Minority SIG Journal

Transcription

1 Minority SIG Journal Volume 11, Issue 1 Fall/Winter 2012 "Addressing issues within the industrial and environmental health profession that uniquely affect minorities... as well as those concerns that affect disadvantaged and low income workers and other members of the community." A Message from the Leadership James H. Lucas, Jr., Ph.D., CHMM, CIH, CSP, REM, CESCO, CSEE, MSIG Chair It is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but as it will be. -By Isaac Asimov Greetings: Allow me to say that it is an honor and pleasure to serve as your MSIG Chair. I would like to express my appreciation for all of your efforts and commitment to our MSIG organization. Moreover, this year, our message is overall commitment to change. That is why I found the quote above to be especially significant and I wanted to share it with you. Our Executive Committee has been meeting since August devising a strategy for our 2012/2013 projects in our 2013 Business Plan. On behalf of our committee members, I am ecstatic to report that we have established the following goals for this year: 1) Continue to provide our quarterly newsletter due to the efforts and leadership of Ms. Lucinette Alvarado, Director of Communication. Unfortunately, we lost a member of our Communications Committee early this year; consequently encourage any member(s) interested in participating on that Committee, to contact Lucinette directly. I know she will welcome your participation and support. 2) Commitment to expand our Mentoring Program that Ms. Trina Redford has laid the foundation, and continues to be the program s cornerstone. We do need volunteer(s) interested in collaborating with Trina to drive our Mentoring Program forward considering collaborating with AIHA s Students and Early Career Professional Group. 3) Ms. Pam Kerr is leading a multiorganization collaboration project partnering with ASSE's BISE (Blacks in Safety Engineering) and WISE (Women in Safety Engineering) to heighten the awareness of our industrial hygiene profession. Through Pam s efforts, anticipate MSIG s engagement will catalyze interest by ASSE s BISE and WISE members to join the AIHA and ultimately MSIG. 4) Alignment with AIHA s business objectives to drive innovative process excellence processes that result in MSIG members joining and participating on other Technical Committees and Volunteer Groups. 5) Explore outreach opportunity with minority publications (e.g. Black Enterprise Magazine) to foster and promote minority youths pursuit of careers in the sciences, specifically EH&S profession. This will allow us to reach a wider audience. Minority SIG Journal

2 As indicated by our goals above, this year we are taking aggressive actions to assure that MSIG reaches its fullest operating potential and be recognized for the outstanding organization that it is. In addition, we are most excited, under the leadership of Dr. Slates and our Executive Committee, that MSIG has submitted another Roundtable Proposal for 2013 s AIHce in Montreal titled: New Pathways to Achieve Safety Performance Worker Training and Human Factors. If approved, our roundtable will feature the following speakers: Dr. Samuel Oyewole, Head of Human Factors Engineering and Sr. Principal Investigator with the U.S. Chemical Safety Hazard Investigation Board as our keynote speaker. Dr. Bruce Lippy, CIH, CSP CEO and owner of The Lippy Group, LLC Julius Rhodes, CEO and owner of MPR Group Sharon Beard (MSIG member) Dr. Nancy Lawrence (MSIG member) Buck Cameron, CIH (MSIG Member) This will mark the third consecutive year that MSIG has had the opportunity to host a roundtable at AIHce. By hosting these roundtable sessions, MSIG s leadership continues to be recognized by AIHA, more importantly, our members expertise contributes to our industrial hygiene profession. Moving forward in 2014 and beyond, to assure we establish sustainable outreach efforts that promote industrial hygiene, our Past Chair, Mr. Aaron Jones will lead the development of a formal outreach awareness program. This initiative will include the development of a charter to better facilitate the process, define goals and objectives that increase Historic Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) student awareness in Industrial Hygiene/Environmental, Health & Safety as career choices. To achieve this year s aspirations, we need all MSIG members engagement and participation. Let us demonstrate to AIHA our value as Diversity Leaders! Inside This Issue 1 A Message from the Leadership AIHce MSIG Events Photo Collage 3-4 MSIG 2012 General Meeting Summary- AIHce Upcoming Events & Items of Interest 5 Instant Poll 2012 AIHce MSIG Events Photo Collage Congratulations to our MSIG Chair, who received the 2012 AIHA Fellow Award on June 19, We are so proud of Dr. Lucas accomplishments!! Round Table 231: The Future of EHS: Past to Present June 20th / Wednesday / 1:30-4:30 PM Round Table Speakers: ASSE President Terri S. Norris CSP, ARM, CPSI EHS Now and Then I look forward to reaching out to you again to update you on the progress of our goals in our 2013 Spring Newsletter. Minority SIG Journal 2

