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Welcome

Welcome to the Greater Houston Chapter of the Association of Continuity Professionals -  the nation's leading non-profit association, comprised of professionals who are responsible for or have an interest in business continuity, preventing disasters, providing disaster recovery information and facilitating the resumption of normal business activities following a major disaster.

Members of ACP nationwide represent business, industry and government organizations at all levels. Included are executives, administrators, managers, directors, writers, legal staffs, accountants, engineers, sales-persons, records managers, archivists and many more professionals.

Become a member and join ACP!

Chapter Meetings

We generally meet on the second Tuesday of each month either at the Weatherford International (2000 Saint James Place, Houston, TX 77056) or virtually via Zoom, but the actual date, time and location will vary for each event.

Please see each event's details for more information.

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Next Event: 

For our Greater Houston Chapter members - This is a members-only event and a benefit of chapter membership:

ACP Greater Houston Member Appreciation Holiday Luncheon

Date: Tuesday, December 10th, 11:30AM CT

Location: Nundini Chef's Table (500 N Shepherd Dr Suite B, 77007)

RSVP: Planning in progress! Check back here for more information and how to RSVP.

If interested in sponsoring ACP Greater Houston, please contact us by email.

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Past Events:

Thanks to everyone who came out to our Happy Hour at Ducky McShweeney’s Pub - November 14, 2024!

Click on photo to open the photo album in new tab:

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If you missed our recent in-person events, click on each photo below to open the photo album in new tab:

Field Trip to Harris County's Emergency Operations Center - April 16

Happy Hour at The Rustic (Post Oak) - March 28

Our Purpose

To promote a professional, educational association to continually increase the awareness and the importance of business continuity, contingency planning, disaster mitigation and disaster recovery throughout the public and private sectors.

Our Objectives

• To promote greater awareness and understanding of disaster recovery and contingency planning.
• To provide opportunities and forums for member growth through training, information exchange, certification programs, career opportunities awareness and conferences.
• To contribute to the advancement of contingency and business recovery planning.
• To promote increased cooperation and participation in contingency planning between the public and private sectors.

Please visit our Membership page for more details on how to become an ACP member.

Board

2023-2024 Greater Houston Chapter Officers

President Chuck Russell Contact	Secretary Jennifer Williams Contact	Treasurer Dawn Murphy Contact
Membership Director Kathy Williams Contact	Program Director Alison Svrcek Contact	Information Director Wayne Chan Contact
Public Relations Director John Pasquier Contact	Education & Seminars Director Bryce Allen Contact

Past Presidents

Karen Wazbinski (2019, 2020, 2021)
Insperity
Karen.Wazbinski@insperity.com

Angela Mestre (2017, 2018)
JPMorgan Chase
awmestre@yahoo.com

Alicia Henderson (2014, 2015, 2016)
Amegy Bank
alicia.henderson@amegybank.com

Ed Schlichtenmyer (2012, 2013)
StormGeo (formerly ImpactWeather)
ed.schlichtenmyer@stormgeo.com

Mike Thomson (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
ALITEK CONSULTING, LTD; ImpactWeather
thomson.mike@yahoo.com

David Snyder (2007)
Shell Oil
David.Snyder@Shell.com

Industry Events

Some great industry conferences, trainings and other events below:

Check back for future industry events!

 

Chapter Programs

2024 Program Schedule

Date	Speaker/Event
January 9	Identify Threats and Communicate Faster During Critical Events Alex Pinder, AlertMedia
February 13	Using Artificial Intelligence as a force multiplier for your Resilience Program Shane Mathew, Stone Risk Consulting
March 12	No Chapter Meeting to allow members to attend industry conferences
March 28	Members-Only Happy Hour at The Rustic
April 16	Field trip to Harris County Emergency Operations Center
May 14	2024 Atlantic Season Outlook & Tabletop Exercise Derek Ortt, StormGeo
June 11	Protecting Critical Infrastructure Organizations: “Political Polarization & Emerging Security Risks After the 2024 Elections in the US and Other Nations” Scott McHugh, Program Executive for the Institute for Homeland Security at Sam Houston State University
July 9	Cancelled due to Hurricane Beryl
August 13	Business Continuity Metrics That Matter Chuck Russell, ACP Greater Houston President & Sr. Specialist, Business Continuity and Crisis Management, TC Energy
September 10	Trends and Approaches to Building an Enterprise-wide Resilience Program Michelle Uwasomba, Principal, Consulting Enterprise Risk, Ernst & Young LLP
October 8	Roundtable Discussion Reviewing 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season
November 12	Crisis Management The Whataburger Way Ron Derrick, Senior Corporate Emergency Manager/Business Continuity for Whataburger Restaurants
November 14	Members-Only Happy Hour at Ducky McShweeney’s Pub
December 10	Annual Member Appreciation Holiday Luncheon

