Interview with Adrienne FitzGerald

Born in New York. Works as Associate Director of Pro Bono Programs at Columbia Law School. Adrienne tells us about her hometown, her job and more!

Quote: “…the energy that was in Manhattan is moving to the outer boroughs, so it’s not been lost, it’s moving”


What’s the meaning of your name?

I don’t think my name has a meaning. I know there were many popes in Italy named Adrian. My last name, Fitzgerald, means illegitimate son of Gerald. But other than that, I don’t think Adrienne has a meaning.

Which is your hometown and what do you like most of it?

New York is my hometown. I think what I love about it is that all my family and really good friends are here. I love the energy and the constant stimulus that is here and I love the fact that you can travel to almost any country and… stay in New York. You can meet people from pretty much everywhere in the world.

How do you see the city now in comparison to ten years ago?

For me, I can talk really… even mostly… about my neighborhood which is York field It’s turned into a city for very rich people…and Manhattan before had a lot of small neighborhoods, had a lot of mixed income…Near my house there were these beautiful, little stores from Germany. It was a German, Irish, Polish, Hungarian neighborhood and there were beautiful little cake stores…and now has turned into Banana Republic, huge chains.. it’s losing any charm that it had…because those big chains are the only places that can afford the rent here. So I think it’s losing a lot of character. I think places like Brooklyn and Queens and some of the outer boroughs are turning into places for artists and a lot of the energy that was in Manhattan is moving out to the outer boroughs...So it’s not been lost, it’s moving.

What did you study?

I have two masters, one, I did in social work and community organizing. So I did housing advocacy for many years and I worked on the Lower East Side on low income housing, and then I went back and I did a degree in interactive media at the School of The Arts and that’s when I worked for a web documentary company for a number of years. Mostly working on a project on the criminal justice system.

Where do you work and what’s your job?

Right now I work at Columbia Center for Public Interest Law and my job is to manage the mandatory pro bono program there. It’s administrative and it’s also programming, you know…making sure that developing the programs.

What do you like most of your job?

I love meeting students, I love, that both the faculty and students here are really interesting, really wanting to do new things and thinking about things in a new way…So that’s fun…and I think one of the things I like best is developing partnership with non-for-profit’s and firms -both public sphere and private sphere, to provide resources to people who don’t have resources. It’s really challenging and it’s really gratifying when it works.

For how long have you been working at Columbia University?

At this job a little over three years.

What do you see yourself doing in ten years?

I see myself doing a lot of things…I can give you a few. One, I would love to do animation, you know…I did that a bit when I was in media work…I love to draw… Somehow I wanna work that in. But I also really in part because of my parents and my mother situation with Alzheimer’s…I’m really interested in working with elderly population because this country and I’m sure Argentina too…but this country is facing a huge…we are gonna have a overpopulation of elderly people and the illnesses and the costs have not been figured out at all…. So I’d really love to work on policy issues around that and also therapy with families who are going through... Who are trying to figure out how to care of elderly sick people and how to house them and all of that.

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