The Accidental Safety Pro

This month’s podcast looks a little different, as Jill was able to sit down with 20 EHS professionals who were attending ASSP’s Annual Safety Conference and Expo. She met with people from many different industries, including construction, pharmaceuticals, and aerospace, as well as an assistant professor, a Ph.D. student, and even the editor in chief of a safety publication. Tune in to discover their favorite part of being a safety professional, advice for other professionals, their EHS heroes, and what the future of EHS looks like to them. Plus, find out how you could have a chance to contribute your own EHS story during an upcoming live podcast recording!

Tune in to learn how there is always something you can bring to the table, why building your network is so important, and how simply listening to those more experienced than you can help in many ways.

Like many of our guests, Dr. Amber Mitchell didn’t start out with the goal of becoming a safety professional. But chance encounters and unique opportunities that presented themselves throughout her career seemed to be pushing her toward that end.

Felix Nater, president and owner of workplace security consulting firm Nater Associates, joins Jill to discuss why preventing workplace violence — not reacting to it — should be our focus.

Safety professionals have done a good job of mitigating physical hazards for as long as occupational safety has been an area of focus. But how do employers go about creating a work environment that is free from psychosocial hazards? Dr. David Daniels joins us in this episode to discuss what, in his view, is the most significant hazard people are exposed to in the workplace.

Even though everyone understands that safety in the workplace is important, it can still be tough for decision-makers to get on board with making necessary, and lasting, changes. It’s easy to conduct an incident investigation and put a fix in place, but what about working to prevent incidents instead of just responding to them? Join Jill as she chats with Carla Davis-Madgett, who stumbled into a 38-year-long career as an EHS professional after recognizing her strengths and personal values; capturing the hearts and minds of leadership in order to create a continuous dialogue.

Fighting the “safety cop” stereotype can be a difficult task. This is especially true if you are trying to build your new career in safety. Nadia uses her natural leadership and relationship-building skills to unite her coworkers for the common good. Nadia Ullah Morin is a QHSE Lead at a water technology manufacturing company, with a background in biology, chemistry, and crude oil quality control testing. Although she may be new to the profession, Nadia shares the skills she learned from day-to-day team building, pushing back on the safety cop mentality, and paving her way to being a true leader in the EHS world. Learn how you can use your soft skills to bring people together and make safety everyone’s job.

How do you manage EHS at a company that produces cannabinoids and other psychedelic drugs to try to help with diseases? Chris Garza walks us through his inspirational story that starts with a very early passion for helping others and the world with his work. He started his career in the lab working on stem cell therapy and moved on to overseeing hazardous material disposal from electrical transformers. Chris is now the EHS Manager for Benuvia Manufacturing with over 13 years of experience, and Principal Consultant for Feather and Mane EHS Consultants.

There are many hats to be worn as a safety professional, and data collector/analyzer is often one of them. Jill sits down with Arianna Howard to better understand how safety data analytics and software systems play a role in the EHS environment. Arianna is a Manager of EHS IT Data Platforms and Digital Software Systems in the electric vehicle manufacturing industry.

Alan Davis, CSP sits down with us to share his story of how he "accidentally wound up in a profession to prevent accidents". His story starts with a farm injury that ruled out a military career before it began, but gave him an opportunity to explore a career in safety. He eventually ended up overseeing safety at sea as the Director of Safety and Compliance at American Seafoods Company. With years of experience in Conducting In-Port and At-Sea Vessel Safety Inspections, including Machine Guarding, Work Practices, OSHA Compliance, Life Safety, and more.