3 Round Table Speakers (cont.): Kathy A. Seabrook, CSP, CMIOSH (UK) ASSE Sr. Vice President Global Solutions, INC MSIG 2012 General Meeting Summary- AIHce 2012 Globalization EHS Now and Then L. Faye Grimsley, Ph.D., CIH Associate Professor, Dept. of Global Environmental Health, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Women and Diversity in the Field of Environmental Health and Safety: Now and Later. Lezah Brown-Ellington, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Illinois State University Government, Private Industry, and Academia: Coming Full Circle. Frederick M. Toca, Ph.D., CIH, CSP AIHA Past President; Toca Enterprises, Ltd How to Succeed by Really Trying. Many thanks to our wonderful speakers for their time on this successful Roundtable! The Minority SIG conducted this annual general meeting at the AIHce 2012, Indianapolis, IN on June 19, Thirty-two (32) of our MSIG members participated in this meeting. Thanks for your time and support. The chair, vice chair, secretary and committee directors shared their reports and updates. Mr. Aaron Jones, our past MSIG Chair, presented a power-point presentation, which covered the following items in detail: 2011 minutes approval, MSIG s mission and purpose, Membership Overview, Recognition, introduction of Executive Committee, and Embracing MSIG s future. Dr. Lucas was recognized for receiving the 2012 AIHA Fellow Award. MSIG is very proud of our Leader, Mentor, and Incoming Chair! Michael Amster, MSIG s Incoming Board Coordinator expressed appreciation to the MSIG Group and acknowledged the great work that is being done. He is looking forward and excited about working with MSIG. In regards to MSIG Business Items Mr. Craig Sorrell explained that a Business Plan is not required for SIG s, but it helps when the decisions are being made for Outstanding Groups. The Business Plan should offer quantitative measures to give the deciding body guidelines to consider. Craig recommended communication strategies for MSIG to reach out to other groups. An example being a 1-2 pager communication about activities offering participation to other groups. Information that needs to go to other Volunteer groups should be communicated through Craig. Using the Minority SIG Journal 3

4 SharePoint site and/or LinkedIn for general discussion items is encouraged. A discussion was held about MSIG getting more involved in the Indigo Council. MSIG did respond and three MSIG EC Members attended the Indigo Council Meeting during the conference. There are efforts being made to increase the diversity of the Council. MSIG is also planning to work closer with other groups such ASSE s BISE Group (Blacks in Safety Engineering and WISE (Women in Safety Engineering). Mrs. Sharon Beard provided information about an upcoming National Summit on the Science of Eliminating Health Disparities that will take place October 31 November 2, 2012, in National Harbor, MD. This is being sponsored by Policy and Practice Building a Healthier Society Integrating Science. Abstracts are due into DHHS NIH, NIHMD OMH by June 29, Dr. Fred Toca presented ideas to foster interactive networking opportunities at future American Industrial Hygiene Conferences and Expositions by (1) providing contact information at the conferences; (2) Extending invitations to invite high school students to the AIHce; (3) Networking by establishing a specific, visual place at AIHce for MSIG members & affiliates to meet; and (4) Hold Mentoring Workshops to gain interest from others to get connected and remain involved in MSIG. Mentor Program Update Ms. Trina Redford remains the lead for our Minority SIG Mentoring Program and members are encouraged to reach out to Trina to volunteer, both as a Mentor and/or as Mentee. Mentoring information is posted via our Shared Documents link on our MinoritySIG website. Dr. Fred Toca suggested that MSIG put on a 2- hour Mentoring Workshop at upcoming conferences. MSIG is looking to reach out to Montreal s Florence Janvier, a student that attended the 2012 AIHce and received a scholarship presented at the General Session. Outreach MSIG will make efforts to reach out to other Color Councils. The Incoming Chair for the Management Committee attended MSIG s meeting to foster support for his group in working closer with us. They are looking to diversify their group and encourage more minority involvement. For more details or information of the items discussed in this meeting refer to our MSIG website or contact the MSIG Executive Committee. Upcoming Events & Items of Interest Just Announced!!!...Our 2013 AIHce roundtable was approved with our speakers. The name of the roundtable will be New Pathways to Achieve Safety Performance: Worker Training and Human Factors. Six (6) speakers (4) MSIG members were confirmed: Sharon Beard Nancy Lawrence Buck Cameron Dr. Lippy (AIHA member) Julius Rhodes (outside member) Sam Oywole (outside member) The Moderator of interest will be Valerie Murray. The Monitor will be Dr. James Lucas. This is the 3rd consecutive year MSIG has sponsored a roundtable!!!! MSIG représentant en 2013 Montréal Canada!! Minority SIG Journal 4

5 Upcoming Events & Items of Interest (cont.) MSIG 2013 Business Plan Submitted and was approved 10/9/12. David Hicks, Senior Manager of Volunteer Engagement from AIHA, stated that MSIG did a good job persevering to get Business Plan submitted. Our rising star Aaron Jones is taking on a future assignment to develop outreach assignment charter in collaboration HBCUs. Mrs. Pam Kerr attended the Leadership Council October 26-28, 2012 on behalf of MSIG. There is a request to bring other minorities/diversity into other committees. We need to let others know who MSIG is. We will survey our membership to see who is a CSP and/or has Safety responsibilities. This will lay the groundwork to collaborate with B.I.S.E. and with W.I.S.E. (Women in Safety Engineering). Our Mentoring Program will start soon! Check your for future updates. The Communications Committee is looking for an editor. If you are interested in helping with the newsletter and communicating our news etc. please let Mrs. Lucinette lalvarado@amhealthandsafety.com. Members please get involved in the AIHA through membership in other SIGs and subcommittees. Instant Poll: Do you think the MSIG should change its name since it consists of more than African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Pacific? Will you like MSIG to have a social network page i.e. Facebook, Twitter etc.? For answers, you may contact the MSIG Executive Committee or Mrs. Alvarado. The MSIG Executive Committee wishes you the best for this upcoming year of 2013 and Happy Holidays!! Merry Christmas Feliz Navidad Happy Hanukkah Happy Kwanzaa Communications Committee Members Lucinette Alvarado Azita Cuevas Yvonne Luiza Contributors for this newsletter: Pam E. Kerr and Willie Washington. Thanks for having the meeting agendas, photos available for ease of information!!! For story ideas and comments, please contact us at lalvarado@amhealthandsafety.com. "Addressing issues within the industrial and environmental health profession that uniquely affect minorities... as well as those concerns that affect disadvantaged and low income workers and other members of the community." Minority SIG Journal 5