NIOSH announces Ryan Hill as director of Western States Division

Washington – Ryan Hill will be director of NIOSH’s Western States Division beginning May 1, NIOSH announced April 18.

Hill is tasked with leading a group of scientists “who conduct research to reduce a wide variety of occupational safety and health hazards in high-risk industries predominant in the West, such as oil and gas extraction, maritime, commercial fishing, wildland firefighting, and aviation,” states a press release from NIOSH.

Hill began his career with NIOSH in 2007 as an epidemiologist in the Anchorage-based Alaska Pacific Office. He later became manager of NIOSH’s Oil and Gas Extraction Safety and Health Program, in which he led the development of a national surveillance system that collects data on workplace fatalities among oil and gas workers.

“Hill possesses a wealth of expertise in the safety and health issues and unique hazards facing workers in the western United States,” NIOSH Director John Howard said in the release. “I am confident that under Hill’s leadership, NIOSH’s Western States Division can achieve its mission to improve workplace safety in the high risk industries of the West.”

NIOSH’s Western States Division comprises Spokane, WA – where Hill will be based – Denver and Anchorage, AK.