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People often ask me, “What excites you most about the future of safety and health?” My answer never changes: It’s the next generation of leaders.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more impressive group of up-and-coming safety professionals than the 38 Rising Stars of Safety NSC is honoring this year. Now in its 12th year, this recognition program showcases safety “stars” – all of whom are under age 40 and have a proven track record of workplace safety leadership and dedication to continuous improvement.
Take Carter Divine, for example. As safety manager at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Carter completed a multiyear project that resulted in a new standard operating procedure that’s being used worldwide to make naval operations safer.
Or LettaJoe Kelly, senior risk control consultant for Liberty Mutual Insurance. LettaJoe helped one of her customers create and test an engineering solution to decrease workers’ risk. Her efforts helped the customer reduce its year-over-year recordable injury rate for certain job functions by more than a fifth.
Then there’s Muhammad Imtiaz, HSE trainer for QAPCO (Qatar Petrochemical Co.). Muhammad took it upon himself to study where the risk was for QAPCO workers. But he didn’t stop there. After identifying the source of the hazards, he created a pocket-sized handbook with visual demonstrations of unsafe practices and distributed it to more than 1,000 workers. The results speak for themselves: Muhammad’s efforts helped the company achieve its lowest total recordable incident rate in years, representing a 40% total reduction.
It’s no secret that we find ourselves in a challenging moment for workplace safety. But with leaders like Carter, LettaJoe and Muhammad – and their equally impressive peers – innovating new safety solutions every day, the future of safety and health is bright.
Thank you to every single Rising Star honoree. Your contributions to the National Safety Council mission to keep people safe, from the workplace to anyplace, are truly stellar.
Lorraine M. Martin
President and CEO
National Safety Council
Rising Stars profilesUse these links to visit Rising Stars profile pages, or browse all profiles as a slideshow using the navigation arrows at the top of each page. |
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View Rising Stars profiles as they appear in the print edition of Safety+Health.
Join the Young Professionals Division
Are you a safety professional younger than 45? Would you like to connect with other “rising stars?” Develop your skills and advance your career in safety leadership by joining the NSC Young Professionals Division. All NSC member company employees are welcome to join this group to receive access to networking events, professional development opportunities and invitations to NSC Division meetings. Be on the cutting edge of safety and share your fresh ideas with your peers.
Learn more about how to get involved at nsc.org/ypd.
Robert “Bobby” Everett Alred
Age: 36
S&H Operations Manager
Strata-G
Oak Ridge, TN
“Bobby serves as the chairperson of a vehicle safety committee. He paved the way in vehicle safety technology by launching a pilot program for advanced radar collision mitigation systems for the company’s many commercial motor vehicles that otherwise lacked modern safety electronics, providing up to 360 degrees of protection surrounding the vehicle. He managed this project through successful implementation. The site has seen a 63% reduction in vehicle incidents experienced over the last year since the committee’s inception and charter.”
Akhil Ananthakrishnan
Age: 37
Health and Safety Manager
ENGIE Solutions Middle East
Remraam, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
“Akhil led the delivery of a behavior change initiative focused on frontline workers during the construction of Dubai Expo 2020. The initiative was deployed with visual impact training to ensure the key health and safety behaviors were understood, and supervisors were trained in an engaging conversation to get frontline workers to work safely by reinforcing the behaviors. Over 20,000 frontline workers participated and over 2,000 supervisors were trained. Akhil initiated a research project to establish the impact of the initiative. Over 100 frontline workers were involved, and the results demonstrated those trained were 3.6 times more likely to recall the behaviors.”
Scott Bailey
Age: 38
Safety Coordinator
Dawn Food Products
Jackson, MI
“Scott and the safety team came to realize they had an opportunity to embed safety across the entire business. Safety is for everyone in every function everywhere. The safety team is now engaging with business groups with whom they were not traditionally involved. The effort has transformed safety from a functional responsibility to more of a cultural imperative. Safety has now become a functional responsibility within all departments and locations within the enterprise. COVID-19 has helped Scott and the safety team uncover areas for improvement and to share more ways that the entire company can keep safety in focus.”
