Description:

Many workstations are designed, purchased and installed with little to no consideration for who will be using it and what tasks will be performed. By considering the worker and the work tasks, different workstation choices may be made. Join this session to learn about anthropometry and workstation design in both the office and non-office environments.

Speaker:

Heather White, MIE, CPE, ASP

Heather White is a Master Ergonomist for the Ergonomics Center housed in the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University. She provides ergonomics evaluations, training programs and process development expertise to companies in a broad range of industries including manufacturing, food processing and packaging, semiconductors, biotechnology and the office environment.

Heather earned a BS in Applied Mathematics from Appalachian State University and a Master of Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University. She holds a CPE certification through the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics and an ASP certification through the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. Heather serves ASSP as the Ergonomics Practice Specialty Secretary, the Region VI as Assistant Regional Vice President - Member & Chapter Affairs Chair, and the Tarheel Chapter Awards and Honors Chair.

Description:

The importance of managing risk to worker well-being has emerged, led by NIOSH’s Total Worker Health® Program as well as the publication of ISO 45003-2021. This hands-on workshop will help attendees learn how to adapt the risk assessment process and tools to assess and manage this emerging risk.

Speaker: Pam Walaski, CSP

Pam Walaski, CSP is Senior Program Director with Specialty Technical Consultants, Inc. and a temporary faculty member for the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Safety Sciences Department. She is a Professional Member of ASSP, currently serving a 3-year term as Director At-Large. She was previously a member of the Society Finance and Nomination & Elections Committees, served on CoPA and was Vice Chair of CoPS. She was also the Administrator of the Consultants Practice Specialty and Keystone Area Director for Region VIII.

Pam is a regular contributor to ASSP’s Professional Safety and won 3rd Place in the 2017 Professional Paper Awards. Her most recent article The Role of Indicators in OSH Performance Measurement was published in August 2020. She is Section Coordinator for Occupational Safety & Health Management Systems Section for the 3rd edition of The Safety Professionals Handbook scheduled for publication in 2021. Her book Risk and Crisis Communications; Methods and Messages was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2011 and she was an editor on the Consultants Business Development Guide, published by ASSP in 2015.

Pam has been a general session presenter at the ASSP PDC every year since 2005 and is an instructor for the ASSP Risk Assessment Certificate program. She also provides workshops on risk management, and other topics for ASSP and private clients.

Pam received the Region VIII Safety Professional of the Year Award in 2018, the Charles Culbertson Volunteer Service Award in 2015 and the CoPS Safety Professional of the Year in 2014.

Description:

This 4-hour pre-conference session will cover a myriad of topics from leadership, negotiating, total cost of risk, and lessons learned. Attendees will determine their own leadership style and the pros and cons of each style. They will also use their personality types to understand how their own personality can directly impact their negotiations—both personally and professionally. Safety Professionals play a critical role in a robust risk management program and your entity’s total cost of risk. This session will review the TCOR elements and why safety is critical to the process. Finally, the “10 things I wish I knew then—Life lessons and things to live and work by.

Speaker: Carleen Patterson, ARM-P, CIC, CRM

Carleen is the national Public Entity and Higher Education Practice Leader. She works with higher education and public entity clients across the United States providing insurance brokerage and risk management expertise.

She has been in the insurance industry since 1988 and joined Alliant Insurance Services, Inc. in January, 2020. Prior to Alliant, Carleen served in a similar role for a large, international broker. She has risk management, claims, and insurance brokerage experience; and has spent the last 25 years specializing in self-insurance and insurance brokerage and consulting for large public entity clients

She was the recipient of the 2011 and 2012 Risk & Insurance Power Broker award. She is a member of several national risk management-focused associations, including Public Risk Management Association (PRIMA).

Carleen earned her BS in Education from the University of South Dakota. She is licensed as an insurance agent/producer in Texas and many other states and holds the Associate in Risk Management, Associate in Risk Management for Public Entities, Certified Insurance Counselor, and Certified Risk Manager designations.

Description:

Exposure to ultraviolet radiation causes more public heath issues than any other form of radiation. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a prevalent occupational hazard in industries ranging from manufacturing and healthcare to construction and research laboratories. This course equips Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) professionals with the knowledge needed to assess and mitigate UV exposure risks in the workplace.

Participants will explore the science of UV radiation, its health effects, and regulatory requirements, as well as strategies for hazard assessment, control measures, and personal protective equipment (PPE) selection. Case studies and real-world applications will reinforce best practices for protecting workers from acute and chronic UV-related injuries.

Speaker: Ben Edwards, MS, CHP, CLSO

Ben Edwards is a retired certified health physicist and certified laser safety officer with several decades of experience in industry, academia, and medical settings. He has a B.S. physics degree from the University of North Carolina and a M.S. in occupational health & safety from East Carolina University.

Description:

While California may have been in the marijuana legalization vanguard, both recreational and/or medicinal use of cannabis are now legal in a majority of states even as it remains an illegal drug at the federal level. Where it is legal, a crazy quilt of laws at the state, county and even municipal level creates challenges for multi-state employers seeking to craft a comprehensive substance abuse prevention and drug testing protocol. Questions of what constitutes "impairment" and how testing should be performed add challenges and implicate both HR and OSHA management. Fitness-for-duty approaches are gaining popularity as are new testing methodologies, even as courts are ruling that employers must pay for cannabis used to treat workers' compensation conditions.

This session will provide insight into the various aspects of substance abuse and on-the-job impairment prevention in a world of legal marijuana and increasingly complex and conflicting regulations and case law. The speaker, an attorney, safety professional and employment law professor, will also provide recommendations for practice that balance employee rights to medical treatment and off-duty legal use against safety-sensitive needs and regulatory limitations on when and who may now be tested.

Speaker: Adele Abrams

Adele is an attorney, safety professional and trainer who is president of the Law Office of Adele L. Abrams P.C. in Beltsville, MD, Charleston, WV, and Denver, CO, a multi-attorney firm focusing on safety, health and employment law nationwide. As a certified mine safety professional, Adele provides consultation, safety audits and training services to MSHA and OSHA regulated companies. Adele is a regular columnist for numerous magazines on legal, employment, mine and occupational safety/health issues, and is co-author of several books related to mining, construction, employment law, and occupational safety and health. She is a member of the Maryland, DC and Pennsylvania Bars, the U.S. District Courts of Maryland, DC and Tennessee, the U.S. Court of Appeals, DC, 3rd and 4th Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court. She is a graduate of the George Washington University’s National Law Center, and earned her B.S. in Journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her professional memberships include the American Society of Safety Professionals, National Safety Council, the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, Associated Builders and Contractors, the Industrial Minerals Association-North America, and the American Bar Association. In 2017, she received the NSC’s Distinguished Service to Safety Award.