Jill James:

This is the Accidental Safety Pro, brought to you by HSI. My name is Jill James HSI's Chief Safety Officer. This episode was recorded live at the American Society of Safety Professionals Annual Conference 2023. I had the pleasure of asking short form questions to 20 EHS professionals who graciously shared their thoughts on their favorite part of being a safety professional. How they found their profession, advice for other professionals, their success stories, their EHS heroes, and what the future of EHS looks like to them. Dan, welcome to ASSP 2023.

Dan:

Thank you. I'm very happy to be here.

Jill James:

So where in the world are you from, Dan?

Dan:

I'm from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Jill James:

All right.

Dan:

I work for a large heavy oil and gas construction company and just wanted to come down here to start, introduce myself more to the U.S. market for safety as that's where we're venturing.

Jill James:

Wonderful, wonderful. So Dan, what's the best thing about your job?

Dan:

Honestly, I've been with my company for over eight years now, and I have to say it's the people I get to work with aside from the amazing safety program we do have, the people is all the difference in the world. Without great people, you don't have a great organization. And to get that buy-in from all of our leadership teams across all of our projects, across many Canadian provinces, that's just the heart of where I'm at right now today in my safety career, is just helping people form their buy-in and commitment to safety and with great people. That's how we do it.

Jill James:

And to be able to say that you have management buy-in is the holy grail that probably very few people at this conference have. So congratulations on that.

Dan:

Thank you. Exactly. And I can't say enough about the teams we have that work for us to get us to where we're going.

Jill James:

Yeah, wonderful. Thank you for coming on the show, Dan. Appreciate it.

Dan:

Thank you very much for having me. You're welcome.

Jill James:

Well, with me today I have Laynnea Myles from L'Oreal. Laynnea, are you still living in Georgia or did you make it back to New Jersey?

Laynnea Myles:

Hello. I actually made it back to New Jersey.

Jill James:

Back to New Jersey. Laynnea has been a guest on the show before and we are at ASSP together. And so the question for you, Laynnea is what is the best part of your job?

Laynnea Myles:

Oh, my goodness. The best part of my job is really interacting with so many people and it's not the same thing every day. Some people like doing the same thing, but I love the fact that I can do something different. I can speak to so many different people. I can talk to those who are on the shop floor and the labs, and I can also talk to the C-suites and so that's something that I love. And the other thing, `is that I love that I get to bring EHS at home to our employees and talk to them about how can they be safe or even environmentally friendly at home. I love that aspect.

Jill James:

That's wonderful. That's wonderful. And did they bring back stories for you to say, "Hey, I did this with my family?"

Laynnea Myles:

Yes, and honestly I love that aspect about it because it brings that, "Wow, I really had an impact on someone." So I'll tell you this. I remember a time where we had hands on fire extinguisher training where people actually put out fires, real life fires. They actually used a fire extinguisher. So one of our employees said that she learned that, and when she was home, she taught her son. And one time there was a small fire at home and her son said, pass, pass, mom, pass pass.

Jill James:

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

Laynnea Myles:

Yes.

Jill James:

Wow.

Laynnea Myles:

And she said, because of the training, it really helped and it was instilled into her son and it actually helped put out a fire.

Jill James:

What a beautiful story.

Laynnea Myles:

So when she told me that story, I almost teared up. I was like, oh, my goodness and that's the impact.

Jill James:

My work here is done.

Laynnea Myles:

Yes.

Jill James:

That's fantastic.

Laynnea Myles:

Yes. So I love... So that's something, and that's what I love and that's what I really enjoy about it.

Jill James:

Appreciate it. Thank you for coming on the show, Laynnea.

Laynnea Myles:

No problem.

Scott Huberty:

Well, my name is Scott Huberty and I am from Minnesota. I live up in the Minneapolis St. Paul area, and I am involved in safety by way of consulting for a workers' comp insurance program in Minnesota for contractors. So I spend my day providing safety consultation, loss prevention, OSHA compliance help to companies engaged in contracting. And I'm also involved with the Northwest chapter of ASSP.

Jill James:

Of which I'm a member.

Scott Huberty:

Indeed. Good for you. Yes. And that's been a lot of fun as well. It's a wonderful opportunity to get to meet people like you.

Jill James:

Yeah. Wonderful, wonderful. Well, Scott, what is your favorite thing about your job?

Scott Huberty:

The favorite thing about my job, I would say, is the ability to interact with different people. Now, that might sound a little cliche, but it truly is a high point of what I get to do. In my work, I meet all kinds of people, whether they're business owners, to frontline carpenters, construction workers, and the ability to interact with all these different people and influence them in working safely is a real source of satisfaction. I might add too, another great thing about the job is the variety. You see so many different things and you learn about a lot of new things too.