Siddharth Bhandari
Age: 29
Associate Director of Research and Research Faculty
University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder, CO
“Sid has been the driving force in the creation of the Construction Safety Research Alliance, which has grown from nine member companies in 2019 to approximately 50 in 2021. He is the director of the research mission, leading five active research projects with a total of 79 industry professionals and eight academic researchers. Sid has been a presenter at national conferences and provided workshops to individual companies. He helped organize the CSRA’s 2020 Safety Summit. Through these engagements, Sid directly shared research-based results with 1,000-plus attendees. Currently, Sid mentors six Ph.D. students studying topics ranging from virtual reality for safety training to incident investigations.”
Anna Copeland
Age: 32
Safety Director
Brandt Construction Co.
Milan, IL
“Anna works with project managers, superintendents, and the field labor to ensure all safety concerns are met and all employees are properly trained and have the necessary safety equipment available to meet the demands of the work being performed. In addition to conducting safety and health training with employees of all levels throughout the company, she attends internal and external preconstruction meetings to discuss safety concerns with our project management team, as well as the customer’s project management team and those of our subcontractors to ensure all parties are cooperatively working toward a goal of a safe and successful worksite.”
Meagan Densford
Age: 30
Risk Control Manager
Coca-Cola Consolidated
Memphis, TN
“Meagan created a new hire training program (Safety Health and Environmental Academy). In the SHE Academy, new hires spend four full days going through all OSHA applicable standards, the company’s lifesaving rules, and even a full day of LOTO practice on a board to help ensure the understanding of how locks and hasps work to prevent possible life-threating injuries. After four months, the results showed: longer job retention, less injuries among employees who were employed less than six months, higher involvement in safety committees, improvement in ideas and all-around improved morale.”
Carter Divine
Age: 26
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division
Port Hueneme, CA
“Following the sinking of a floating test platform in April 2019, Carter completed a rapid improvement event, bringing together six different stakeholders to combat the normalization of deviation, lack of preventive maintenance, poor documentation and the breakdown of communication. These early efforts allowed Carter to lay down a foundation of knowledge that would enable him to conceptualize a new safety standard covering U.S. Navy floating assets. Two years later, Carter completed final efforts to create the U.S. Navy’s first Floating Asset standard operating procedure. As of 2021, this SOP is being used for naval operations worldwide.”
Ryan P. Finley
Age: 32
Project Safety Manager
The Lane Construction Corp.
Maitland, FL
“To build the desired project safety culture, Ryan was instrumental in developing, promoting and executing the ‘Crew of the Month’ contest. Each month, a crew was evaluated on three metrics: safety, quality and production. At the end of each month, management evaluates each crew and a winner is chosen. Crews are recognized at project meetings, have their picture posted, and are rewarded with either a lunch or T-shirts. The response was amazing. Crew members started holding each other accountable for safe work planning, wearing of PPE and unsafe work practices. Employees who never worked together before started to become cohesive teams.”
Lori Gillespie
Age: 36
EHS Specialist
Chemours
Deepwater, NJ
“Lori analyzed the site’s completed hot work permits and identified improvement opportunities for the hot work permitting process onsite. Now, Lori leads a weekly review to track the impacts of process improvements against baseline data. She began by participating in an event with frontline personnel and site leadership to revise, clarify and streamline the process. She initiated a pilot of the new process, obtained feedback and addressed it. To ensure consistency, she led an effort to revise the hot work procedure. Lori also worked with the site training group to revise the training for employees affected by these changes.”
Olivia Gleason
Age: 26
Safety Professional
Stellantis
Warren, MI
“Olivia worked with the environmental team to establish a day dedicated to promoting the principles of safety, environment and energy. Olivia developed an integrated EHS project on aquaponics, generating engagement in the event, and showed how the principles of EHS can be applied to a variety of activities both in and outside of work. The project includes a demonstration, trifold, handouts and instructions on how to build a functional aquaponics system at home on a budget, including seed packages to get them started. Olivia also worked with the onsite health specialists to ensure they were available to answer any questions, provide health evaluations and offer health supplements.”
