Ms. Marcia Kittler has dedicated her professional career and volunteer services to helping businesses and their surrounding communities understand the importance of business continuity planning and establishing a disaster resilient economy.  I met her in her capacity as Public Relations Director for the Northern Illinois chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP).  Her expertise in risk management communication – and her willingness to share that knowledge -- has been very useful to IBHS as it develops outreach materials for a collaborative effort nationwide between IBHS and the ACP to help small businesses plan for business resumption following a disaster.
                                                                                         - Diana L. McClure, Vice President & Director of Business Protection
                                                                                           Institute for Business and Home Safety  www.ibhs.org

 Summary of Engagements

• In the government sector, MK critiqued the disaster recovery testing processes used by an independent unit of government whose territory includes Chicago and 125 other municipalities. MK critiqued the the technical staff's failover and recovery processes, and supervisors' subsequent user testing. 
      
• In the education sector, an international company that owns several affiliated career colleges with more than 140 campus locations found its student community a vulnerable population in the H1N1 pandemic. MK participated in the timely development of a comprehensive and flexible pandemic plan currently deployed at all campuses, mitigating the threat of disease for thousands of students, faculty and staff members.
   
• Working with the career college network, MK provided business continuity consultative services, cooperating with the business continuity and disaster recovery management team and subject experts to implement a standards-based program and plans protecting its extensive network of business, IT and campus facilities. 
   
• When a supplier to the healthcare industry found its hospital customers demanding evidence of resiliency, MK participated in the development of a business continuity / disaster recovery strategy to ensure the continuity of business operations supporting the delivery of critical life maintenance and health care products.
   
• When an insurance holding company acquired a business, creating a new business unit, MK analyzed the acquisition's disaster recovery plans to identify the contingency planning gaps that needed to be addressed to support the new business unit's emergency response, business recovery and facility recovery; to fulfill the holding company's business continuity management standards; and to align with existing practices.
    
• After an international healthcare organization was identified as part of the U.S. critical infrastructure, MK worked with its security staff to develop a business continuity management program that accurately describes how the company's security practices and processes ensure the resiliency of key facilities and operations, to protect customers and other individuals who may be impacted in a pandemic or other disaster.
   
• MK helped an international professional services firm's pass an IT security audit, which helped it expand its bank services into 12 additional States. MK optimized its information security policies to meet an ISO standard and provided corresponding security awareness and training materials. MK also conducted a business impact analyses for technology recovery, and worked with the CIO to develop the firm's first technology recovery program, document the firm's technology recovery specifications and diagram its first alternate site. 
      
• When a food manufacturing company decided to improve its services and product deliveries to key customers, MK assisted with the development and testing of a manufacturing recovery plan that aligned with the manufacturer's recovery objectives and customer priorities. 
      
•  After Illinois was hit with severe, repeat flooding in 2008 - 2010, the College of DuPage sought Marcia Kittler's assistance, with the goal of helping Illinois' private sector become better prepared for emergencies and disasters. In an awareness and training outreach funded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, U.S. SBA and Illinois SBDC, Ms.Kittler organized effective disaster planning initiatives then managed a team delivering awareness and training to business owners in DuPage County as well as neighboring Kane, Kendall, Will and Cook Counties.
   
• MK participated with an insurance company's business continuity coordinator to develop the organization's first business continuity program, then worked with 65 business units to complete their business recovery plans. Developed tools (e.g., templates and cookbooks) that streamlined, by as much as 80 percent, repeatable processes across the organization. Participate in ongoing plan development and maintenance processes.
   
• MK also collaborated with the insurance company's geographically diverse staff to develop emergency action and facility recovery plans for facilities in several states, after working with the business continuity coordinator to conduct business impact analyses and develop utilities to significantly streamline ongoing data collection and plan development/update processes.
      
• When an international company decided to take its business continuity global, MK worked with its global business continuity team to expand the firm's technology recovery program, addressing disparate threats and structures, while simultaneously fulfilling Cobit objectives. Later, MK conducted a quality review of the plan documentation being produced by the firm's consultants to ensure it was consistent and actionable.
    
• After learning that the international company's business continuity program office was going to initiate its first disaster recovery test program, MK developed a cookbook documenting best practices for designing and evaluating exercises.
      
• When a health insurance company, obligated to comply with the HIPAA Security Rule, identified procedural documentation as its primary gap, MK collaborated with the Security Officer to define the organization's regulatory response strategy for upper management. MK then participated with the Security Officer to reduce the departmental documentation project's operational impact by 75 percent; this was accomplished by designing procedure documentation templates, and delivering instructional workshops to 60 departments. MK also ensured each department completed its documentation and documented/addressed its gaps prior to the HIPAA security rule deadline.  MK also supported the Information Technology Manager’s directive to fulfill new IT governance objectives by drafting the company’s first information security program and integrating IT's HIPAA procedures into its information security policies and procedures.
   
• Dedicated to the resilience of the Northern Illinois region and economy, M K Business Solutions' Marcia Kittler served as one of the founding members of the Northern Illinois chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners, then worked as its Public Relations/Communications Director for three years, responsible for building relationships with other associations, individuals, and resources supporting ACP's business continuity professionals. Ms. Kittler also supported the development of the Lake Cook Regional Critical Incident Partnership, and its predecessor, the Libertyville Illinois Critical Incident Partnership, devoted to building public-private partnerships for emergency response and crisis management in Northern Illinois.