Alumni Spotlight: Tiffany Reedy

The College of Criminal Justice recently welcomed alumna Tiffany Reedy as a guest speaker for one of the Spring semester Real Talk w/ CJ events. Reedy, who graduated from Sam Houston State University in 1998, is now the Manager of the Protective Services Group for the Harris County Attorney’s Office. Reedy took the opportunity to share her career and life experiences with students interested in learning more about working in child protective law.

Tiffany Reedy has been employed with the Harris County Attorney’s Office since May of 2014. Prior to joining the Harris County Attorney’s Office, Tiffany worked as a Regional Attorney for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services where she advised and represented the Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services for 6 years. She has been a licensed attorney for over 17 years and has represented an array of clients including Twentieth Television.

A career in law was not Reedy’s first thought in career choices and saw herself working for the FBI, but her first internship interview did not end how she expected. Looking back, Reedy sees that the first turn down made way for an internship opportunity through the Postal Service Inspection Service.

“When preparation meets opportunity that equals success. When you’re prepared for the opportunities that come your way, you’ll see success,” Reedy told students.

Those first opportunities taught Reedy that life plans can never be set in stone but that success can still happen even when things do not turn out the way one expects. Reedy’s internship with the Postal Service allowed her to realize that law enforcement was not something she wanted to pursue after all and began thinking about other opportunities. Law school was one of them.

Fast-forward a daughter and challenging years in law school, Reedy earned her law degree from Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law in 2001. Reedy worked for a series of law firms gaining experience and skills until she started her own firm. A friend encouraged Tiffany to consider working for Child Protective Services regional office because of the amount of women abuse survivors she began representing.

At the time, Reedy was considering leaving law to work for Exxon. She admitted her career was fueled by a drive to make money, but was disappointed in that outcome so far.

“That’s when I learned the lesson that it doesn’t matter how much money you make, it matters what you do with it,” Reedy told students.

Reedy was willing to take the opportunity with CPS and has not looked back since.

“All of the stuff I went through led up to this. I realized I was born for this,” she said. “I don’t know that I’ll do anything else but CPS law now.”

Tiffany has been a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated since 1996. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University in 1998.

If you would like to be a featured guest for a Real Talk w/ CJ event, contact Veronica Hoff at vgonzalez@shsu.edu.