Master Sgt. Victorio Gutierrez
Age: 38
Wing Safety Superintendent
U.S. Air Force
Spangdahlem, Germany
“Sgt. Gutierrez values helping others become better professionals and airmen. He understood the greatest hazard to airmen living and working in Europe is driving. Under his leadership, he organized winter vehicle inspections and hands-on local driver’s improvement training for high-risk demographic airmen, in addition to managing the USAF Europe’s only ‘Skid-Car’ training program, teaching new drivers techniques with operating vehicles in icy conditions. The combined efforts have led to 1,500 airmen trained and reduced traffic-related mishaps by 22%.”
Tahir Hameed
Age: 33
Process Safety Engineer
Engro Fertilizers Limited Daharki
Sindh, Pakistan
“Tahir designed Annual Safety Day at our site with the theme ‘Take the Lead on Safety.’ All employees were appreciative of the intent and quality of agenda, which included top management message and expectations on HSE, international incident case studies of ‘What went wrong’ and what to learn from them, a panel discussion on behavioral safety improvement, and focus group sessions on safety culture improvement. Tahir developed the HSE Bulletin and issued it on a daily basis to capture and share HSE learnings during jobs. Daily meetings are conducted by engaging all management and other representative employees to discuss and share the learning with and by all participants.”
Reva Rose Hartenstein
Age: 29
Senior Safety Management Consultant
SAIF Corp.
La Grande, OR
“Reva has identified the need for safety videos on orchard ladders and on three points of contact, working through and editing material – and even being in the videos. She has created a considerable amount of outward-facing materials. But perhaps the best example I can offer would be SAIF’s COVID-19 Prevention Safety Plan template for Oregon agriculture employers OAR 437-001-0749. Reva saw this as a need for policyholders struggling with getting their arms around the pandemic and the new temporary rule from Oregon OSHA. She was not only the project lead, but created the vast majority of the content.”
Christopher Hinson
Age: 36
Senior EHS Specialist
Merck
Creedmoor, NC
“Chris took over the Contractor Management program in 2018 and completely rebuilt the program. He developed an electronic system for liaisons to proactively enter their contractor’s work activities prior to the scheduled work. This system leveraged the contractor’s approval status, including training and badge access. It eliminated the need for multiple paper documents for each of the contractors, streamlining the process and provided for evaluation of each contractor’s safety performance. This system was put to the test in two corporate safety audits and proved to be effective for a site our size within our organization.”
Catherine Hovde
Age: 39
Global Senior Manager Industrial Hygiene
Amazon
Minneapolis, MN
“By diving deep into data, process and hazards, Cathy leads through example to identify what’s driving the risk and developing scalable solutions that are not dependent solely on behaviors. Cathy has found that articulating the risk using analytical terms and easy-to-use language, as opposed to citing regulations or feelings, allows leaders to be mentally engaged in the solution development. This makes them partners in establishing an environment where safety is paramount to success, as opposed to having safety rules pushed on them.”
Alan Hurtado
Age: 28
Safety Consultant
STC Safety Training & Compliance
Frisco, TX
“Alan came to our organization as an entry-level field manager, performing inspections and trainings. Because of his efficiency, eagerness to learn and natural leadership ability, he became an informal leader and coach. His expertise made him a natural fit to oversee the creation and management of all 200-plus safety training courses we offer our clients. Alan was promoted to lead field manager, responsible for organizing, scheduling and executing on our 1,500-plus inspections and 400-plus trainings, which impact 20,000 lives annually. He is able to consult, coach, actively listen and confidently provide guidance. He is also highly receptive to feedback.”
