The Accidental Safety Pro

Jill James, our series host, talks with Jay Allen from SafetyFM. They cover topics including his broadcasting background, trying to settle on a major, and Jay explains how a vehicle fatality gave him a push to get into safety.

Podcast series host Jill James shares eight of her favorite moments from the show. You’ll hear about a hydrogen explosion, what it’s like to grow up with a safety parent, and the virtues of unlikely mentorships. These stories from safety professionals across the country will make you laugh, make you wince, and leave you with the sense that you’re not alone.

In a podcast first, series host Jill James sits down with three emerging professionals affiliated with American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP). With pathways to safety as unique as their backgrounds, our guests on the 21st episode share important commonalities: formal education in occupational safety and internships. You’ll hear from one non-traditional student now job-hunting across the country, a Masters-level safety manager in the oil & gas industry, and one passionate advocate for industrial health. Key themes of mentorship, community, and engagement. Also, a few great stories from the field.

Podcast series host Jill James talks to Robert, whose career in safety led him to the closely related discipline of risk management. Robert came to safety through a popular pathway—the trades, skilled labor. As a teenage apprentice electrician, Robert was struck by an arc flash. Then, as a carpenter, he slid off of a roof without any fall protection gear. After that, while clearing trees, a large log rolled up on him. Naturally, each incident let him to question the unsafe conditions of employment experienced by hundreds of thousands of workers, ultimately starting his journey in professional safety.

Podcast series host Jill James catches up with Chevon, a true outlier in the profession. Contrary to the theme of the show, Chevon was seemingly born to the safety occupation. That’s what happens when your mother is a professor of occupational health and safety. On a path to music scholarship, Chevon eventually stopped fighting her native interests, switched majors, and accepted her destiny: a career safety pro.

Podcast series host Jill James connects with Certified Safety Professional Rick, a home grown pro with over 30 years of experience. Rick started on a poultry production line and, building upon his interest in emergency response, worked his way up the ranks of the safety ladder for a major food industry brand. Eventually, he found himself supervising 160 professional safety staff and 350 occupational health nurses. Podcast fans will learn about mapping safety to organizational business strategy, the futility of ‘management without measurement’, and developing safety metrics from workers comp stats. Also, discover a fantastic internship opportunity available now. Bonus? Answer the most important question every safety pro must ask themselves.

Series host Jill James connects with Katie, a safety specialist in manufacturing from the Milwaukee area. Katie is one of the few who began higher education with a focus on occupational safety, earning a Bachelor of Arts and Masters in health and safety. With 6 years of experience, Katie is a member of the new generation of safety professionals who benefited from increased access to formal education in the field. Podcast fans will learn from Katie’s story about maximizing internship opportunities, where mentorship may be found along your career, and the importance of business-skill fluency in the safety job. Her words of wisdom? Priorities change; values don’t.

​From starting his career as a chemist at a nuclear facility to becoming an operations manager at a hydro plant and on through his recent retirement, our guest Harold talks with series host Jill James about his path towards becoming a safety pro. We get to hear how Harold went from a co-worker to supervisor overnight and how that changed his view on safety, from only having to worry about his own safety to now being responsible for the safety of his employees, widening his circle of responsibility. Jill and Harold also talk about how safety changed over time, both in regulations and internal procedures and behaviors within their roles.

Our host, Jill James, sits down to have a conversation with Linda Martin, 2018 President of the Board of Certified Safety Processionals, chair of the Board of Certified Safety Professionals Foundation Board, and recipient of the 2018 Marion Martin Award recognizing influential women in safety.  Together they talk about their shared Midwest origins and accents. Linda talks about getting started in her career as HAZWOPER was going into effect and how that moved her into a safety practice. The two also discuss feeling like they could make a difference through safety and how that led and drove her career path.

In this episode of the podcast, series host Jill James reconnects with Dr. Amy Orders, Managing Director of Emergency Management Mission Continuity, with North Carolina State University.  Dr. Orders got her start as a radiation safety officer, in the healthcare industry. Today, she’s making her professional safety mark in higher education, yet remains close to radiation safety research. With infectious enthusiasm, Dr. Orders offers plenty of terrific, practical advice for safety pro colleagues out there. You’ll learn how the presentation of facts and science can break or break the safety training experience, the importance of establishing dialogue and practicing “relationship language” with the workforce, and why tailoring your approach with different audiences is essential for success. You’ll also explore two paradigms of adult education: Problem-Based Learning and Authentic Learning. Also, there’s a great story involving fall protection harnesses and a literal leap of faith off of a 2-story building.