119: Live From ASSP Safety 2024

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 is recorded live at the 2024 American Society of Safety Professionals Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado. I had the pleasure of asking short form questions to several 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 and their success stories, and what the future of EHS looks like to them. Enjoy. Well, what is your name and where are you from?

Dwayne Reeds:

My name is Dwayne Reeds. I am from Lebanon, Tennessee. I'm in the corrugated business as an EHS manager.

Jill James:

Wonderful. How long have you been in this industry?

Dwayne Reeds:

In corrugated, I've only been in six months, but I have been in the safety going on six years.

Jill James:

Wonderful. Is this your first time at ASSP or have you been here before?

Dwayne Reeds:

My very first time at it.

Jill James:

Well, welcome to the show. That's wonderful. How are you enjoying it so far?

Dwayne Reeds:

I'm enjoying it by things, but I get to know vendors.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Dwayne Reeds:

The only conference I've been to before this, I've been to another one. I can't remember the name, but I did go to the Tennessee OSHA Congress a couple times. So this is way bigger than that.

Jill James:

Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is the biggest ever, in fact.

Dwayne Reeds:

Yeah.

Jill James:

The biggest ever, in fact. So how did you get into the EHS profession?

Dwayne Reeds:

Well, I originally didn't really think that I would be in safety. So I served four years in the military. I was stationed at Fort Campbell-

Jill James:

Which branch?

Dwayne Reeds:

Army, so No Slack Battalion. So I did one tour with them, got out, went to school and got an associate's in electronic engineering because I thought that's what I wanted to do. So was working on automated guided vehicles, position of safety came open. Before that, I did a little bit of construction safety when I was doing fire alarm systems and security systems and things like that. So I was always interested in safety, but never thought that I would be where I'm at now. But position open, I didn't get it the first time and something happened where they ended up offering me a year later the job. So it was a struggle because I wasn't given much in the beginning, so I had to learn a lot.

Jill James:

Yeah. On your own.

Dwayne Reeds:

Yes. So getting into the process, ended up two or three years later, a mentor of mine, she ended up being my boss. She talked me into going to school.

Jill James:

Okay.

Dwayne Reeds:

So I ended up going to EKU and graduating with my bachelor's last December summa cum laude.

Jill James:

Fabulous. And EKU is University of Kentucky?

Dwayne Reeds:

University-

Jill James:

Okay.

Dwayne Reeds:

So, Eastern Kentucky University.

Jill James:

Eastern Kentucky. Okay. Got it.

Dwayne Reeds:

Yes.

Jill James:

Got it. I think these are good things to share with people on the podcast because not every university has a safety program. So you should shout out your program.

Dwayne Reeds:

Eastern Kentucky University has a fantastic online program.

Jill James:

Okay.

Dwayne Reeds:

All the instructors are great. They teach you in a way you can understand even from people that's never done safety before. I was previously in the field, so I got to learn, but I also made it a way to teach people things that we learned through the case, through the weekly journals that we have to do. I can't really think of the name, but that's what.

Jill James:

Yeah. Sure. Sure.

Dwayne Reeds:

So it was a big achievement to do.

Jill James:

It's a huge achievement.

Dwayne Reeds:

Yes.

Jill James:

And then you landed your first job post-degree.

Dwayne Reeds:

Post-degree, yes.

Jill James:

Wonderful.

Dwayne Reeds:

Well, while I was working before I got my degree, I was able to work for Tennessee OSHA for a little while. So I got to do a lot of my internships through Tennessee OSHA and was given the opportunity to-

Jill James:

Fabulous.

Dwayne Reeds:

... Update their training programs for their koshas-

Jill James:

Wonderful.

Dwayne Reeds:

... So that was Kayla Bailey. She was really good to me and taught me a lot on the way with IH.

Jill James:

That's another good tip for our listeners when they're looking for internships out of school is to go to the OSHA program or you state OSHA programs. That's wonderful.

Dwayne Reeds:

Yes.

Jill James:

Wonderful. Wonderful.

