Emergency response is an essential function of all residential life staff, but particularly for resident assistants serving on the front line. This organizational ethnography examined the role that professional identity played for early-career residential life practitioners engaged in emergency management. The data elucidated heroism as a particularly salient identity for shaping the way early-career practitioners made meaning of their roles. Heroism is elaborated in three contexts: a metaphor used to socialize new RAs; a framework employed by early-career practitioners to rationalize their emergency response responsibilities; and an aspirational goal that, when not put into action, raised questions about professional competency. [Discussion questions prepared by Ben Huff and Jamie Taylor.]