June 25, 2015

Volume 1, Issue 4

News and Notes from the ASSE East Carolina University Student Section

American Society of Safety Engineers East Carolina University Student Section

Editor’s Note: *Happy Summer!

*ASSE-ECU section

members have

successfully applied for

the 2015 Outstanding

Student Section of the

Year Award.

In This Issue: *Interview with Alicia

Mitchell, President, NC-

Chapter

*NFPA 70E Training

session by Vince Miller

at ECU

*Jo Anne Balanay, PhD,

CIH, Environmental

Health

*Mike Snyder, Duke

University

ECU Main Campus

Happy Summer!! Hello everyone! With summer break currently taking place, we are presenting the last issue

of our Newsletter. We hope you enjoyed our previous issues and we are also expectant

that this issue will interest you as well. Remember, there is no going back in safety as it is

not an option but a necessity, which is why together we will continue to team up for safety.

Happy reading!!!!!

By: Hamidreza Shaki

During the Spring Break, ASSE Student Section

attended the ASSE North Carolina Chapter

meeting, where Section members also had the

privilege of interviewing Alicia Mitchell, the

current president of the NC Chapter. Alicia

Mitchell is a well-rounded EH&S professional with

tremendous experience.

At the interview, we asked her about herself, why

and how she found her niche in safety and has

managed to rise this far in both her personal and

professional career. In response, Alicia stated that

she was a UNC, Chapel Hill graduate, with

bachelor degree in Public Health. She said her

interest initially was not safety but environmental

health, which was how she started her career with

her first employer. After serving in this capacity

for a while, she obtained the Certified Hazardous

Materials Manager (CHMM) certification as part of

her professional development until the

opportunity for safety presented itself. Upon

assuming a combined role as both an

environmental health and a safety professional,

she became astute in the discharge of her

responsibilities and in more determined in the

pursuit of her career.

She said the peak of her career came when she

was hired by Revlon as a safety supervisor,which

she is currently the Director of Safety, Health and

Environmental Affairs. As part of her professional

development, she obtained the

Certified Safety Professional (CSP)

and has continued in her core

responsibilities for up to 13 years

with same company. She said she

had come to realize the fact that

utilizing safety issues in a tough

environment like manufacturing can

be achievable and others from all

around the world would be inserted

to know how you did it.

We went further to ask Alicia to tell us a bit more

about how she had advanced in her career

especially as a woman dealing with the workforce

comprising men and women and what qualities

and strategies had she utilized for us to learn

from.

She responded that her success path as an

environmental professional aided her a lot where

she was providing technical solutions for the

environmental hazards. According to her, when

she took up a job with her new employer, she had

more chances to demonstrate her ability to

convince employees, through both persuasion and

management, that men and women workers are

alike. She said working around 7 years as an EHS

Manager was long enough to prepare her for

dealing with every obstacle at the workplace,

which is what has made her whom she is today.

She said when she got hired by Revlon, this same

management and organizational skills readily

become handy. This she has continued to

contribute in the discharge of her job function. We

could tell from our discussion with Alicia that she

was and is a committed leader, and working for

Revlon has just been a way to demonstrate the

tenacity and her enthusiasm for managing an

organization up to the safest level.

Wondering how she could combine work with her

career, she told us that as a woman who has the

priority of her family at heart, it has always been

quite challenging. She said combining the pressure

of her family with that of her upper management

was much of an issue, but being the safety

woman, she is known to be, she has tried to prove

herself to maintain a balance.

Highpoint of the interview was when we asked her

on how to convince management in accepting and

implementing safety consideration.

At work places considering constraints such as

budgetary and resource allocation. She said this

was difficult though, but that a typical safety

person will have to find a way to relate his/her

goals to management, adding that every individual

in the EHS field must be positive and look for a

way to succeed as we are there to save lives and

properties. She continued what was even most

challenging was the fact that one needs to

convince upper management in just three

minutes. Put the problem forward; explain the

consequence of the problem, and how to prevent

it, all in three minutes. Considering her personality

and experience, she provided with key as how we

can excel in our career.

Finally, we asked about her role in the ASSE and a

final advice for us students as we look forward to

the future. Starting with the last, Alicia told us that

safety professionals should be credible and

respectful, be the motherhood of the apple pie,

those wearing the white hat and are there to save

lives. Driven by this passion, she said we

should have a bright post-graduation

outlook of our career and go into practice

with the attitude to serve and save lives.