Muhammad Imtiaz
Age: 27
HSE Trainer
QAPCO
Qatar
“Muhammad carried out deep dive analysis of all recordable injuries, near misses and first aid cases over the past two years. He found that 70% of incidents involved defective hand or power tools, hoses, gratings, and scaffolding issues. He collected 180 good and bad practices with pictures and text and provided visual demonstration of unsafe practices related to hand and power tools, scaffolding, temporary hoses, and gratings. He compiled it in a pocket-size handbook, distributed it to 1,000-plus company and contractor staff, and monitored its effective use. He also launched a monthly Best Safety Observation Reward campaign to encourage reporting.”
Tia N. Johnson
Age: 31
Division Manager, COVID-19 Testing
City of Houston, Houston Health Department
Houston, TX
“Tia’s leadership has enabled both safe operations and home safety for her teams. She immediately began leading teams at COVID-19 mass testing locations through up to 600 tests per day, operations applauded by the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps up to the U.S. surgeon general. Tia then led mobile testing covering three to six sites per week, operations that addressed the virus’s presence in over 15 communities. Pre-COVID, Tia’s teams aided 110 families with soil contamination. Tia’s operations protect her team and communities from hazards affecting work and home. Her leadership has created a 24/7 safety culture.”
Emily Jorgenson
Age: 31
Division Safety Manager
Clark Construction Group LLC
Bethesda, MD
“During COVID, Emily implemented an aggressive monthly computer-based training program, improving Clark Water employee participation from 70% to consistent 100% compliance through her personal outreach to team members and new employees. On the jobsite, Emily has implemented ‘Just in Time’-focused training for our teams and recently conducted the training for our crews on confined space entry. She also has led a push to switch from A-frame ladders to lean-safe ladders and introduced this to the crews through small crew training sessions in their work areas.”
Megan Kaup
Age: 24
EHS Manager
Valmont Industries
Columbus, NE
“When Megan came on board, one of the most demanding areas for growth was finding ways to encourage employee engagement with safety initiatives and regulations. Megan researched what most encouraged the employees to engage and own their own safety. From this, she created the Safety Buck Program, which helps incentivize and encourage active engagement across all employee levels. Employee engagement has grown since the rollout of this program. Before Megan’s hire, the combined total number of safety contacts incurred by her site was 21. Eight months after Megan began, this number grew to 72 contacts, representing a growth of 343%.”
Brady Keene
Age: 28
Clinical Assistant Professor
Keene State College
Keene, NH
“To lead college students to engage with OSH materials, small business owners to control hazards, his onsite consultation team to experiment and excel with virtual worksite visits, administrators from OSHA Region 1 and the New Hampshire area office to try a new communication tool such as Zoom, and to have OSHA instructors try Zoom required Brady to adopt and practice a flexible servant leadership style. As a servant leader, he was very patient and worked to meet everyone where they were, understood what they feared, and gradually built their confidence by modeling supportive coaching and a continuous improvement attitude.”
LettaJoe Kelly
Age: 28
Senior Risk Control Consultant
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Vancouver, WA
“In 2020, LettaJoe saw many opportunities to improve the safety culture with social distancing guidelines. She led a team to revamp needed in-person training to a virtual platform. The team focused on formatting the training to engage all participants through different learning styles. Her customer’s corporate partners approved the virtual program and it remains a training modality even after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.”
Michell LaFond
Age: 39
Geographic Process Safety Technology Leader and Risk Management Program SME
Dow Chemical
Midland, MI
“Michell is co-chair of the Dow U.S. North and Canada Reactive Chemicals Process Hazard Analysis committee. In this role, Michell leads a team of 78 individuals across seven disciplines in conducting multifunctional reviews to identify potential hazards and provide risk mitigation recommendations. This committee completes approximately 57 hazard analyses each year and, as a process safety technology leader, Michell personally facilitates 20% of these reviews. Over the past three years, these reviews have identified over 1,500 opportunities to reduce risk at Dow. As part of her role, Michell has also facilitated courses in process safety topics for over 500 Dow employees.”
Rocco Martini
Age: 25
Safety Specialist
Shell Polymers
Monaca, PA
“Rocco led a series of EHS training and site awareness training for employees who were transitioning to the construction site. He developed a detailed training presentation, pamphlets to hand out to employees, signs and one-page safety alert reports for sitewide distribution. This training was soon deemed mandatory by Shell Polymers’ general manager and all 500-plus employees were trained. This training is now considered a best practice for Shell employees for a safe mobilization to site.”
