The ACP National Board consists of 12 directors elected by the membership. Each director is elected for a three-year term and may serve two consecutive terms. The Board has three executive officer positions: chairperson, secretary and treasurer. Officers are elected annually by the National Board. The elections for vacant board seats and officers occur each year by December 31.

ACP National Board Chair
Michael Gifford

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Executive Committee Chair
Strategic Partnerships Committee Chair

Michael Gifford returns to the National Board, having served 5 years, including as National Chair (2012-2013). He was one of the founding members or the Alamo Chapter – San Antonio, TX, and served as its first Chapter President.

Michael has a very broad range of business continuity, disaster recovery, and crisis management experience. His professional experience includes progressive senior leadership roles in Information Technology, having worked in both the financial and retail sectors.

As an experienced senior leader and practitioner, Michael has served as BCM Program “Champion”, coach, and mentor. He’s an accomplished storyteller who can help business teams understand the “why” through sharing real event experiences.

Michael has a passion for helping others that can be seen through his involvement with numerous Non-Profit Organizations, including ACP. Michael believes there is no greater reward that giving back and making a difference in your community.

ACP National Board Treasurer
Allan Schmidt, MBCP, MBCI, CPSCP

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Finance Committee Chair

Allan serves as a Senior Professional, Business Continuity with CoreLogic. He is a seasoned Business Continuity Management Professional with a technology driven business background and MBA degree who utilizes a risk management approach in assessing both internal and external client needs in order to determine the optimal solutions for ensuring resilience and recovery capability. Having a diverse business background, Allan’s areas of expertise includes Business Continuity and Resiliency, Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery Planning, and Business Process Improvement with special interest in Strategic Planning and Management.

In 2016, Allan earned his Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP) certification with DRII and his Member Grade (MBCI) with the international Business Continuity Institute. In 2018, he earned his Certified Public Sector Continuity Professional (CPSCP) with DRII, reflecting his years of experience working in and with the public sector. Having joined ACP and the North Texas Chapter of ACP in 2013, he is honored to continue to serve on the National Board of ACP.

ACP National Board Secretary
Dr. Roberta "Robbie" LaRocca, CPP, MBCI

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Professional Development Committee Chair

Dr. Roberta LaRocca has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for most of her career within various functions including the past 15 years establishing Business Continuity Programs first at Wyeth and most recently at Merck. She is also a Principle at ProTinue which focuses on enterprise risk management services. In addition to North America, she has done business continuity work in Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Her doctorate is in Educational Leadership and her doctoral research centered on public/private partnerships during an infectious disease outbreak. She is also a Certified Fraud Examiner, a Certified Protection Professional and a member and former board member of the Business Continuity Institute.

ACP National Board Member
Lori Adamo

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Professional Development Committee, Chapter Relations Committee

Adamo is founder and president of Code Red Business Continuity Services, LLC. Code Red opened its doors in 2003 and began to teach small to mid-size businesses about the importance of keeping employees safe and developing a plan that would help keep them in business after a disaster. Ms. Adamo has grown to be a recognized leader in the business continuity industry.  Code Red's client list includes large to mid-size sector businesses encompassing the financial industry, manufacturing, insurance, biologics and non-profits.

Before founding Code Red, Ms. Adamo served in municipal government for many years. She worked as the Economic Development Director for the City of Cranston and previously for the City of Woonsocket in Rhode Island. She also served two years concurrently as the Executive Director of Main Street 2000 for the City of Woonsocket. She received an award from the National Main Street Foundation commending the revitalization of a blighted Main Street.

Ms. Adamo was a member of the Board of Directors for the Northeast Disaster Recovery Information Exchange (NEDRIX). She served as the Vice President and as the Director of the Private/Public Sector Initiative. She worked to establish a Private Public System in conjunction with the six New England emergency management agencies to promote collaboration and resource development at the time of a major disruption. She sat as an advisory member to the Institute for Business & Home Safety’s Board to help market and promote “Open for Business” a disaster planning tool for small business. She was a member of the steering committee for the RI Cyber Security Planning Group, the Safer Institutes Credentialing Program, which was a State of RI effort, and mentored students for Sophia Academy, an all girls’ school, located in Providence, Rhode Island. Ms. Adamo developed the RI Alliance for Business Resilience working along side Peter Gaynor, Former RI EMA Director and FEMA Director.  

Currently, Ms. Adamo is a member of the RI Association of Emergency Managers and the President of the Association of Continuity Planners - Greater Boston Chapter.