Dwayne Reeds:

There's some great people in Tennessee OSHA.

Jill James:

Yeah. Good.

Dwayne Reeds:

Erin Pitts, also another supervisor, but mine was Kayla Bailey, and she recently got promoted to manager, area manager. So she's really good at what she does.

Jill James:

That's wonderful. That's wonderful.

Dwayne Reeds:

So after I graduate in December, I was able to get a job back in the private sector-

Jill James:

Private sector.

Dwayne Reeds:

... Private sector. So, that's where I'm at now, and that's how I got into the corrugated field. The job that I'm working now, their support and safety from corporate down is, it's one of the best, if not the best. So-

Jill James:

A great experience.

Dwayne Reeds:

... They really care about their people.

Jill James:

Yeah, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. Well, welcome to the profession formally.

Dwayne Reeds:

Thank you.

Jill James:

Yeah, and welcome to ASSP.

Dwayne Reeds:

Thank you.

Jill James:

Thank you for coming.

Dwayne Reeds:

I'm glad to be here.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Dwayne Reeds:

Glad to be here.

Jill James:

Thank you.

Dwayne Reeds:

Thank you.

Zach:

My name is Zach and I have worked in safety for going on six years. Well, I started in school in engineering, realized math was too hard for me. I didn't want to put as much effort into math, I guess. I had a professor kind of track me down and talk to me about safety, and I've always loved construction and pushed me into the safety world. Then yeah, so here I am.

Jill James:

Nice. So what's the best thing about your job?

Zach:

Honestly, all the cool people I get to work with. I think the company I work for is great. Everybody's pretty close. Door's always open, I don't know, helping others. I mean, safety in general, we're all here for a common goal. So actually I got in the safety profession by accident, of course. I started my career as a firefighter right out of college and loved the fire service. And unfortunately one day I was injured in the line of duty when a coworker broke a simple safety rule and actually ended up breaking 16 bones at the same time and had to retire from the fire service. My father owned a construction company, so I went to work for him just as something to do. And being in construction as a firefighter, construction safety, I started seeing how many people get hurt, how many simple safety rules are hurting other people just like it did me. And I started chasing safety myself and kind of made it my mission to keep people from getting hurt the same way I did. So it was a bit of a, I guess, coming at it from the victim side, I guess.

Jill James:

Yeah.

Zach:

So I actually started out in training. I was just doing new employee orientations, new employee training, training them how to work in our warehouse just with their job functions. And my manager reached out to me one day and said, hey, I need somebody that can take over the forklift program. It was just kind of in disarray, no documentation, anything like that. And that's really where it started. I jumped in, I had just a smidge of experience with forklifts, but then just went to the training, went to the train the trainer training, and that's just kind of where my career took off. A couple years later, I moved into an actual safety role and have gone from there.

Jill James:

Well, welcome to the Accidental Safety Pro podcast.

Theodore Krieg:

Thanks for having me here.

Jill James:

You're welcome. What is your name, your industry, and where on this planet are you from?

Theodore Krieg:

So my name is Theodore Krieg and I work at Huntsman Polyurethanes. I personally live up in Wisconsin, Delavan, but my facility that I work at is in Ringwood, Illinois.

Jill James:

That's great. And you and I share an accent and we also share a friend in Dr. Todd Lushy.

Theodore Krieg:

Yes, he is awesome. He is one of my favorite safety professional people that I've ever met.

Jill James:

And are you a product of his teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Theodore Krieg:

Yep. He was one of my professors and I look very highly of him.

Jill James:

That's great. Thank you. Thank you. So what advice do you have for EHS professionals for someone new starting out?

Theodore Krieg:

So one of the things that I think I really struggled on when I first got in to, I mean, just entering real life, was the fact that I didn't really have any form of mentor to help guide me on which decisions to make or how to go about different situations, how to help change culture. So I think that was one of the things that really, really made getting into this career very difficult for me in the beginning. But I look back at it and I wish that I had had a very good mentor right off the bat. Over time, I definitely have found amazing mentors such as my current boss, Scott Bolden. But I think that would've helped me right out of the career to really get me to also enjoy it more because then it would've made it a little bit easier.