Andrew McDonald
Age: 38
Safety Director
Arcadis
Hanover, MD
“Andrew led the effort to reduce the number of motor vehicle accidents by implementing the Fleet Vehicle Telematics Program. The program encompasses over 450 vehicles and 2,000 drivers across 38 states. The program led to a 57% reduction in motor vehicle accidents. In 2021, Andrew piloted a forward-facing camera program in our fleet vehicles. As a result of that pilot program, we will be installing these forward-facing cameras in all fleet vehicles. Using the videos captured as a way to develop micro-training videos for our drivers, in hopes to change behavior through lessons learned.”
Chrispus Muhindi Mercy
Age: 36
Occupational Health and Safety Engineer
The Boeing Co.
Mesa, AZ
“We were selected as the pilot location for a new technology designed to enable physical distancing during the pandemic. The technology involved wristbands with proximity sensors that would give an alert when two employees got within 6 feet of each other for an extended period of time. Chris was the EHS field lead and effectively worked with shop floor volunteers, their managers and the technical support team. Alerts had to be tracked manually and Chris developed a system that was successfully implemented with daily tracking over a six-week trial period.”
Allie J. Meyerhoefer
Age: 31
EHS Manager
Willow Wood Global
Columbus, OH
“When Allie started, she was a member of the operations team, and several months in lobbied to join the HR team. Doing so allowed her to focus on safety initiatives for the entire corporation, not just the operators within the facility. This move has also allowed her to have an unbiased support group that is focused on the well-being of the entire company and ensuring we stay safe and compliant. By focusing on what’s best for the plant, we are able to run a safe and open business operation.”
Sarah Phelan
Age: 33
Director, Sustainability and EHS, Personal Care
Ashland LLC
Freetown, MA
“Sarah demonstrates a belief that safety is a key part of our continued operations and success as a company. She reinforces this through leadership and safety meetings by sharing that safety is a part of operational discipline and the ability to ‘get the job done right.’ She shares the business case for safety and helps others to understand the cost associated with incidents (monetary, personal and reputation). Sarah meets regularly with business leadership and is receptive and open to discussions with business leaders. She helps business leadership to understand the true value of safety to achieve buy-in and support.”
Mehboob Reza
Age: 31
OHS Consultant and Researcher
Government of New Brunswick and University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, New Brunswick
“Mehboob developed an effective IOSH Branch in Qatar and achieved the President’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018 for his outstanding work. He did this with the challenges that come with a unique group of safety professionals in a complex work environment. He has developed a series of innovative lectures and branch meetings with clear roles for the committee members and a branch that regularly attracts 100 members each month, which, in turn, influences and enhances the safety performance of all those who represent the safety industry in Qatar.”
Cynthia Rivera
Age: 33
ES&H Integration Manager
Sandia National Laboratory
Albuquerque, NM
“Cynthia uses her personal experiences to demonstrate that safety and well-being go beyond policy and requirements, but they are also a way of life. She also strives for collaboration with various groups across Sandia in order to achieve the most effective messaging and engagement, as well as looks for ways to have everyone’s voices heard. Cynthia has helped to strengthen Sandia’s safety culture through meaningful partnerships, which has been proven by her successful efforts to bring together various types of work groups to drive participation in the annual Safety & Health Fair.”
Mark C. Schall Jr.
Age: 33
Associate Professor
Auburn University
Auburn, AL
“OSH practitioners need new tools and technologies to objectively quantify exposures to risk factors associated with MSDs. Mark’s research agenda aims to directly address this need. One example of a study that led to positive, measurable outcomes involved an assessment of new, ‘ergonomic’ examination equipment used by clinical ophthalmologists. Dr. Schall used a combination of surface electromyography and wearable inertial sensors to show that the alternative equipment led to approximately 10% reductions in neck/shoulder muscle activity and a 15% reduction in the percentage of time working with the left upper arm elevated more than 60 degrees.”
