, fusing her love for STEM and theater to work with high profile artists such as Metallica and Kendrick Lamar. Through her hardwork, creativity, and problem solving, Tiffany forges a career path that allows her to display her wide range of skillsets.
“Erin is an extremely hardworking, wonderful, bubbly personality, and really can hold a great conversation with anyone. She has one of the coolest jobs that I’ve ever seen somebody have. She’s extremely caring, she’ll text me sometimes out of the blue just asking how I’m doing, how my family’s doing. Just an absolutely wonderful person,” math teacher Mr. Bill Naydan said.
Current Project Management at TAIT
Tiffany currently resides in Lancaster PA and works for TAIT, which is a global entertainment company that supports the design, fabrication, and execution for all types of live events including concerts, theme parks, broadcast, and more.
She has been a part of TAIT’s team for 5 years now, mentioning that it’s “terrifying and also exciting.” Her current role has slightly shifted since her beginnings with the company.
“I’ve now moved into a more corporate role of the company, which is like super weird for somebody who has a theater degree. I now work in mergers and acquisitions, so when my company buys another company, how do we take the best of what both pieces have and move them together,” Tiffany said.
Just a few of her biggest clients she has worked with during their concert tours are Metallica, Morgan Wallen, Lorde, Mumford and Sons, and Kendrick Lamar, mentioning, “I was literally on the phone with my Kendrick designer earlier today.”
A Passion for Performing
At the Mount, Tiffany was a member of the Firebirds, still mentoring them to this day, as well as Glee club, Sweet Madelines, and the fall musicals.
Mount’s STEM Learning Specialist Hannah Farrell ‘11 was a close friend of Tiffany’s at the Mount, and they both work closely with the Firebirds today.
“So in high school when we were doing robotics together we were working on stuff really closely. We both kind of did the awards side of robotics. And so she’s been pretty much like my right hand person since I’ve started back here. She’s a huge help, yeah she’s really awesome,” Ms. Hannah Farrell ‘11 said.
She graduated Mount in 2013 and attended Muhlenberg College in Allentown, intending to study musical theatre performance. Upon her first set of classes was a carpentry class, peaking her interest in design, and ultimately changing the trajectory of her professional life.
“I was super involved in theater and the music department at Mount. And it was just like, there was no question that I was going to end up in entertainment in some way, shape, or form,” Tiffany said.
From Muhlenberg, Tiffany earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree with a dual major in Theater and Media Communication. She had a professor who saw her potential and suggested that upon graduating, she should apply to Yale for a Masters degree. To her surprise, she was accepted, and chose their 1-year certificate program, working 25 hours a week in her chosen sector of theater: carpentry and welding.
From this program, it allowed her to have a clearer vision of what she wanted her career path to look like.
“I took a bunch of classes in technical direction and production management, so like taking a bunch of all of the different pieces of production management is a mix of everything that’s on the stage,” Tiffany said.
Disney Projects
Utilizing an education in both entertainment and building, Tiffany has been involved with the theme park industry as well, and has specifically worked on the Universal Studios theme park in Hollywood.
When Tiffany was finishing up her time at Yale she began to apply for internships and landed her first job at Disney Parks Live Entertainment division, now rebranded as the Disney Experience, working in Technical Direction.
In this role, Tiffany experienced working on the Avengers Campus, Star Wars Land, and the Zootopia Land in Shanghai, China.
Tiffany explained her role more simply as everything from a princess walking around the park, to a parade going through the avengers campus, to even a stunt show needing the appropriate support to run smoothly.
Entertainment Industry
After working for Disney in Los Angeles, Tiffany was hired by Center Theater Group as Assistant Production Manager, which is Los Angeles’ leading non-profit theater company, as well as one of the country’s leading producers in ambitious new works.
Tiffany was mainly involved with the Broadway touring house, executing pre-Broadway launches, installing the shows, producing new work, and making sure the shows got up and running.