Jill James:

And you've also done your fair share of mentoring because I know a number of EHS people in Minnesota who you have been a resource for over the years so thank you for that too.

Scott Huberty:

Oh, it's a lot of fun.

Jill James:

Yeah, it's good.

Scott Huberty:

Indeed.

Jill James:

Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, Scott.

Scott Huberty:

You're welcome. Glad to be here.

Jill James:

Yeah, thanks.

Victor Garvey:

Hi, my name is Victor Garvey. I'm from the LA area and what brought me to the ASSP here in San Antonio to see the different vendors. I know some vendors that I want to visit like the safety reports and some of the work that they do.

Jill James:

Wonderful, wonderful. And what industry are you in, Victor?

Victor Garvey:

I work for Site Safety and it's a company based in New York, but they have offices and work around the country, some of the LA area and I do generally safety audits and support for construction companies.

Jill James:

Wonderful, wonderful. And what's your favorite part about this job?

Victor Garvey:

The favorite part I like is the flexibility in safety. I work with people in psychology since I have a psychology background and I also have a safety engineering background as well. I like that you work with technology, you work with people.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Victor Garvey:

I like the flexibility. I like the hours.

Jill James:

A good work life balance.

Victor Garvey:

It's great. Yeah, it's a good balance to go to different areas and helping people also. That's generally one reason I wanted to get into it.

Jill James:

Yeah. Wonderful. And how long have you been at this?

Victor Garvey:

I've been doing safety since I had a degree in safety. I went to USC, they had a safety program in 1997, and then it was a new program to me. It was like a second career. And I've had other people help me that were very instrumental in getting work and getting in the safety profession.

Jill James:

Wonderful, wonderful. Well, Victor, thank you so much for stopping by. Appreciate it.

Victor Garvey:

Great. Great. Thank you.

Jill James:

Have a great show.

Tim Hill:

Oh, my name is Tim Hill. I am from McComb, Michigan. I am the EHS manager at Triumph Group, which is an aerospace industry company.

Jill James:

Wow. How many years have you been on EHS?

Tim Hill:

About 13 and a half now.

Jill James:

Congratulations.

Tim Hill:

Thank you.

Jill James:

Yeah. And what's the best thing about your job?

Tim Hill:

Probably, for me, the best thing is just the fact that I'm helping the people that are doing things for us. Keep them safe. They are our number one asset in our company. It's not the equipment, it's not the material or anything like that, it's actually them that are actually doing the job. So for me, that's very rewarding.

Jill James:

It's what gets you out of bed every day.

Tim Hill:

Every day. Yeah. That's the one thing. No matter how bad things might get, I can always look forward to being able to help somebody. And even if it is bad where if they get an injury or something like that, it still allows me to at least assist them and get them back on the mend and back on the job again as quickly as possible.

Jill James:

And caring for people.

Tim Hill:

Yes.

Jill James:

Fantastic.

Tim Hill:

Yes.

Jill James:

Thank you so much, Tim.

Tim Hill:

Thank you.

Jill James:

Appreciate it.

Tim Hill:

I appreciate it.

Jill James:

Thank you. Thank you.

Tim Hill:

Thank you.

Jill James:

Well, welcome to the Accidental Safety Pro. What is your name, where are you from and what is your industry?

Blake Dean:

Hi. Yeah, I'm glad to be here. My name's Blake Dean. I work in the pharmaceutical industry and I'm out of the Austin, Texas area.

Jill James:

Oh, wonderful. Well, thank you. So what is the best thing about your job and how long have you been at it?

Blake Dean:

Yeah, so it's changed, it's morphed in its EHS ways, I guess over the past 25 years is how long I've been doing some type of safety. And to your question, the best thing about my job that's also changed. So early on, it was I get to take care of people and that never changes. I mean, that stays, but as you progress in your career, you get to the point where you learn a lot of pitfalls and you also understand how to traverse a lot of those pitfalls. So you see the younger professionals that are stressed and you see the executives that want something done better, but they don't know how to get there. So the best thing about my job currently is helping the executives understand you can get there, but what that looks like, like EHS needs a seat at the table. You can't say it's just as important as these other groups and not give them that opportunity. And then also help at the site level, the site leads understand what that looks like. I'll use the word preaching safety, not just for your EHS person but themselves talking to their operators about doing the right thing and supporting EHS that way. At the end of the day, EHS cannot force their way into a seat at the table.

Jill James:

And you're helping influence it, however.

Blake Dean:

I hope.

Jill James:

That's what you're doing now.

Blake Dean:

That's my goal.

Jill James:

That's fantastic.

Blake Dean:

Absolutely. I have great leaders, so it's a lot easier.

Jill James:

That's fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing your story.

Blake Dean:

Absolutely.

