I didn’t start out in safety. I was a science and nature geek. My childhood was spent watching “NOVA” and nature shows on TV or catching tree frogs and snakes, to my mother’s chagrin. So, when I grew up, I studied zoology and went into research.
Although animal research seemed fun, I liked the benchwork, too. The next 12 years after college were spent working in and managing biomedical laboratories. I can’t say working to mitigate premature labor or trying to save patients from dying of sepsis wasn’t fulfilling, but it was a bit precarious when your paycheck depended on winning a grant every couple of years.
Then there were kids. Life changes and I found myself married with two children and was laid off from another research position because of a lack of funding. After taking a couple of years to raise small versions of myself, frogs included, I decided to jump back into the workforce and saw a position for a laboratory safety specialist at Oklahoma State University. I didn’t have any educational background in industrial hygiene, but I had laboratory experience in spades, and I applied.
Luckily, the OSU environmental health and safety department was looking for people with this background to build a team able to serve campus researchers better by making laboratories safe.
Suddenly, I was in a position that focused on the dangers of researching the unknown rather than just the benefits. Being a researcher myself, I had no desire to stop any research project from happening, but I could be the person who could help it happen without injury.
My own laboratory accidents and exposures – or witnessed disasters – are now a teaching tool to help others learn from my mistakes and not repeat them.
Five years later and I’m now the laboratory safety program manager, supervising four team members to ensure safety in our research laboratories. I may not be curing cancer in my own laboratory, but it doesn’t hurt my feelings that our team could be preventing injuries, exposures or worse for hundreds of people every day. “You may not always end up where you thought you were going, but you will always end up where you are meant to be.”
Val Freeman, CCHO
Laboratory Safety Program Manager
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK
What’s your story?
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