School Safety & Security Unit Members
Anthony Gentile is a Professor of Protection Managment with the department of Security, Fire and Emergency Management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, he is also the Associate Director for the Center for Private Security and Safety. Since December of 2012, Prof Gentile has served as the security advisor to the Newtown CT, BOE. He has also consulted to a variety of other school districts across the country.
Professor Gentile has been a successful business owner in the field of security and also held the title of Chief Security Office to the world's largest service organization based in Copenhagen, Demark.
Michael Herrera is the founder and CEO of MHA Consulting. Under his leadership, MHA has become a leading provider of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery services to organizations of all sizes and types on a global level. MHA Consulting has assessed, developed, exercised, and administered Business Continuity Programs across a wide variety of industries, such as financial, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, distribution, education, insurance, and utilities. He is also the founder of BCMMETRICS, a leading cloud-based toolset designed to build, develop, implement and maintain enterprise business continuity management programs.
Prior to founding MHA in 1999, he was a Regional VP for Bank of America, where he was responsible for Business Continuity across the southwest region of the United States.
Michael has a B.S. in Information Technology from Western International University.
Richard Robinson is the Professional Standards Bureau Commander for the Newtown Police Department in Newtown Connecticut. Richard has commanded the Technical Services Bureau (encompassing the Detective Division, Youth Division, and Armed School Security Officer Unit), the Patrol Operations Bureau, and Professional Standards Bureau. Richard has twelve years of experience at the command (Bureau Commander) level, six years’ experience as a patrol supervisor, and seven years as a patrol officer.
During his eleven-year tenure as the Technical Services Bureau Commander, Richard directly supervised the Newtown Police Department’s assistance with the Connecticut State Police investigation into the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting. Following the conclusion of the Newtown Police Department’s assistance with the investigation Richard was instrumental in the research, development, and implementation of the armed school security officer program for the Newtown Public and Parochial School Systems.
Richard was one of the founding members of the Newtown School District Safety and Security Committee, which was developed to increase cooperation and collaboration on safety and security issues between the public, parochial and private schools in the Newtown School District and the Newtown first responders and ancillary local government departments.
Richard has extensive experience in the creation, review, and improvement of education and business emergency operations plans and procedures. In addition, Richard has completed numerous site security assessments for schools, businesses, and places of worship.
In 2019, Richard became an Advisory Consultant for MHA Consulting working in the areas of crisis management, incident response, exercise development, and emergency operation plan review.
Richard is also a co-author of the Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) for First Responders training program, student manual, and instructor manual. This program is the result of the collaboration of HEART 9/11, Newtown Police Officers, and the Benson-Henry Institute of Mind-Body Medicine.
Richard has a B.S. in Justice and Law Administration from Western Connecticut State University and an M.S. in Criminal Justice from Columbia Southern University.
Retired Deputy Chief Anthony S. Perillo started his law enforcement career in 1981 with the Essex County Police Department, working as a patrolman. In 1985 he was hired by the Newark Police Department, the largest municipal police department in the State of NJ, which had over 1,800 sworn and civilian employees. He rose through the ranks to the rank of Deputy Chief and retired in 2011 after spending 26 years with the Department. His experience included over 18 years as a supervisor and over 13 years in Command Management.
His experience includes, Chief of Detectives, Chief of Staff to the Chief of Police, Precinct Commander, Chief of Administration, Internal Affairs Executive Officer, Director of the Newark Police Academy and Chief of the Departments Special Operations / Homeland Security Bureau, which was responsible for all investigative and operational response to incidents involving terrorism within the City of Newark, including the protection of city owned and non-city owned critical infrastructure. The Departments Special Operations Bureau included, the Emergency Services Unit (ESU), SWAT, Explosive Ordnance Unit, Scuba Team, Marine Unit, Aviation unit, Motorcycle and Mounted Squads and Public Building Safety unit.
The Special Operations Bureau duties included the training of all Department personnel in Active Shooter response protocols and Civil Disorder response and resolution strategies. All Newark Police Department Active Shooter training exercises were conducted in City of Newark schools. Chief Perillo was directly involved in the coordination, management and implementation of mock live active shooter exercises with the Newark Board of Education and personally conducted training exercises with Newark Board of Education personnel, which included school principals and teachers, in Active Shooter response protocols, covering the roll of school personnel, as well as the roll of law enforcement in these highly volatile situations. He was also responsible for critical infrastructure and school security vulnerability assessments.
Upon retiring in 2011, Chief Perillo spent seven (7) years as Deputy Director in the Essex County Department of Corrections, serving as the Executive Director of the Department’s Immigration Detention Program, overseeing 1,200 Federal Detainees. He spent the last four (4) years as Director of the Essex County Police Academy, successfully graduating more than 1,500 recruits during his tenure. He has over thirty (30) years of experience as a certified NJ Police Training Commission instructor.
His areas of expertise and strengths are in Tactical operations, Counter Terrorism, Critical Infrastructure protection, Domestic Preparedness, Homeland Security, Emergency Operations and Management, School Safety and Security, Incident Command and training.