ACP National Board Member
Avery Church

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Technology Committee

Avery L. Church serves as the Continuity Program Manager for Fairfax County Government with more than 15 years of business continuity and continuity of government experience. He leads a team of more than one hundred representatives from across Fairfax County Government to design, develop, implement, and maintain the county’s continuity capability. This capability is critical to the effectiveness and efficiency of the services of county government.

As part of his role in county government, he consults with Fairfax businesses to ensure they understand operational resilience and the importance of staying in business.

His service to the profession is further demonstrated by his presidency of the Washington DC chapter of the Association of Continuity Professionals, the premier non-profit association dedicated to the advancement of continuity professionals. As president he is responsible with fostering the growth of the business continuity industry through its network of industry experts, education, and the exchange of information and best practices in one of the most dynamic metropolitan areas in the country.

For 6.5 years, he supported the Department of Energy’s Continuity Program Office, serving as the primary consultant and subject matter expert in the design, development, and execution of their continuity program. Additionally, Avery served as an emergency management consultant to the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, all in Washington DC.

Avery holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, both from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a certified Master Professional Continuity Practitioner through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

ACP National Board Member
Liz Floro

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Chapter Relations Committee

Lizz is the current President of the Colorado Rocky Mountain Chapter of ACP, serves on the National Board, and co-chairs the President's Council. She is also an emergency manager with special focus on critical infrastructure and continuity living in the Denver, Colorado area. Lizz holds her Master's in Emergency & Disaster Management from Georgetown University, is certified through IAEM with her CEM, and Colorado (CEMA) with her CO-CEM.

ACP National Board Member
Paul McGonigal

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Strategic Partnerships Committee, Chapter Development Committee

Paul is the Business Continuity Administrator for Ephrata National Bank, a medium size community bank based in Lancaster, PA. Paul developed the Business Continuity program enabling Ephrata National Bank to have their first complete Business Continuity Plan. He is responsible for testing of all critical bank functions, manages the annual Disaster Recovery exercise and is responsible for vendor management.

While relatively new to the business continuity profession and financial sector, Paul has over 10 years of Emergency Management experience in both the private and public sectors. He has led emergency power response teams following hurricane landfalls in Saipan, CNMI, North Carolina, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. He has also has experience with international traveler risk management, duty of care, emergency response, evacuation and kidnappings.

Paul has also been a volunteer fighter for over 12 years, volunteering wherever he has lived, and is currently the Truck Lieutenant for Ephrata Pioneer Fire Company. 

ACP National Board Member
James Mitchell

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Finance Committee, Chapter Development Committee

ACP National Board Member
Todd Ray

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Technology Committee, Professional Development Committee

Todd Ray is President of RMANAGING Consulting, LLC and is a Business Resilience and Continuity professional with more than 25 years of strategic and operational experience in Enterprise Risk Management, Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery and Emergency Response.

Todd specializes in creating and managing complete Business Continuity Management Systems and IT Service Continuity Programs for highly regulated companies such as Novartis Pharmaceutical and Pfizer.

In addition, he is an active member of InfraGard and a Certified Critical Infrastructure Liaison Office for the US Government.  Todd has held positions of escalating responsibility working for various international organizations and served as a Non-Commission Officer in the U.S. Air Force.  He was in charge of U.S. and Air Force Space Command C3 (Command, Control & Communications) teams.

ACP National Board Member
Catherine "Cathy" Robbins, MBCP

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Marketing Committee Chair, Chapter Relations Committee

Cathy is the Director of Risk Management & Corporate Services at GuideWell Source. She oversees corporate home office support services on behalf of four operating companies, spanning 10 offices in six states, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, serving as the nation's largest administrator of the Medicare program.

Cathy’s responsibilities include establishing and maintaining programs that integrate risk management with existing management processes to evaluate effective strategies for managing the companies' risk exposure. She also leads a best-practice enterprise business continuity and disaster recovery program that exceeds stringent Federal contracting information security requirements and complies with ISO certification standards. Other areas of accountability include leading the enterprise’s incident management and safety programs and recently launched a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program.

Cathy has over 12 years’ experience in the business continuity and disaster recovery profession. She received her B.S. in Health Care Administration from Southern Illinois University and her MBCP from DRI International. Cathy is also a member of the ACP Northeast Florida chapter.

ACP National Board Member
Jennifer Rosario

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Technology Committee Chair, Marketing Committee 

Jennifer Rosario is the CISO for Spreedly, a financial technology company based out of Durham, NC. She has over 20 years of experience in IT Operations, IT Service Management, and Information Security (IS). She has a proven background in delivering expert-level cyber security guidance, developing, implementing and maturing IS programs. Her passion comes from bringing people, process and technology together to deliver value to the business. Jennifer’s certifications include CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), CRISC (Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control), and ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) Foundation. Jennifer graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Science.