Kelly Kennedy Illustrator & Author

Peter J. Lapp retired as a special agent for the FBI after twenty-two years either investigating or managing counterintelligence investigations involving Cuba, Russia, and China. Before joining the FBI, he worked as a police officer in the Coatesville and West Whiteland police departments in Pennsylvania. He earned his bachelor’s in criminal justice at West Chester University and his master’s in criminal justice at St. Joseph’s University. He served several years in the Army National Guard as an infantry officer. After retiring from the FBI, Lapp founded an independent consulting firm and conducts keynote speaking to help organizations mature their insider-risk programs. Lapp now lives in Loudoun County, Virginia, and performs on the winery circuit as a singer and guitarist. His daughters say he’s not internationally well known; he’s only “county famous.”

Kelly Kennedy is the author of They Fought for Each Other: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Hardest Hit Unit in Iraq, as well as co-author of Fight Like a Girl: The Truth Behind How Female Marines are Trained. She served in the U.S. Army from 1987 to 1993, including tours in the Middle East during Desert Storm, and in Mogadishu, Somalia. She is the managing editor of The War Horse, a nonprofit investigative and long-form journalism newsroom affectionately known as the ProPublica of military news. She has worked as a health policy reporter for USA Today, as well as reporting for Military Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Oregonian, and The Salt Lake Tribune. As a journalist, she has embedded in both Iraq and Afghanistan. She is the only U.S. female journalist to both serve in combat and cover it as a civilian journalist, and she is the first female president of Military Reporters & Editors. In her spare time, she dances ballet and completely loses her military bearing.