On the role, can you confirm the checkbox for "E-mail" is NOT checked? Sometimes instead of resolving to a field with the PERSONID, you use a field that contains an email address. This checkbox indicates that you expect the field to contain an email address rather than an ID.
If that is not checked, I would see what happens when you try to send a communication template in the WOTRACK application. Verify that the role is resolved correctly with the correct email address. If the communication template resolves correctly, then you may have a problem with the escalation