Jill James:

It's a hard grind if you do it, and many of us do it alone.

Theodore Krieg:

Yep. And I'm a firm believer that mentors are literally the best and greatest cheat code of life. You can always read a book on a specific topic. But if you actually have somebody in your contacts that you're able to actually talk to that has real life experiences with those, I believe that they're able to help you a lot more than what you're able to just read off of the internet or anything like that.

Jill James:

That's true. That's true. And mentors can be within our profession, and they can also be people who are not in our profession.

Theodore Krieg:

Absolutely.

Jill James:

Like your boss right now.

Theodore Krieg:

Yep.

Jill James:

Right?

Theodore Krieg:

Yep.

Jill James:

Yeah. Yeah. That's fabulous. Some people will say they have a personal board of directors and it can be a collection of mentors for different aspects of life. Good advice, Ted.

Theodore Krieg:

Thank you very much.

Jill James:

Thank you and thanks for coming, and thanks for coming to the show.

Jason Lucas:

Well, hello, I am Jason Lucas. I am currently the HSE director of North Shore Steel, and formerly a podcast host and partner of the Safety Justice League.

Jill James:

Wonderful. And you are also an alum of the-

Jason Lucas:

I Am.

Jill James:

... Safety Pro podcast.

Jason Lucas:

Yeah. Absolutely. It was my very first podcast that I was able to ever be on, which kind of started a whole journey of podcasting.

Jill James:

That's wonderful. This podcast is six-years-old.

Jason Lucas:

Oh, wow.

Jill James:

And you might have been in, I don't know, year two.

Jason Lucas:

If even year two, yeah.

Jill James:

Well, thank you for coming you back.

Jason Lucas:

Oh, absolutely.

Jill James:

How's the show going for you?

Jason Lucas:

So far, it has been absolutely amazing. Really enjoying getting a chance. It is like a safety family reunion. You get to come back and meet up with everybody, you just start conversations that you ended a year ago. So it's always been amazing.

Jill James:

It's wonderful. And what question would you like to ... What would you like talk about?

Jason Lucas:

You know what, I think I want to talk about what advice I have for any new EHS professional.

Jill James:

And we see their faces walking around here, so what would you tell them?

Jason Lucas:

There are so many, and this has been the first year where I'm really kind of in a mentoring feel. I've been doing it for a long time, but I've never really felt like a mentor. So advice that I would give to a new EHS professional is do not lose the caring that you have for people. You got into safety for a reason, whether it was accidentally like me or whether it was an intentional drive to get into what I call the people business, which is safety. Don't ever let anything make you lose that love for people and continue to grow those relationships with them because that is how you're going to continue to be successful in the field.

Jill James:

Well, welcome back to the podcast, Leslie Stockel, ASSP's Educator of the Year and our most recent podcast. Welcome to ASSP.

Leslie Stockel:

Thanks, Jill. It's good to be back with you and to meet you in person.

Jill James:

It's been so fun. The thing is we can actually recognize one another even though we've just seen each over cameras.

Leslie Stockel:

Right. Right. It's amazing.

Jill James:

We know each other.

Leslie Stockel:

Yeah.

Jill James:

Recognize [inaudible 00:13:19].

Leslie Stockel:

Yeah. Right. Exactly. Yeah.

Jill James:

So question for you is what do you think the future for the EHS profession looks like for you?