Dhiraj Prakash Sethi
Age: 38
Principal Consultant, Traffic and Safety
V R TECHNICHE Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
“Dhiraj has voluntarily undergone a number of trainings on various aspects of road safety such as defensive driving, road accident victim handling, first-responder training, road safety policies and legislations, etc. Based on his learnings, he encourages others in an effort to increase awareness and achieve a safe road environment. He is a firm believer that common practices (especially in road safety) are not always evidence-based. His approach is to identify, study and spread awareness to improve various road safety concerns. He, along with a colleague, have published a technical paper highlighting issues with prevailing practices on median plantation.”
Travis Spagnolo
Age: 29
Safety Specialist
Safex
Westerville, OH
“Travis expanded an existing client relationship to include an assessment of the company’s overall safety culture. As a result, he identified a need to train employees and make changes to their roofs to ensure OSHA compliance. The client was impressed with his work and asked him to develop a plan to address their shortcomings. Travis’ strategy included a new fall protection training that replaced the client’s outdated and ineffective training. Travis developed the program and trained 50 employees in Ohio, as well as employees in other states, within one year. The client has not had any fall-related injuries on roofs since implementing this new training program.”
Nathaniel A. Stanton
Age: 34
EHS Manager
General Dynamics NASSCO-Norfolk
Norfolk, VA
“Nate was recently selected to help manage both the Rigging Safety Management Plan as well as the Hot Work Safety Management Plan. Through continual coaching, direction and planning, Nate and the team were able to reduce the total number of incidents and documented nonconformities identified by our customer in both areas over the past eight months. Nate also provided direct leadership to the company’s safety task force, a group led and supported by union-represented employees. Because of his passion and involvement with this organization over the past several months, the safety task force has become revitalized under his oversight to make significant positive changes.”
Benjamin Watson
Age: 39
Manager of Safety Advancement
NiSource Inc.
Valparaiso, IN
“When Ben started with NiSource, he noticed some concerns of inconsistencies with the reporting of motor vehicle accidents across the American Gas Association membership. He requested to attend that committee’s next meeting to discuss his concerns. The committee discussed and agreed that a subcommittee should be created to review the concern and build revised interpretations that included examples to allow for more consistency with the reports. Ben immediately volunteered to lead the team. Ben led a group of his peers and completed the project, reviewed the revised documents with AGA members, shared it with his counterparts at NiSource, and eventually discussed it with the Edison Electric Institute’s safety committee to further allow opportunity for consistency across utilities.”
Rowland Welch
Age: 28
Manager of Safety
Orange County Public Schools
Orlando, FL
“His professionalism and knowledge of health and safety has gained him expert status among his peers and our senior leadership team. Rowland provides safety guidance to union leaders and our senior executives. These discussions directly impact policies and procedures in our COVID Health and Safety Procedures Manual. Rowland has oversight of the review process for this manual. This manual and dashboard are instrumental in keeping our community, staff and students aware of the pandemic and ensuring compliance of our safety process.”
Scott Winter
Age: 38
Safety Manager
John Deere Harvester Works
East Moline, IL
“In 2018, Scott identified a pattern in musculoskeletal injuries. He hired an early intervention specialist to address these injuries. Employees were encouraged to report fatigue and discomfort as soon as they noticed it so they could be enrolled in this program. This specialist provides tailored stretching programs and job coaching to help employees work more ergonomically. Over 500 employees have participated in this program. More employees are going home pain-free than ever before.”
Daniel Woods Jr.
Age: 29
Manager, Strategic Programs
ComEd
Oakbrook Terrace, IL
“Daniel developed the ComEd Safety App. Safety resources are readily accessible to all employees, we can push out different versions to ensure information is always correct, and much of our information is electronic. The safety app contains ComEd’s Safety Rule Book, Event Free Performance Tool Book, PPE Matrix, and more. We avoided printing out the rule book, which cost $80,000-$100,000 each time. We eliminated the hours needed to place revision stickers in outdated rule books.”
