Chapter News

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – NOVEMBER 2021

Greetings Safety Professionals,

Welcome to a month of Thanks on several fronts: Thank you to all the men and women who have sacrificed time, comfort, strength, ambition, health, and prosperity for the peace and safety of family and friends or any others that they’ve never known. Please take a moment this month and reward them a hundredfold for all of all their sacrifice and service for our great country. We appreciate our veterans! 

Have you thought about serving in a role with our NC ASSP Chapter? Do you have a desire to promote safety? Would you like to volunteer for a role within our Chapter? We are looking for a few members to fill several roles for the 2022-2023 program year. It’s not hard and we have a wonderful, supportive network within our Executive Committee. Contact us for more information.

It’s time for Thanksgiving of 2021 and we hope that everyone enjoys the warmth of family this season and the harvest of a great feast! Happy Thanksgiving to all.

We will be continuing to share more next month about the proposal for the house of delegates that is up for a vote in early 2022. To review our ASSP governance page, click here.

Please join us for our next presentation pertaining to Robotics on November 10th, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM). Caleb Sylvester will be with us from Boston Dynamics for a safety use case of the SPOT robot.

Thank you for being a dedicated safety professional and helping to make sure that our employees return home safely to their families each day.

Robin

MEMBERSHIP SPOTLIGHT: OCTOBER 2021

Anthony Dohmann, CSP, CHST

Director of Safety

Paragon Safety Group

Anthony is a dynamic safety professional with over 12 years of experience in the residential, commercial, heavy civil, and pharmaceutical industries.  He has designed and implemented safety programs that have changed the culture of several companies that recognize safety as a core value. Anthony is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Associate Safety Professional (ASP), and Certified Health and Safety Technician (CHST). 

While attending graduate school at Virginia Tech, Anthony got his start in safety completing a co-op for Mass Electric Construction Company in 2010. He was first exposed to the world of safety management on the WMATA Redline project, in Washington, DC. Anthony enjoyed his experience alongside the hard-working men and women in the field and was offered a full-time job in Dallas, TX with Mass Electric shortly after. It was his mentor, William Johnson, who challenged and inspired Anthony instilling the motto to “never change and always be yourself” noting that this is how you excel in safety. It was just meant to be, safety just clicked for Anthony, and has been a great fit for his personality.

After a few years of traveling and working for Mass Electric / Kiewit in DC, Texas, and Virginia, Anthony got an opportunity to come back to North Carolina and become the Safety Director for Earnhardt Grading, Inc. in Stanley. At this family-owned and operated company, Anthony was able to create a safety environment rooted in caring, collaborating, and coaching.  This helped the company demonstrate its culture of commitment. 

Anthony has recently moved to the Raleigh area and has started a new role with Paragon Safety Group as the Director of Safety. He is thrilled to play a part in supporting and improving organizations that have a desire to enhance their safety performance (no matter how big or small).  Outside of safety, Anthony enjoys spending time with his wife of 2 years, Hollie, and dog Schmidt.  He recently became a father to a healthy boy, Graham, and is navigating the new world of parenthood. In the past year, he and his family moved from Charlotte to a home in Holly Springs and plan on calling the small town “home” for a long time.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – AUGUST 2021

Greetings Safety Professionals!

Welcome to a new Chapter year. My name is Robin Barfield, and we have an exciting year of activities planned that will be beneficial for all. Most of our schedule will be virtual and we hope you can join us during our monthly EC meetings and technical presentations.

One major announcement that our Chapter has for you, for the 5th consecutive year, we achieved the Platinum Level recognition for our annual COMT report. Special Thanks to our 2020-2021 EC Team for their guidance and Pat Reagan for leading us to the Platinum goal. Thanks Pat! It was indeed a year with so many new twists from routine normalcy. 