Jill James:

I appreciate it.

Blake Dean:

Thanks for having me.

Jill James:

Yeah. Welcome to ASSP. Who in the world are you and where are you from?

Matt Miller:

My name is Matt Miller. I'm from Austin, and I work for TPR Construction locally, and I've been in health and safety probably for about seven years now.

Jill James:

Wow.

Matt Miller:

I've been in construction almost a little over 25 years.

Jill James:

Okay. Well, what advice do you have for new EHS people?

Matt Miller:

I would say the number one thing is read as much as possible on anything regarding environmental health and safety. Latch yourself onto mentors to learn as much as you can. And I would say one valuable thing is whenever possible, keep your ears and eyes open as much as possible. That's what I tell my kids when I'm talking. What's the number one rule? Mouth shut, ears and eyes open. That's the number one way you're going to learn as much as you possibly can to soak it all in.

Jill James:

You mentioned reading. What are you reading now or what are some of your favorite things if people want to know?

Matt Miller:

I mean, I think when you read anything. I'd say more than just EHS.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Matt Miller:

Read something that has to do with more connecting with people like how to have conversations.

Jill James:

Yes.

Matt Miller:

How to be a leader, how to be a better listener, things like that.

Jill James:

Yeah. Not just the technical safety things.

Matt Miller:

I think the technical safety stuff will come in time. It's based on what your company, they have recommendations, recommended reading. There's all kinds of stuff you can look up on Google and find out what those recommended readings are. But once you start to have more connectivity with people, the ability for you to learn and latch onto those is going to be a lot easier to grasp. So just learning that intuition, learning when to step back, when to press-

Jill James:

How to people.

Matt Miller:

Things like that. So having the human interaction is going to be much easier for you to learn and grow. I had to learn by the hard way, not doing that in the beginning of my construction career. But as I learned that more, I realized that when you speak, having that emotional intelligence is going to want to have people be more engaged with you, and at the same time, you're going to learn from them.

Jill James:

That's wonderful.

Matt Miller:

That's the number one piece of advice I'd give so.

Jill James:

That's wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Matt Miller:

You're welcome.

Jill James:

Thank you.

Regina McMichael:

Hi. I am Regina McMichael sometimes called the safety training ninja.

Jill James:

Yeah. You are the safety training ninja, and you've also been a guest on the podcast before, so thank you for coming back.

Regina McMichael:

You're very welcome.

Jill James:

So tell me, what advice do you have for a new EHS pro?

Regina McMichael:

It's funny, I've been doing a lot of stuff with people lately, and I think the advice is it's never going to be perfect. You can't be perfect. You have to be ready to start bending. And what I'm finding is that people don't grow the confidence in the profession until they've had maybe 10 or 15 years and then they're ready to say, "Okay, I'm not going to battle on that today."

Jill James:

Yeah.

Regina McMichael:

"Okay. I can Bandaid this problem today and do something else." Whereas when you first come out of school, you first enter the industry, you're literally paralyzed with fear.

Jill James:

With so many things.

Regina McMichael:

I must save their life.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Regina McMichael:

I must do it the right way.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Regina McMichael:

And we need to tell these folks that, learn your business, get your confidence, but know that one day it's going to be okay for you to say, "I can't be perfect."

Jill James:

So the advice is you're not going to be perfect overnight.

Regina McMichael:

Yep, yep.

Jill James:

I'm 29 years into it. How many years are you into it?

Regina McMichael:

Thirty-two.

Jill James:

Yeah. And do we have it perfected yet?

Regina McMichael:

Not even a little.

Jill James:

Me either. Me either. Thank you, Regina. I appreciate you being a guest.

Regina McMichael:

Thank you.

Jill James:

Anthony. Welcome to the Accidental Safety Pro.

Anthony:

Thanks.

Jill James:

Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?

Anthony:

I am from Wisconsin. Been in safety basically my whole career, 23 years now at U.S. Compliance, just working in service, product development, and now last couple years working in business development, primarily with larger partners of ours and corporate accounts.

Jill James:

Wonderful.

Anthony:

I think probably the one that jumps out at me the most when I first started, I got the opportunity to service a couple plants that were probably a little bit out of my league we'll just say. So they were assigned to me and I showed up, best foot forward, and I met my contact and my contact was MacGyver. His name was John. And he was in a facility in Buffalo, New York. And I, obviously, traveled out there and we hit it off good to start but, obviously, when you're a service person and you're in there to do a job, you have agendas, you got to stick to the agenda. So I had training plan, and my training I think was lockout or some generic boilerplate we have to train our employees. So I set up like I normally would like I was trained everybody to classroom. I get my PowerPoint. PowerPoints are boring, by the way. And I did my training and at the end I thought I did a good job because I prepped. I kind of knew the operation because I've worked in similar plant. Anyways, he comes up and says, "That wasn't very good."