Leslie Stockel:

Yeah. Well, that's a very interesting question. And as somebody who's been in the industry now for a long time, it's kind of interesting to think about where we go from here versus where we've come from. And I think that some things will be the same. Taking care of people, looking out for people will be the same going forward because people will go to work and the way that they work will probably change most definitely as technology advances and the things that people do may be different, but they still need to be taken care of. And so I think the next generation, and it's good, I'm a college professor, and so I work with college students and we try to tell them, what do you have to look forward to here? What do you need to be able to do? And we teach them all the technical things that they need to be taught. But I think the more important thing is they need to be agile, they need to be curious, they need to embrace new things and new technologies and new ways to do the old things. New technologies and ways to protect people. But the need to protect people will always be there. As long as we have people working, there's going to be a need to protect them. So it's interesting. I just went Italy over the summer and I got to tour the Roman Ruins and all these centuries-old structures and centuries-old things that have been built since 79 AD. And one of the things that really struck me from this whole experience was humanity has not changed in five, 6,000 years. We're still people. We still have wants. We still have needs. The technology we use to do the work and live the lives we live, it always has changed and evolved. But we're still just people and people need protection, and I think that's not going to change. And so future EHS professionals need to really remember that always, but yet also be open to the new things that come. Because I know even for myself, as we get older, we become more and more resistant to change. But I think we always need to be open to new things and new technologies.

Jill James:

We lead with curiosity. I love that you said that.

Leslie Stockel:

Absolutely. Always be curious. Always be open to improvement. I often call myself a connoisseur of good ideas because I am always looking for the next big interesting thing. So I feel like that's important in any profession, including ours, is to always be curious, always be looking to improve and embracing new things as they come.

Jill James:

Beautiful. Great advice. Thank you so much.

Leslie Stockel:

Thank you. Thank you. It's good to see you.

Jill James:

Recording. Cool. What is your name?

Kelly:

My name is Kelly.

Jill James:

And Kelly, what industry do you work for and how long have you been in EHS?

Kelly:

I work in manufacturing and I have been in EHS more than 20 years, 23-ish.

Jill James:

How many times have you been to the conference, would you say?

Kelly:

Honestly, I haven't been here. I haven't been to a conference probably in eight years, maybe, is a guess.

Jill James:

Welcome back.

Kelly:

Yeah.

Jill James:

Welcome back.

Kelly:

Thank you.

Jill James:

That's wonderful.

Kelly:

Glad to be here. It's been great.

Jill James:

I hear you have a success story at EHS. Could you tell us about it?

Kelly:

I do. I do. And it usually gets me choked up, so I will warn everybody in advance, but-

Jill James:

As stories often do.

Kelly:

Yes. Yes. So my first major full-time role in safety, I was at a manufacturing plant in the Midwest and total time, I was there about 10 years and we did a really nice safety culture turnaround by the end of that, that I was thrilled to be a part of. But there's one story in particular that I carry with me. And so every area had a safety representative, and we would have these meetings and do activities. And there was this one fellow who would never really participate. He would show up, but he wouldn't really contribute. Even I would call on him, "Hey, what do you think?" And he would just say, "Nothing" or "I don't know."

Jill James:

Familiar. I think we all can relate to that.

Kelly:

Yes. Yes. So one day he stops me in the shop. He was on his way out for the day on his way to the time clock, and he stopped me and he said, "Hey, you know that near miss bulletin that you published yesterday?" "Yeah." He said, "I used to work in that department years ago, and we used to do that task." It was an assembly task. "We used to do that another way and I really think if they did it this other way," and he explained to me how they did it, and he said, "If they did it this way, I think it would be better and it would be safer." I was like, "Wow, that is really great. Thank you so much for bringing that forward. I'll republish that bulletin and add that to it. That's going to be great." And I said, "But they're going to know that I didn't come up with it." And when somebody asks me, I actually wanted to put his name on the bulletin, hey, so-and-so came out to me and said and I said, they're going to know it's-

Jill James:

You can't believe this guy came forward.

Kelly:

Right. And I said, "They're going to know it's not me." So I Said, "What can I tell them? I have to tell them something." Because at first he didn't want credit at all, and he really still didn't. But I said, "They're going to know it's not me. I have to tell them something." He said, well, thought about it. And he said, "Just tell it was a safety guy." And I said, "Okay." And I stood there frozen, and he went on his way, clocked out and went home. And I think I stood there for two or three minutes, like, oh my gosh, the guy that I didn't think was listening, I didn't think he cared, he does. I think it was just how he communicated and so forth.

