American Society of Safety Professionals

Today, she's an environment health and safety manager at Hogland Group.

She serves as a vice president of the ASSP Hudson River Valley chapter, and she's a PhD candidate to top it all off.

Jacqueline, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

So just like Mark said, it was funny.

It's funny how I entered the safety realm.

And as I speak at events for ASSP, NSC, former LaBee SSP, when I go around the country and I speak about safety, I love, love, love to ask other safety professionals how they started out because there is always, almost always, an interesting story behind it.

So for me, I started off as a mom finishing up her degree.

It's an important, it's where the facilities and safety really do come together.

And they're not all safety nerds because, you know, you go to ASSP and some of these other places and you got a bunch of people do the same job and it's good.

You talk to each other, but it's important to talk to folks that have different vantage points and different roles.

Perspective

Keep all beans in the bowl.

Yeah, but we do have some things we're working on with some of our partner agencies, like National Safety Council, ASSP, some of the others, right? We're going to be talking about how we can help engage holistically with SIFT production and those sticky issues, right?

Yeah.

I won't throw out the acronym.

And that regards to who we are.

So, you know, we've talked about that too from a standpoint of, you know, one of the things we were having a really good conversation with a CEO panel at the VPPA the other day.

And then we had a similar conversation at ASSP conference with a group that, you know, the disconnect, one of the things that we need to really work on is disconnect between what leadership thinks is happening.

Mm-hmm.

Because I think one of the things that we can do a better job of, and I hope we're starting to see some of that over the last year, but definitely over the next two to three years, I think it's going to be a real push for us, is being part of the conversation early.

Whether that's with the National Safety Council, the ASSP, IHA, whoever we need to talk to in the room.

We want to be leaders in that space.

We want to be part of that conversation.

Now, falls from height and exposure to hazardous energy are consistently among the leading causes of serious injuries and fatalities in the workplace.

What can be done about this? Earlier this year, ASSP brought together EHS professionals and industry leaders to examine that question and work to identify solutions.

One of the industry leaders who participated in those convenings is with us today to share her thoughts on what came out of those meetings and where we go from here.

She is Chris Kane, Executive Director of CPWR, the Center for Construction Research and Training.

Sometimes we look at it as days away from work.

So looking at it from the different statistical angles, falls and injuries, hazardous energy are definitely at the top of the list in construction falls are at the very top of the list and the Focus on Falls is something that we have worked on tirelessly for many many years Trying to make a dent in the number and rate the number of construction fatal falls and the rate of construction fatal falls in our industry and it is an unending battle to do that.

So the idea of participating with ASSP in these convenings was exciting to me.

Thinking about the different groups that were convened, they're not always the same people I talk to on a daily basis, so really listening to the different perspectives that were in both rooms was refreshing and encouraging and the ideas that came out were not necessarily what I would have thought in every case.

Mm.

And so we have great, um, we have great associations with ASSP, so, uh, they help us, you know, continuing education conferences and things like that.

But those people in that have mentorships, you know, and so we have mentorship through ASSP and, and things like that.

And so, um, it's just a great community.

That's all I can say is, is people love, uh, to help in our profession.

And so he's, he's on his way and, and he'll get all the opportunities to get all the experience and knowledge with, with our program.

And then, um, a big thing is becoming a student, uh, you know, uh, is, is get into the associations.

You know, Utah Safety Council, National Safety Council, ASSP, all those, you know, so you can go to the conferences like Utah Safety Council or the National Safety Council.

And then we do hear just like everyone does you AI, right? People are concerned about AI, how they want both the benefits of AI, like how are we using it to develop content and software products that help them? But then they are also concerned about all the cons of AI.

And, you know, the American Society of Safety Professionals had their conference in Anaheim two weeks ago, and I attended that.

And I mean, I didn't count, but someone said like, I don't know, 50, 60% of the presentations involved AI in some form or another.

So that's, I think, very, very top of mind for the workforce and for our customers.

I just learned about that capability yesterday.

I was talking to a guy from ASSP.

We were on a webinar together, and he mentioned that he has this dual persona, right? Yeah.

And so his staff uses it.

And Russell, you're one of those folks that has done that.

I mean, we were just at the ASSP conference in June, and it was great to reconnect with people and have all this kind of back and forth and that kind of thing.

And, and obviously you've got quite a network that you've built.

So first of all, your personal take, your personal quick take on the importance of that.