Jill James:

Oh, dang.

Anthony:

So yeah, so it's kind of taken back a little bit. And I said, "Well, how would you have done it?" He goes, "Well, how can you possibly train somebody on lockout tag out if you're not actually at a piece of equipment or machine that you lock and tag out?"

Jill James:

Okay.

Anthony:

So probably 22 years old when this happened to me. And I was just like, "All right, well I got to redo this somehow. I'll rethink how I go about it." So ironically, or coincidentally, you should say, I was at a safety conference that same year, and it was somebody in one of the meetings upstairs explained their method of training and they used the concept tell, show, do, test. I don't know if anybody's heard that before.

Jill James:

I have.

Anthony:

Okay.

Jill James:

And a guest on the podcast has talked about it. And I wonder if it's the same person.

Anthony:

Maybe. I don't know who the individual was. I was in a class. I took a picture on my very first version, iPhone or Blackberry, and I still have it. And certain trainings I still do in classroom, obviously, but the ones that I feel like I have the most impact is the way John wanted me to do was go out on the floor and create a model for telling them, showing them, you doing it or telling them, showing them how to do it, have them do it, and then figure out a way to validate or test. If you think about any topic, lockout, forklift, fall protection, ladders, it's all that.

Jill James:

Tell, show, do, test.

Anthony:

Yeah. There's probably a couple different ways to swing it, but that was the one thing that stood out to me is like John saying, "Yeah, training was terrible." And then seeing somebody kind of say, "Hey, it's simpler than we're making it."

Jill James:

So he influenced your career.

Anthony:

Oh yeah, definitely. Because now I think about that whenever I have a training, I'm like, "Well, I know I got to do a big classroom, but let's find those authorized people that's just going to impact the most and get them out to where the fire is."

Jill James:

That's wonderful.

Anthony:

So that was probably the thing that changed how I approached training. And then when you're in service, I started doing that everywhere. And I think it helped move me along in my professional career and gave me a different trajectory amongst my peers because I was willing to go get messy and comfortable, get uncomfortable kind of a situation.

Jill James:

That's right. That's our career. Oh, thank you.

Anthony:

That was my big kind of aha moment, I guess.

Jill James:

That's great advice. Thank you. And thank you for coming on the show.

Anthony:

No problem. Thanks for having me on.

Jill James:

You're welcome.

Anthony:

Have a great show.

Angel Romero:

My name is Angel Romero and I'm with construction, well I'm in the construction industry in California.

Jill James:

In California. Well, welcome Angel.

Angel Romero:

Thank you.

Jill James:

Thanks for being on the show.

Angel Romero:

Thank you for having me.

Jill James:

So what advice do you have for a new EHS professional?

Angel Romero:

Advice I would have for new EHS professionals would be look for a mentor.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Angel Romero:

I think a good mentor, somebody that you could trust, somebody that you could communicate and have that two-way dialogue I think it's very important and crucial. I say this because of my experience. I know when I started 20 years ago, not knowing the industry and having that experience, one of the things I did was look for mentors. And I've found some good people out there. There's a lot of good people that are going be able to help you out and help you with questions and the profession and where to go out and get experience, service, resources. But once you gain that trust and you become knowledgeable and experienced within your trade, I think it's also good to give back as well. Yeah.

Jill James:

So are you mentoring people now?

Angel Romero:

Yes, I am.

Jill James:

You are?

Angel Romero:

And that's why I attend conferences and always try to advance my career so I could help out and mentor those that I'm mentoring.

Jill James:

Oh, that's fantastic. And do you still have a mentor yourself?

Angel Romero:

Yes. Oh, definitely.

Jill James:

You do?

Angel Romero:

I have three mentors.

Jill James:

Oh, that's fantastic.

Angel Romero:

One professionally, one in safety, and one overall that-

Jill James:

For life.

Angel Romero:

Yes. Yes.

Jill James:

That's fantastic.

Angel Romero:

So it's always good. It's always to have mentors. I think one of the things, it's not get in a position where you think you know it all.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Angel Romero:

I think that having a mentor where you could rely on and it's very knowledgeable. I think it's very important. Crucial.

Jill James:

Certainly is. Well, thank you so much for your perspective, Angel. I appreciate it.

Angel Romero:

Thank you very much.

Jill James:

And thank you for mentoring.

Angel Romero:

Thank you. It was pleasure.

Jill James:

Well, I have with me right now, Chris Garza with Feather and Maine. Chris was a guest on the podcast previously, episode number 99, and he's back here at ASSP. Welcome.

Chris Garza:

Thank you. Thank you for having me in your spot again.

Jill James:

Yeah. This is so fun. So question for you. What advice do you have for new EHS professionals?