 2023 Program Schedule

Date	Speaker/Event
January 10	Hacking Your Brain for Better Cybersecurity Dr. George Finney
February 7	Paying It Forward…Or Backward? The give and take of successful mentorship James Mitchell
March 14	No Chapter Meeting to allow members to attend DRJ Spring Conference
April 11	Educators Making a Difference – Higher Learning for Business Continuity and Emergency Management Professionals
May 9	StormGeo 2023 Hurricane Season Outlook and The Climate Has Changed: Are You Prepared For The New Reality? Derek Ortt & Shannon Copeland, StormGeo
June 13	Event Weather Safety Dr. Kevin Kloesel, University Of Oklahoma
July 11	Creating and Delivering Effective Tabletop Exercises Robert Burton, PreparedEx
August 8	Exercise Pitfalls or How “NOT TO” Conduct an Exercise Mark Carroll
September 12	Future Proofing America: A New Model for Disaster and Risk Mitigation Richard Seline, Resilience Innovation Hub
October 10	Building Enterprise Resilience: How Threat and Risk Detection Balance a Duty of Care Program Brian Toolan, Everbridge
October 19	ACP Greater Houston Happy Hour! The Rustic
November 14	Field Trip to Kenyon International Facilities Spring, Texas
December 12	Annual Member Appreciation Holiday Luncheon

Career Opportunities

Welcome to the Career Opportunities area of the ACP Greater Houston Chapter Web site. Here, you can view descriptions of positions available in the field of business continuity planning, emergency management, and risk management in the Greater Houston area. This is a value-added service to the chapter members, guests and chapter affiliates in the local resilience community.

Employers and recruiters are invited to post positions available in Business Continuity, IT Disaster Recovery, Emergency Management, Risilience, Emergency Response, Risk Management and Corporate Crisis Management. Positions will be posted for up to 90 days at no cost.

To submit a listing, you must provide position title, position location, sector/industry, recruiter contact information, link to the job posting, and close date by email to the Education Director.

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Emergency Management Program Manager (Public Information) - Partially Grant Funded
Employer: City of Houston
Position Location: Houston, TX
Sector: Government
Click For More Information:

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Emergency Management Specialist III (Emergency Public Information Systems) - Grant Funded
Employer: City of Houston
Position Location: Houston, TX
Sector: Government
Click For More Information:

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Emergency Management Specialist III (Crisis Information Systems) - Grant Funded
Employer: City of Houston
Position Location: Houston, TX
Sector: Government
Click For More Information:

Education & Career Development

Upcoming Training 

Date	Course Title	Host/Sponsor	Location
Multiple Dates	DRI Business Continuity Courses (Various Offerings)	Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRI)	Online Options

***The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) provides a comprehensive training registration and transcript service for FEMA, TDEM, TEEX, and other government approved emergency management and continuity courses.  You can register and search courses across Texas at Preparing Texas.***

 FEMA Independent Study Courses (Free Virtual Courses)

Course Code	Course Title
IS-1300	Introduction to Continuity of Operations
IS-156	Building Design for Homeland Security for Continuity of Operations
IS-520	Introduction to Continuity of Operations Planning for Pandemic Influenzas
Continuity Excellence Series	FEMA Continuity of Excellence Series Level I & II Information Page

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Articles/White Papers

If anyone has an article/white paper/document they would like to share with the chapter, please send Information Director a copy to include on the website.