She also served as the Lead Production Manager and Technical Director for Center Theater Group’s annual fundraising gala, attended by Hollywood and music industry stars, which Tiffany described as “always fun and terrifying.”
After the pandemic, Tiffany was hired at Chicago Scenic Studios, where she managed what her favorite project of her career thus far.
In November of 2020, Tiffany was on a film set for three weeks, project managing the scenery for Chance the Rapper’s Christmas movie “Chi-Town Christmas,” adapted from his Christmas album with Jeremih, “Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama.”
“Being on a film site during COVID was such a memorable experience. Like three of the dancers got COVID and we had to shut down and they had to come in and sanitize everything. It’s one of those things that you wish never happened, but because it did, I got to do something crazy like that. And I love it (“Chi Town Christmas”). I watch it every Christmas,” Tiffany said.
Robotics and The Firebirds
While Tiffany graduated in 2013, she is still heavily involved in the Firebirds, serving as a mentor and resource for the team.
“She’s been a mentor for as long as I’ve been on the team, and probably longer than that. She helps a lot with our business side of the team when it comes to fundraising, which is a much bigger aspect than you would think. Her company TAIT, we get to go and do industry visits with her and we’re sponsored by that company,” Firebirds Co-President Emma Meng ‘26 said.
Throughout her career Tiffany has fused her love for both STEM and creative direction, demonstrating that the two do not cancel each other out, evident in her Robotics
“There’s so much creativity in the way that problems get solved, and there’s so many behind the scenes things to being in a STEM field. You don’t need to go be a STEM major to end up working in STEM,” Tiffany said.
Farrell and Tiffany were involved in the Firebirds as Mounties, and now they are both active mentors for the team. After Farrell became a part of the Mount faculty and became the moderator of the team, Tiffany reached out to get involved as well.
“I’ve known Erin since we were in high school and she’s one of the nicest people I know. She is really passionate about theater and art and she just has turned that into, in my opinion, one of the coolest jobs that someone can have. She’s been pretty much like my right hand person since I’ve started back here.
She’s a huge help, yeah she’s really awesome,” Farrell ‘11 said.
Tiffany is an influential mentor of the Firebirds, working with students, attending Quizzos, providing resources, leading at competitions, and facilitating an environment that is rare to find outside of the Mount robotics labs.
“The firebirds is such like a special and exciting club and I learned so much through it and it’s a community that truly doesn’t exist anywhere else. So that’s why it’s really important for me to give back in the way that you know the awesome mentors I had when I was a student were able to give to us,” Tiffany said.
Mount’s Influence
Tiffany graduated from the Mount in 2013, and was heavily involved in Firebirds and the music department, including Glee Club, Sweet Madelines, the fall musical, and choir orchestra. She also performed at Charity Day as a drummer in a band including Mr. Naydan, and credits those experiences to be influential.
“I would not be the person I am today without the Mount. The Mount gave me the opportunity to grow in such a safe space that I became the strong confident woman I needed to be when I went into a male dominated field in my future,” Tiffany said.
While Tiffany is often the only woman in the room, she does not let that intimidate her.
“She is like the biggest personality in the entire world. She lights up any room and I’m just so proud of everything she’s done. I love that we could go to school together and both be sisters and be able to support each other, but also have our own journeys. I appreciated that the Mount didn’t treat Erin as a baby version of me and kind of put her in a box, because she does not handle boxes well,” Leigh Anne Tiffany ‘11 said.
Leading in a male-dominated industry, Tiffany utilizes her skills in theater, management, and STEM to trailblaze in the entertainment industry, and leaves Mounties with advice:
“You are going to be fine. The things that seem so important and so stressful right now will all work out okay. You are going to make so many choices in life and question whether or not it is the right choice. The answer is that if you make that choice, that means it is the right choice at the moment. Every choice you make is not wrong because it helps you grow as a person.”