Chris Garza:

So I recently took a bunch of training through an OSHA outreach center. The one that I used was University of Texas at Arlington.

Jill James:

Okay.

Chris Garza:

They have a huge OSHA training log that you can take. If you're in general industry, you take a, it's called an OSHA 511 class. If you're in construction, a 510, and you get to meet people in that class that are already so experienced and they have just a wealth of information to give you, and at the same time, you learn the basics of just reading the regs, finding the regs that you need and applying it to what you are doing.

Jill James:

How to interpret them.

Chris Garza:

And so somebody brand new doing this, I would've killed to have that information when I first started out.

Jill James:

So did you spend a week at an OSHA training center, or how did you do it?

Chris Garza:

So I was actually able to do it online at nighttime.

Jill James:

Wow, okay.

Chris Garza:

It was eight days of training.

Jill James:

Okay.

Chris Garza:

6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. It's kind of rough to do after your full day at work, but I really didn't get that sleepy at it because like I said it was enlightening. It was great to get all that experience and I applied it right away.

Jill James:

Fantastic. So for the listeners who haven't heard of the OSHA Training Institute training centers, they're geographically distributed around the United States. You live in Texas, you have one here in Texas. I've attended the one in Chicago and anyone who's listening can just type in OSHA Training Institute and be able to find the one that's closest to them. And I guess the new news is that you can do the classes online or in person.

Chris Garza:

Yeah.

Jill James:

Did you have the option to do in person too?

Chris Garza:

You do. And their trainers are so experienced and they will offer some at nighttime online.

Jill James:

Okay.

Chris Garza:

They'll offer some during the daytime online. The daytime ones are usually only four days. And then you can go to an actual training center and get it in person as well.

Jill James:

Fantastic. Great news for a new safety professional.

Chris Garza:

Yeah.

Jill James:

Thank you Chris. Appreciate it.

Chris Garza:

Thank you.

Jill James:

Well, welcome to the Accidental Safety Pro. Tell us your name and where are you from and what's your industry?

Matt Schaffer:

My name's Matt Shaffer. I am from just west of Cleveland, Ohio and our industry is photonics. We grow crystals and make crystals for the varying amount of industries, including medical.

Jill James:

Wow. Interesting. So Matt, you mentioned to me before we started recording, you've been at this 30 years. How did you get into the profession?

Matt Schaffer:

Well, it's an interesting story in that I was working in manufacturing at the time. I was a 19-year-old kid working in an asphalt roofing manufacturing plant. And one day we had a really bad palletizer accident where a guy almost lost his hand. And so I had heard through the grapevine that they were going to be hiring, for the first time, a safety supervisor. And at the time, I was very interested in that because I didn't want to be working in a factory my whole life and so the HR manager started the hiring process of looking at candidates and we all thought this one person was going to be a shoe-in for the position because he had worked as a procedure writer for the company for years. But that was a union job and this was a union shop. So I went in to the HR manager's office. I said, "Listen, I don't know anything there is to know about health and safety, but I'll learn everything there is to know if you look at me." And so I did get the job, and one of the reasons I didn't get the job, or I did get the job is because the guy who'd been with the company for 30 years didn't want it because it was a management position. So from the union perspective. So I was very lucky in that I got that opportunity to start in health and safety. And you got to thank places like the BWC at the time, Ohio BWC, because there were just a ton of courses then where you could just learn for free and it didn't cost you anything and that was a great opportunity and-

Jill James:

Through the state run insurance program you're talking about.

Matt Schaffer:

What's that?

Jill James:

Through the state run insurance program you're talking about where you got your education.

Matt Schaffer:

Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

Jill James:

Yes. Wonderful.

Matt Schaffer:

And that it gave me an opportunity to get started and figure out how to learn things. And, obviously, 30 years of trial and error, you're still learning.

Jill James:

That's fantastic because we don't know it all.

Matt Schaffer:

That's exactly right.

Jill James:

That's right. Well, Matt, thank you so much for sharing your story. I appreciate it.

Matt Schaffer:

Thank you. Take care.

Hannah Stahl:

My name is Hannah Stahl. I grew up in Denmark and I am now a safety manager under the Compass Group under ESFM.

Jill James:

Well, wonderful. Tell me about how you got into this profession.

Hannah Stahl:

I was living in North Carolina and the local fire chief came and asked if I could help with paperwork. And within the next couple of weeks I got a pager and I started responding to fire calls and that was my introduction to safety and helping others.

Jill James:

What happened after that? I mean, that's quite the introduction.

Hannah Stahl:

Yeah. I really got involved with the whole fire service. I became an instructor, I became a CPR instructor. I worked for the Forest Service. I became an EMT and just really enjoyed helping people and took me to new opportunities within the world of safety.