• Business Continuity White Papers (Disaster Recovery Journal)

Other Resources

• SecureWorld Expo
• ACP Corporate Web
• ASIS
• Houston TranStar
• FEMA
• InfraGard Houston
• NWS Galveston/Houston
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• DRI International
• Continuity Central
• Information Systems Audit and Control Association® (ISACA® )
• OSHA's Emergency Preparedness
• NOAA Historical Hurricane Tracks Webpage
• Sentryx - BRCCI
• TDEM - PreparingTexas.org

Certifications

Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII)

• CBCP - Business Continuity (2+ years)
• ABCP - Business Continuity (<2 years)
• CFCP - Functional SME
• CBCV - Industry Resilience

Business Resilience Certification Corsortium International (BRCCI)

• CBRM - Resilience Management 
• CBRA - Reslilience Auditing
• CBRITP - Information Technology
• MABR - Master Resilience Management

International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM)

• CEM - Emergency Management

Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA)

• FEMA Continuity of Excellence Series Level I (Professional Practitioner) & II (Master Practitioner)

Degree and Certificate Program

For resilliency, continuty, emergency management, and homeland security degree and certificate programs, please click here. (FEMA Higher Education Site)

Local or Online Degree Programs

Business Continuity, Security and Risk Management (Master of Science) - Boston University

• BCP
• Security
• Risk Management

Concentration in Cybercrime Investigation & Cybersecurity (Master of Criminal Justice) - Boston University

• Cybersecurity
• Cybercrime

Computer Information Systems (Master of Science) - Boston University

• Computer application systems
• Information security
• Risk management

Risk Management (MBA) - Walden University

Crisis Management and Business Continuity (Short Certificate Program) - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• BCP
• DRP
• Crisis management

Emergency Management and Business Continuity (Applied Science T-Degree Program) - Edmonds Community College

• Emergency management
• Hazard response
• DRP
• Business continuity
• Health and safety

Security and Strategic Intelligence, Business Continuity Track (Bachelor of Science) - Saint Louis University

• Security
• BCP

Emergency Management & Business Continuity/EMBC (Associate of Arts/Bachelor of Arts) - Metropolitan College of New York

• Emergency management
• BCP

Information, Risk and Operations Management (MBA) - University of Texas at Austin

• Business analytics
• Information management
• Supply chain and operations management

Homeland Security (Master of Arts) - Northeastern University

• Security
• Emergency management
• Risk management
• Threat mitigation

Security Management with a Critical Response Certificate (Bachelor of Science) - University of Phoenix

• BCP
• Corporate security
• Incident response
• Personnel management

Security Management with Asset Prevention/Loss Prevention Certificate (Associate of Arts) - University of Phoenix

• Corporate security
• Enterprise risk mitigation
• Security technology
• Workplace safety

Continuity Management (Graduate Level Certificate) - Drexel University

• Crisis management
• Risk management
• Emergency management
• Disaster recovery

Emergency Management and Continuity Planning (Graduate Level Certificate) - University of Illinois at Chicago

• Continuity planning
• Crisis management
• Risk management
• Hazard vulnerability analysis
• Information systems
• Strategic planning

Business Continuity and Risk Management (Advanced Certificate Program) - Iona College

• Risk management
• Disaster recovery
• Business resilience practicum

Emergency Management and Homeland Security (Master of Arts) - Arizona State University

• Community resilience and recovery
• Integrated emergency management
• Interoperability for emergency managers
• Public management

CyberSecurity (Master of Science - online) - Georgia Institute of Technology

• MS Cybersecurity degree with a technology specialization - The School of Computer Science
• MS Cybersecurity degree with a cyber-physical and energy systems specialization - The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
• MS Cybersecurity degree with a policy specialization - The School of Public Policy (PUBP)

Computer Information Systems degree with Cyber Security Programming specialization (Bachelor of Science - online or on-campus) - DeVry University (Vendor requested listing)

Membership Information

Thank you for your interest in the Greater Houston Chapter of the Association of Continuity Professionals (ACP).

ACP is a national organization of 2,000+ members with experience, expertise and a willingness to share unique perspectives. ACP provides a forum for members to network with peers in similar job roles across a wide variety of for profit businesses, non-profits, government, higher education, and NGO organizations.

In addition, benefits from becoming an ACP member are:

• eligibility for discounts to conferences and trade publications,
• quality webinars for members only,
• CEU credits towards retaining your certification,
• leadership opportunities in your local chapter and so much more

We believe you'll enjoy the networking opportunities and camaraderie available through ACP.

To become a member, simply click here to access the Association's national website. Once there, select the option to "Join Now!" at the top of the page.

Visit our chapter website for information on upcoming chapter meetings, events to help you get involved, resources for training, education, and job openings, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Don’t hesitate to reach out to our Membership Director at ACPSouthTexas@gmail.com should you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you at our next chapter meeting and/or event!