Melanie Lucht is the Associate Vice President and Chief Risk Officer for Carnegie Mellon University.  In this role, Melanie oversees the following Organizations: Environmental Health and Safety, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, Emergency Preparedness, and Risk Operations.

Under Melanie’s leadership, her teams support the mission, values, and strategic objectives of the university by sustaining and enhancing a safe and healthy environment and supporting organizational resiliency with a risk-conscious culture. She oversees the development and deployment of risk management tools and practices across the university and leads a cross-functional group to provide risk intelligence to university leadership and inform strategic decision making.

Melanie’s tenure with Carnegie Mellon began in 2013 as the Senior Manager for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services.  In 2017, Melanie was appointed the Assistant Vice President of the newly formed Enterprise Risk Management department while also serving as interim director for each of the Organizations reporting to her.  In August of 2018, Melanie was promoted to Associate Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. Prior to her years at Carnegie Mellon, Melanie was the Vice President for Enterprise Business Resiliency at PNC Financial Services and has an extensive background in the insurance industry. 

Melanie is a Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP), a member of the Business Continuity Institute (MBCI), a Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC), a Certified Continuity Manager (CCM), and holds the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation. In 2017, she was recognized internationally by the Business Continuity Institute as Continuity and Resiliency Professional of the Year for the private sector.  In 2018, she successfully completed the first offering of the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Executive Education Program at the Heinz College. The only woman in the class of 16 executives, she was a member of the project team that achieved top honors in the program.  She now serves as a project team coach and guest lecturer. Melanie also serves on the Fusion Risk Management Executive Peer Exchange, the Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) Editorial Advisory Board and is a board member of the New Hazlett Theater.

Melanie received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and master’s degree in administration of justice from Mercyhurst College.

Francisco is the Senior Director of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity (including Emergency Management) services at Carnegie Mellon University. Francisco’s role in the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) organization, is to provide the guidance, tools, and governance commensurate with the strategic mission and risk tolerance of the university and its divisional units so that they may continue to provide critical services in the event of a disaster or significant business disruption.

Before CMU, Francisco worked for most of his career in the financial private sector in organizations such as AEGON/Transamerica in the U.S., The National Bank of Mexico (now Citi-Banamex) in Mexico City and other international locations implementing, maturing, and managing business resiliency programs and projects to identify, mitigate, and respond to enterprise operational risks.

Francisco holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Universidad del Valle de Mexico, a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University and a Ph.D. in Information Sciences from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. He also holds the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

Francisco was an adjunct faculty member at Norwich University - Master of Science in Business Continuity and has served on the Board of Directors of Safeguard Iowa Partnership, as Vice President of the Business Resiliency Professionals of Wisconsin. He was also founding member of the Wisconsin Business Emergency Management public-private partnership,

Outside of work and professional activities, Francisco volunteers with the Civil Air Patrol (U.S. Air Force Auxiliary) serving as staff officer with specialty qualifications in Community Emergency Response Teams, General Emergency Services, and Mission Air Crew (Mission Scanner and Aerial Photography).  He has also been a member of the Red Cross Disaster Services in Wisconsin.

Rebecca Cicco is the Assistant Director for Environmental Health and Safety at Carnegie Mellon University.  In this role, Rebecca oversees the Workplace Safety and Fire Safety Teams within the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), a division within Enterprise Risk Management.  Rebecca’s role is to provide guidance, hazard mitigation strategies, procedures and processes in an effort to meeting the strategic mission and risk tolerance of the university and its divisional units.

Rebecca’s tenure with Carnegie Mellon began in 2014 as the Workplace Safety Manager.  In 2019, Rebecca was promoted to into a Senior Manager role.  In January of 2022, Rebecca was promoted to become the Assistant Director of EHS.  Prior to her years at Carnegie Mellon, Rebecca was the Corporate Safety Specialist for United States Steel Corporation, and has an extensive background in the safety industry.

Rebecca is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), and is a member of the CMULead program. 

Rebecca received a bachelor’s degree in environmental management from Slippery Rock University, a master’s degree in safety sciences from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a certificate in operations leadership and organizational management from Drexel University.