Jill James:

And how many years now?

Hannah Stahl:

That was back in the early nineties. I'm got my CSP certification. I'm working on my masters in occupational health and safety, so...

Jill James:

Congratulations.

Hannah Stahl:

Basically, safety is everything that I do.

Jill James:

That's wonderful. And what brought you to ASSP?

Hannah Stahl:

I was in Chicago last year and had a great time at the conference, so want to continue learning and seeing what's new on the market and seeing what I can bring home to the team.

Jill James:

Wonderful. Well, thank you for sharing your story.

Hannah Stahl:

Thank you much.

Jill James:

Appreciate it.

Hannah Stahl:

Thank you.

Jay Kumar:

Jay Kumar, Editor in Chief of EHS Daily Advisor.

Jill James:

Wonderful. Jay, how did you get into that work?

Jay Kumar:

Well, I started out as a journalist working at newspapers back in the nineties and kind of burned out on that and started writing for a company that did healthcare accreditation and safety publications, and did that for over 20 years. And then a couple of years ago, same company also owns EHS Daily Advisor and kind of an opening came up and I thought it'd be a cool challenge so I've been doing this for a couple of years now, writing about EHS.

Jill James:

Yeah. What has fascinated you most about the profession?

Jay Kumar:

Just like the scope of it. I mean, it covers so many. I mean, it's every industry, right? So even though some of the topics are similar to what I was writing about in healthcare, I mean, there's just so much to learn from talking to people. And one of the things I do is like you, I do a podcast called DHS on Tap and know-

Jill James:

And I've been a guest on it.

Jay Kumar:

You have been a guest.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Jay Kumar:

Every week it's something totally different so it's exciting.

Jill James:

Yeah. Wonderful. Well, thank you. And thank you for your contribution toward the profession.

Jay Kumar:

Oh, thank you.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Victoria Ballard:

My name is Victoria Ballard. I'm an Auburn University Ph.D. student, and I'm studying industrial and safety and, excuse me, industrial and systems engineering with occupational and safety and ergonomics specialty.

Jill James:

Oh, my gosh.

Victoria Ballard:

And I'm here at the ASSP conference with five of my colleagues who are also doctoral students.

Jill James:

Oh, my gosh.

Victoria Ballard:

Many of us, this is our first time at the conference.

Jill James:

Holy cats. That's so exciting. So what are your undergrad, what are your other degrees in that led you into doing this?

Victoria Ballard:

Yes, absolutely.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Victoria Ballard:

So I have a Bachelor's of chemical Engineering from University of Washington, specializing in systems engineering and biosystems, and a master of engineering, a civil engineering environmental specialized water resources management from the University of Washington as well.

Jill James:

Okay.

Victoria Ballard:

But finding my way to Auburn has been kind of a wind and long path and really, interestingly, when I speak about safety and how it's kind of filtered through my entire life. I've had a number of different roles as a military spouse, as a wife, as an engineer, that have all really found safety as an integral part of that as everything from a Girl Scout leader, a school volunteer. And I've run two of my own businesses, one of them being extremely safety oriented as a horsemanship lesson business.

Jill James:

Very safety oriented.

Victoria Ballard:

I ran a ranch which is critical to keep your clientele from being killed by 2000 pound animal. And so really, interestingly, just tying the engineering and the safety together in a way that optimizes the experience of the person in a way that they don't even realize that the safety's in there and that you're having that optimum experience in a safe manner. But once my husband was retired from the Air Force, I was able to continue my education, which brought me to Auburn University for my doctoral program.

Jill James:

Oh, my gosh.

Victoria Ballard:

And I was able to find funding through the NIOSH fellowship program.

Jill James:

Really? Yeah. Talk about that for people who are listening.

Victoria Ballard:

Yeah. They're a deep south center. And so for U.S. citizens, they have a fully funded masters and/or doctoral program that you get your tuition waived and you get a semester stipend and even travel funds to come to conferences such as ASSP.

Jill James:

Oh, my gosh.

Victoria Ballard:

That you get it fully paid for.

Jill James:

All through NIOSH.

Victoria Ballard:

All through NIOSH, and those benefits. And you take their program classes and they have everything from safety, economics, human factors. I've even taken psychology classes that are related to the health arena, which a number of the sessions I've been to this week have been on mental health and safety.

Jill James:

Yes, they have.

Victoria Ballard:

And it's so important and it's really tied everything into my education.

Jill James:

Oh, my gosh. You have a unique trifecta with your background. What do you hope to do?

Victoria Ballard:

I am really open to a lot of different options. I haven't really narrowed down. I am open to staying in academia and furthering my love of safety and excitement for that with future students and continuing research. But also I really love my manufacturing background and the possibility of being able to make a difference for workers in manufacturing. And so I'm really open to whatever, whatever God brings me in my life.