While we have tried to provide face to face options, we have been challenged with the new Delta variant’s increase in cases both here in NC as well as all the US. Unfortunately, more variants will most likely emerge as new strains continue to develop. For now, the direction we are headed is to remain virtual for at least the first part of the year and continue to make assessments as trends develop. We have an excellent plan for our Virtual Technical Meetings via Teams live. Our social media chair Bryce Lawlor and our Communications Team will be coordinating all the logistics to pull this together. We plan to archive our presenters and have them available for future use. Details are available on the NC Chapter Webpage under the News and Events, Events tab. https://nc.assp.org/event/. Here is our next quarter’s schedule:

September 9th, 2021 (12:00 pm – 1:00 pm) Sam Fabolo, from FDR Safety, will be with us to discuss interview and hiring practices during a pandemic. What has changed is the question?

September 13-15, 2021. Safety 2021 ASSP Annual Conference in Austin Texas. In person and virtual is available.

On October 14th, 2021, (12:00 PM – 1:00PM) Caleb Syvester will be with us from Boston Dynamics for a safety use case of the SPOT robot.

On November 10th, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM) Eric Hendman will be presenting the SuitX, innovations in Exoskeleton technology with an emphasis on MSDs.  

On December 9th, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM) Commissioner Josh Dobson will address the NC ASSP Chapter and share with us his vision for worker safety during the next several years.

We are excited about this new Chapter year and some new faces to assist us to continue to excel for our membership. Thank you for being a member and please reach out to anyone on our Team if we can support you in any way.

Information from ASSP

NC just completed the Safe and Sound Week, August 9-15.  We hope you were able to take advantage of this annual initiative to move your efforts forward.

Chapter Leadership Notices:

New face and new roles this year,

President Elect- Ogaga Jonathan Tebehaevu

Membership-Doug Gaylord

Program Chair-Monte Simpson

Communications-Eric Waagner

Academic Recruiting-Mike Conner

Communications Mentor-Anthony Dohmann

Member at Large- Jeff Medlin

Chapter Member Spotlight: If you know of a NC ASSP Member Safety Professional with a career path that might be an inspiration or validation to other safety professionals, please let us know.  We are looking for our October Member Spotlight and would love for current members input on a safety professional that deserves this recognition. 

Thanks all,

Robin

US Department of Labor announces new members of Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health

Please see the announcement from OSHA below announcing new members of ACCSH (Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health). We are also pleased to note that the two public representatives are members of ASSP.   A number of ASSP members are on ACCSH overall and we also believe that is positive for our society.

Department of Labor, United States of America
News Release

U.S. Department of Labor  |  May 27, 2021

US Department of Labor announces new members of Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh has appointed 15 individuals to serve as members on the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health, which provides advice and assistance to the assistant secretary on occupational safety and health in construction standards.

Members will serve two-year terms and represent the interests of the public, employers, employees, and state and federal government. The committee generally meets two to four times a year. The appointed members include the following:

Five employee representatives:

  • Cheryl M. Ambrose, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the U.S. and Canada.
  • Christina Trahan Cain, North America’s Building Trades Unions.
  • Wayne J. Creasap II, International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers.
  • Ryan Papariello, Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America.
  • David Wysocki, International Masonry Training and Education Foundation.

Five employer representatives:

  • Kevin Cannon, Associated General Contractors of America.
  • Julie Carter, Roy Anderson Corp.
  • Fravel E. Combs, M.A. Mortenson Company.
  • Greg Sizemore, Associated Builders and Contractors.
  • Wesley L. Wheeler, National Electrical Contractors Association.

Two public representatives:

  • Christopher Fought, Merck.
  • Ronald Sokol, Safety Council of Texas City.

Two state government representatives:

  • Christopher Scott Mabry, North Carolina Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Division.
  • Charles Stribling, Kentucky Labor Cabinet Department of Workplace Standards.

One federal government representative designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary:

  • G. Scott Earnest, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Christina Trahan Cain will serve as the ACCSH chair.

Learn more about the ACCSH.

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Media Contacts:

Denisha Braxton, 202-380-8259, Braxton.denisha.l@dol.gov

Release Number:  21-964-NAT