As for ASSE, she advised that we should

consider having a good mentor, just like

Arlene has been to hers, and be ready to

serve when called upon. She said big

things come from the little things we do,

that we should continue to be involved

with the Chapter and in no distant time,

we will excel in the Society and become

leaders of tomorrow.

Alicia Mitchell, CHMM, CSP

President of ASSE NC-Chapter

“It will be beneficial for both

professions to work together to

ensure workers protection for

both health and safety

hazards.”

By: Stacy Freeman

The training session consisted of a lecture that educated everyone in attendance on the importance of concepts such as the type

of clothing one should and should not wear, how to avoid accidents related to electrical hazards, different types of electrical

hazards, tools and equipment, various scenarios to test the knowledge of attendees on electrical safety issues, among many other

concepts. Attendees were also able to hold equipment and clothing that was used during electrical work previously, which was

either successful or failed in protecting the worker from electrical hazards. A booklet which included a comprehensive overview of

the training session was given to everyone for future reference. The session was very informative and all attendees received

certificates for completing the training.

By: Faizan Khaja

Dr. Jo Anne Balanay is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Health

program at East Carolina University. In her presentation entitled: “Industrial

Hygiene and Safety: Their Role in Primary Prevention for Worker Protection”, she

talked about the roles played by safety professionals and

industrial hygienists as being collaborative, which

involves reducing disease and injury, premature death,

discomfort, and cost.

Dr. Balanay presented a broad view of the EH&S

professional body, its makeup and the responsibility of

each professional team. She outlined the mission of an

Industrial Hygienist as protecting the health and well-

being of workers and the public from physical, chemical

and biological health hazards in the workplace; while

occupational safety is based on safety and injury

prevention leading to a healthy organization. However, the focus of her

presentation was the duties of an industrial hygienist, which is her area of

expertise.

Some highlights of the presentation were the approach used by industrial

hygienists in the prevention of health hazards which involve

anticipating, recognizing, evaluation and control of

workplace health hazards. She gave an elaborate detail of

how each of this process interacts in the assessment and

control of health hazards. Finally, she gave a summary of

some of her research experience, which covered past,

current, and future researches.

Students learned a great deal from this presentation and

understood better the interrelationship of the EH&S team

in the protection of workers health. This presentation was

ended with a closing comment from Dr. Balanay that “It will be beneficial for

both professions to work together to ensure workers protection for both health

and safety hazards.”

NFPA 70E Training Session

Vince Miller, CSP

On Friday February

27th, members of the Student Section, as well as faculty and some ECU Facilities staff members participated in NFPA 70E Electrical Safety training, led by Mr. Vince Miller.

Technical Presentation Jo Anne Balanay, Ph.D., CIH

Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at East Carolina University

Dr. Balanay receiving a certificate after the technical

presentation

East Carolina University College of Engineering and Technology Department of Technology Systems

Phone: (252) 328-9716 E-mail: mstechsystems@ecu.edu

We are on the Web! Visit us at: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-tecs/techsystems/msos.cfm

CONTACT US

By: Abbey Graves

Mike Snyder is the safety manager at the

maintenance facility department of Duke

University. At his technical presentation, he

gave an overview of what a typical day in the

life of safety professionals entail. Mike talked

about series of EH&S meetings, reduction of

injury, accident prevention, DART reduction and

building a good relationship with management

as areas that demand serious attention. He also

emphasized the importance of a good

education, certification and experience in the

discharge of one’s responsibilities as a safety

leader.

Referring to a renovation project executed at

Duke Chapel, he said it was one major project

that he coordinated, citing it as being

challenging, all towards ensuring a safe work

environment. He talked about the importance

of Prevention through Design (PtD) concept in

projects like this for which Professor Mike

Behm supported and equally shed some light

on. Students were very impressed with

Snyder’s presentation as it gave them

perspective of and drive for the future. Besides,

the scenarios used for the presentation were

quite instructive and a source of learning

materials for future projects.

Technical Presentation

Mike Snyder Safety Manager,Duke University

UP COMING EVENTS

Summer Internship Experience!

Safety Tour at ABB facility, Pinetops, NC

Safety Talk at Building Hope Community Life Center.

Meet your New Section Officers!