Jill James:

Fantastic. So what do you think of your first ASSP.

Victoria Ballard:

Right now? Yeah, like third day in, I'm kind of tired.

Jill James:

Your feet are a little sore.

Victoria Ballard:

Yes. My feet are a little sore. There's just so many amazing people. It's like this really big family. I've met so many people that it seemed like they're just friends. Immediately we have this unique connection of a love of people, love of safety that I've been able to network with and share our story. I love that keynote. The first day that we had talking about sharing that story of the day.

Jill James:

The power of the story.

Victoria Ballard:

Practice. I've been practicing that and really managed to make some deep connections with a number of different professionals and it's been very rewarding. But then the sessions too have really spoken to what I personally needed in looking at what my dissertation is going to be about and being able to really get some deeper understanding of some of those topics. So it's been very worthwhile.

Jill James:

Have you decided on your dissertation yet?

Victoria Ballard:

I have collected a little bit of data so far, and I'm going to be looking at how the worker is affected by technology. Like manufacturing workers are affected by technology that we may have good intentions of implementing in their line, but there may be unintended consequences on their cognitive load and their mental health and their performance and quality that also affects their safety.

Jill James:

Fantastic.

Victoria Ballard:

And so especially if they have neurodiversity such as ADHD symptoms. So we're using a self-report scale of symptoms where they highlight what symptoms they experience themselves, and we're going to be comparing ADHD workers with non ADHD symptom workers and see what those differences are.

Jill James:

Sounds like a fascinating dissertation.

Victoria Ballard:

Thank you.

Jill James:

You'll be presenting at ASSP soon.

Victoria Ballard:

Oh, I hope so. That would be great.

Jill James:

Good luck with your career. Good luck with your education, and thank you so much for being here.

Victoria Ballard:

And thank you for inviting me. It is an honor.

Jill James:

You're welcome.

Victoria Ballard:

Thank you so much.

Jill James:

You're welcome. Well, old friend, tell us your name and where you're from?

Todd Loushine:

I am Todd Loushine, and I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and I'm also the Region 5 VP for ASSP.

Jill James:

Fantastic. What is your favorite success story you'd like to share today?

Todd Loushine:

Well, I like to practice safety from the basis of work. And I was in charge of, or overseeing seven different long-term care facilities in Wisconsin, and one of them had skyrocketed incident rates. We're talking to the tune of 80, if you've ever heard of that. So eight out of 10 people were getting reportable injuries each year. And what I proposed is, and I got a grant for this, is I studied the worker's perception, supervisor's perception. and management's perception, and triangulated what they believed was expected for work. And because I felt that the bigger the discrepancy, the greater the chance for injury. And what it came down to is that the supervisors did not have enough time to assist workers and actually be there for them because management was requiring them to fill out so much paperwork that they weren't taking breaks, they were skipping lunch, they were working long. What I did is I redesigned the reporting system to check boxes and they went from 50, 55 minutes per hour filling them out to only 15 to 20 per hour.

Jill James:

Wow.

Todd Loushine:

Allowing them to spend that extra time out on the floor, assisting incidence rates dropped from those eighties per year down into the teens.

Jill James:

That is fantastic.

Todd Loushine:

We made it so that they weren't forced to meet a certain schedule as well so that the workers could dictate when a patient or client needed more time because they were getting bit, kicked, scratched, because they were rushing to meet to schedule. So those two little job design changes made a big difference.

Jill James:

That's a fantastic success story. Thank you, Todd.

Todd Loushine:

Welcome.

Jill James:

Well, tell me your name please, and where you're from and what industry do you represent?

Melissa Roachford:

My name is Melissa Roachford. I'm originally from Barbados, but I currently live in Houston, Texas, and I do facility management industry.

Jill James:

And who is your EHS hero?

Melissa Roachford:

My dad.

Jill James:

Whoa.

Melissa Roachford:

He was a HSC pro.

Jill James:

Really.

Melissa Roachford:

I actually kind of fell in to safety, but growing up with him and helping him with his PowerPoints and just helping and seeing how his interaction with people and how people responded to him. And he was a people person and then at home and always hearing him telling me, don't do that. Why are you doing that?

Jill James:

Yeah.

Melissa Roachford:

That's not safe.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Melissa Roachford:

Well, it was just ingrained in me because he loved what he did and he took it with him everywhere and it just stuck with me. And then when I kind of fell into it in college, then it was like we actually, I understood his language finally so it kind of...

Jill James:

And you were kind of aware of it because of your dad's?

Melissa Roachford:

Yeah.

Jill James:

Okay. When you went to college?

