MidAmerica Contingency Planning Forum upcoming events

From Theory to Practice: Risk, Continuity, and Emergency Management in Higher Education (June 18, 2026)

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:00:00 GMT

From Theory to Practice: Risk, Continuity, and Emergency Management in Higher Education

This presentation explores how risk, business continuity, and emergency management are taught across higher education, and how those concepts are actually implemented within university operations. It examines the gap between traditional, structured approaches like ICS and NIMS and more adaptive, capability-based models that better reflect the realities of complex, decentralized institutions. Attendees will gain insight into how academic programs are evolving, how universities organize and manage these functions, and practical considerations for strengthening resilience in real-world settings.

Bio

Brandon Robbins is a Senior Program Manager for the WashU Continuity Program at Washington University in St. Louis, where he works with departments across the institution to strengthen organizational resilience through business continuity and emergency management. In addition to his role at WashU, Brandon serves as an instructor at Saint Louis University, where he teaches courses in emergency management, business continuity, and risk planning. He also serves as the Board Chair for AmeriCorps St. Louis and is a member of the Adaptive Advisory Group for Adaptive Business Continuity. With a background in emergency management and as a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Brandon brings both operational experience and strategic perspective to his work.

Tabletop Throwdown - Are we exercising documentation or people? (July 16, 2026)

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Panel Discussion:

Robbie Atabaigi, CBCP, MBCP, DRII instructor

Sherry Apel, Senior Manager, Global Sustainability & Business Continuity, Worldwide Technology

Rachel Lucken, Business Continuity Analyst, Stifel Financial Corp

Minimum Viable Company (MVC) Concepts (August 20, 2026)

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Speaker:

Mark Carroll is a risk, crisis, and recovery professional with over 25 years of experience in the field of business continuity, crisis management, and disaster recovery. Mark launched the very first business continuity and disaster recovery programs for BIOGEN; built out the global Gillette crisis and continuity program to 150 locations worldwide, led Business Continuity globally for Fidelity Enterprise Operations and introduced risk, emergency management and recovery management at Income Research and Management. An Information Technology (IT) professional by education and training, Mark started his IT career with the US Department of Defense (DOD) in Boston, MA with responsibility for Third-party Contractor Compliance and Application upgrade support.

Mark leveraged his IT, Operations and Risk experience to build out the IT Audit program at Gillette, integrating IT control assessment into operational audit activities.

Prior to these roles Mark was the head of IT for Rexam Graphics and JPS Elastomerics.

Mark holds an MBA in Finance from Babson College as well as dual Bachelor’s Degrees from Boston College in Economics and Political Science.

He is Certified in Risk Management (RIMS-CRMP), Production and Inventory Control (CPIM), Business Continuity (MBCP and FBCI), Project Management (PMP), IT Security (CISSP), IT Audit (CISA), IT Governance (CGEIT), Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRCP, GRCA), and is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB).

Mark is Founder of the graduate degree in Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) at Boston University and functions as adjunct faculty at the University, having taught risk and crisis management to over 3500 graduate students worldwide.

Mark is a frequent speaker at ISACA, Continuity Insights, MIT, DHS, ACP, and Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) conferences.