Jill James:

He identified as a safety guy unbeknownst to you for all this time.

Kelly:

He did. He did. And he had worked there for 30 years or something, not his first rodeo. And he was only recently involved in the safety team work. But yeah, so that was amazing. And I still cherish that moment because he did care. He was listening. So that would be a suggestion for anybody really or even people new to safety even is don't give up. They may actually be listening, they may be paying attention, but for whatever reason, they just don't want to come forward. But keep creating opportunities for people to come forward, come from a place of caring and wanting to help others and being open to listen. And I think people will come forward as they feel comfortable, and it just took him that long to do it. But man, the guy that I thought didn't care called himself a safety guy. So it's the coolest thing ever.

Jill James:

Excellent success story. Thank you for sharing.

Kelly:

Thank you.

Jill James:

And welcome back to ASSP.

Kelly:

Thank you.

Nate Williams:

Nate Williams. I'm a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army, and I've been doing the safety profession for three weeks. So for 22 years, I was an infantry officer at the tactical level, and recently was assigned to the Army Safety Office. And so now I am helping to write policy and Assessments for safety and occupational health across the US Army. The best thing about my job is I know nothing about safety until I got to this job. And so just learning everything from industrial hygiene to health physics and all kinds of things I had no idea about. So that's really a cool thing, really being exposed to a lot of things that I didn't even know were needed or a thing within our profession, or at least within the army. So doing that and then also having real impactful or having an opportunity to really impact the Army writ large through safety policy. So yeah, that's the best part.

Jill James:

Welcome to ASSP. What is your name and where are you from?

Vinnie Pappano:

Hi, my name's Vinnie Pappano. I am based out of Austin, Texas, and I work for a company called Highlands.

Jill James:

And what brings you to the show?

Vinnie Pappano:

So Highlands is attending the show to really get exposed to all of the new innovation in the safety channel.

Jill James:

And you're not officially an EHS person, but you come here anyway, right?

Vinnie Pappano:

Yeah.

Jill James:

And so tell me more about what brings you here and is this your first time?

Vinnie Pappano:

So this is my first safety show. My background is in facilities. That's primarily where we do most of our business, but safety really touches every industry and every channel-

Jill James:

It does.

Vinnie Pappano:

... So incredibly important to just be up to speed on all the newest trends, and really it's something that our customers and our distributors are asking for.

Jill James:

Wonderful. Wonderful. What is the best thing about your job in facilities?

Vinnie Pappano:

Well, the best thing about my job, I would say, is getting introduced to all of the different products, all of the new innovations, all of the technology, especially now since we're a lot more AI-driven. And again, just all of the different industries that facilities very much like safety, touches a lot of different channels. So I would say that's my favorite part is learning all the different aspects of safety, of facilities, all the different products, all the different solutions, things you could never imagine.

Jill James:

So you are with, there's 6,000 of us here, so you're with 599,000 EHS professionals. Well, there might be more people like you here, probably there is. So what is it like to be around this many EHS professionals? If you were to talk about what's the vibe of the profession, what are you picking up?

Vinnie Pappano:

I would definitely say a wealth of knowledge.

Jill James:

Oh, wow.

Vinnie Pappano:

Yes. There's a lot of incredibly knowledgeable people walking around. I've had lots of conversations and learned lots of different things, especially because again, safety touches all of the different channels. So I've met EHS professionals from different companies and all their goals similar, but the way that they get there can be very different. The products that they use to get there very different. So again, have very much appreciated meeting all of the different folks, all of the different sides of the business and all the different solutions that they bring to the table.

Jill James:

Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you, Vinnie, and thanks for coming to ASSP.

Vinnie Pappano:

Thank you.

Jill James:

Hope you come back.

Vinnie Pappano:

It's been wonderful. Absolutely.

Jill James:

We hope you enjoyed the special episode of the Accidental Safety Pro live from ASSP 2024. If you're attending the National Safety Congress and Expo September 16th through the 18th, be sure to stop by our booth number 1559 and say hello. 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.