Melissa Roachford:

Oh, my dad. And then it was funny, it made my classes a lot easier because my mom's like, "Are you cracking your book open at all?" I'm like, "Not really."

Jill James:

Just interviewing dad when I get home.

Melissa Roachford:

Yeah. Basically. And some of the topics in class seems so much easier because now it's like, "Oh, it made sense what he was talking about." So it was like that. And so now, and I remember when I first started working any issues or any situations, I'm sitting there picking his brain and I never realized how much and how important that was until he passed away. And I'm like, "Man, I kind of miss that phone call or that insight of his experience." So I kind of made it a lot easier than having to struggle. And then especially as a female in HSC. Where its predominantly male oriented, having his perspective and his suggestions on ways to deal with things and how to circumvent a lot of those difficulties as a female, it did make my start a lot easier. It was still challenging, but it wasn't as difficult. I had some of my counterparts say, because I could go home and vent and I [inaudible 00:37:16]

Jill James:

Somebody to talk.

Melissa Roachford:

His point of view and how he had to deal with stuff in manufacturing and some of the difficulties he had even as a male in HSC and how he kind of traversed it so it kind of helped me better traverse it.

Jill James:

And he worked in the manufacturing.

Melissa Roachford:

Manufacturing plants and he started off in the government in Barbados doing safety for them.

Jill James:

Wow.

Melissa Roachford:

And back then safety wasn't that important in the Caribbean. So after he retired, he started doing a consulting business, and so he was actually helping the turnaround in the Caribbean of getting safety and health and ergonomics and all that stuff implemented. So before he passed away, that's what he was doing. He would go do consulting and help governments and different private entities evaluate their systems and give suggestions. And I would kind of help him with a lot of that data and how to do all of that stuff.

Jill James:

So you helped with your dad's legacy?

Melissa Roachford:

Yeah. I worked at home and at work, so it was like I never got away from it.

Jill James:

That's a great story.

Melissa Roachford:

It's so cool.

Jill James:

You are the second guest we've ever had on the podcast in over a hundred episodes whose parent was also an EHS expert, and then their child became.

Melissa Roachford:

Oh, wow.

Jill James:

And so you're the second one. We'll have to line you up with the episode with Chevon and her mom, Deborah.

Melissa Roachford:

Oh, That's pretty cool.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Melissa Roachford:

And you don't hear that very, everybody's shocked when they hear that, and I'm like, really? I don't even think about it that much. And everybody was like-

Jill James:

You're rare.

Melissa Roachford:

Yeah. They're like, you followed your dad. I'm like, no, no, no. I did not follow my dad. I honestly don't know how I ended up here but I like it.

Jill James:

That's wonderful. It's a good career. Thank you so much for sharing your story.

Melissa Roachford:

Thank you. You have a great one.

Jill James:

Yeah. Thanks.

Matt Thompson:

My name's Matt Thompson. I'm the Executive Director of Occupational Safety and Health for Wellstar Health System. We're based in Marietta, Georgia, but I live in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Jill James:

Well, welcome to Texas and ASSP.

Matt Thompson:

Great. Thanks for having me.

Jill James:

Yeah, so question for you is, what do you believe the future is for EHS?

Matt Thompson:

Well, that's a good question. I think that the future of EHS can be very bright, but I think that the biggest thing in my eyes is the use of artificial intelligence or AI technology to improve anywhere from ergonomics to just automating inspections and using the functionality of that for providing feedback to our workers in real time about how to maybe address workplace safety hazards and exposures versus having to come to someone like myself or our team at the hospitals, they could just use their phone and say, what should I do in this situation? I think that would be, that'd be huge for us.

Jill James:

Are you using any AI now?

Matt Thompson:

Not in the area of occupational safety and health. We do use AI though in a number of different ways throughout our hospital system, but not currently in EHS. So there's definitely an opportunity there.

Jill James:

Well, it sounds hopeful and good.

Matt Thompson:

Absolutely.

Jill James:

Yeah. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Matt Thompson:

All right. Thank you.

Jill James:

Yeah, you're welcome. We hope you enjoyed the special episode of the Accidental Safety Pro, Live from ASSP 2023. If you're interested in sharing your story, we'll be doing another live recording event at the National Safety Congress and Expo on October 23rd and 24th. Mark your calendar and be sure to stop by our booth number 4339 for an opportunity to share your story. As always, thank you for listening today. And more importantly, thank you for your contribution toward the common good, making sure your workers, including your temporary workers, make it home safe every day. If you aren't subscribed and want to hear past and future episodes, you can subscribe in iTunes, the Apple Podcast app, or any other podcast player you'd like. We'd love it if you could leave a rating and review the show. It helps us connect the show with more and more EHS professionals. Special thanks to Emily Gould, our podcast producer, and until next time, thanks for listening.