In this issue Show Daily Leadership

Rising Stars of Safety, Class of 2021

Rising Stars
NSC Rising Stars of Safety

Browse all Rising Stars photos and bios

 

People often ask me, “What excites you most about the future of safety and health?” My answer never changes: It’s the next generation of leaders.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more impressive group of up-and-coming safety professionals than the 38 Rising Stars of Safety NSC is honoring this year. Now in its 12th year, this recognition program showcases safety “stars” – all of whom are under age 40 and have a proven track record of workplace safety leadership and dedication to continuous improvement.

Take Carter Divine, for example. As safety manager at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Carter completed a multiyear project that resulted in a new standard operating procedure that’s being used worldwide to make naval operations safer.

Or LettaJoe Kelly, senior risk control consultant for Liberty Mutual Insurance. LettaJoe helped one of her customers create and test an engineering solution to decrease workers’ risk. Her efforts helped the customer reduce its year-over-year recordable injury rate for certain job functions by more than a fifth.

Then there’s Muhammad Imtiaz, HSE trainer for QAPCO (Qatar Petrochemical Co.). Muhammad took it upon himself to study where the risk was for QAPCO workers. But he didn’t stop there. After identifying the source of the hazards, he created a pocket-sized handbook with visual demonstrations of unsafe practices and distributed it to more than 1,000 workers. The results speak for themselves: Muhammad’s efforts helped the company achieve its lowest total recordable incident rate in years, representing a 40% total reduction.

It’s no secret that we find ourselves in a challenging moment for workplace safety. But with leaders like Carter, LettaJoe and Muhammad – and their equally impressive peers – innovating new safety solutions every day, the future of safety and health is bright.

Thank you to every single Rising Star honoree. Your contributions to the National Safety Council mission to keep people safe, from the workplace to anyplace, are truly stellar.

Lorraine M. Martin
President and CEO
National Safety Council




Rising Stars profiles

Use these links to visit Rising Stars profile pages, or browse all profiles as a slideshow using the navigation arrows at the top of each page.

Robert “Bobby” Everett Alred

Akhil Ananthakrishnan

Scott Bailey

Siddharth Bhandari

Anna Copeland

Meagan Densford

Carter Divine

Ryan P. Finley

Lori Gillespie

Olivia Gleason

Master Sgt. Victorio Gutierrez

Tahir Hameed

Reva Rose Hartenstein

Christopher Hinson

Catherine Hovde

Alan Hurtado

Muhammad Imtiaz

Tia N. Johnson

Emily Jorgenson

Megan Kaup

Brady Keene

LettaJoe Kelly

Michell LaFond

Rocco Martini

Andrew McDonald

Chrispus Muhindi Mercy

Allie J. Meyerhoefer

Sarah Phelan

Mehboob Reza

Cynthia Rivera

Mark C. Schall Jr.

Dhiraj Prakash Sethi

Travis Spagnolo

Nathaniel A. Stanton

Benjamin Watson

Rowland Welch

Scott Winter

Daniel Woods Jr.

Join the Young Professionals Division

Are you a safety professional younger than 45? Would you like to connect with other “rising stars?” Develop your skills and advance your career in safety leadership by joining the NSC Young Professionals Division. All NSC member company employees are welcome to join this group to receive access to networking events, professional development opportunities and invitations to NSC Division meetings. Be on the cutting edge of safety and share your fresh ideas with your peers.

Learn more about how to get involved at nsc.org/ypd.

Post a comment to this article

Safety+Health welcomes comments that promote respectful dialogue. Please stay on topic. Comments that contain personal attacks, profanity or abusive language – or those aggressively promoting products or services – will be removed. We reserve the right to determine which comments violate our comment policy. (Anonymous comments are welcome; merely skip the “name” field in the comment box. An email address is required but will not be included with your comment.)

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Aruni
September 28, 2021
Great job, big applause

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Himmat singh
September 28, 2021
Dear Bro, Great Job Always be very congratulate to make the good wealth of your parents and be blessed from your guardian and god or be progressive ..

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Stephen Williams
October 1, 2021
Tia is certainly an asset to our Houston Health Department. This recognition is well deserved.

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Abdul Rasheed
October 1, 2021
A big shout out to Mr. Reza for his perseverance towards OSH community across the continents. I wish him massive success and more feathers in his cap.!

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Name
October 2, 2021
I know Mehboob since he was in Qatar , he helped out many people to achieve Grade iosh /CMiosh . He always welling to support others in OHS matter and streamlined the OHS issues in professional ways , he had effective communication and strong relationships with all HSE candidates. Wishing him all the best.

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Paul Tremblay
October 4, 2021
Congratulations on your well-deserved award!! I'm so happy for you because I know the level of effort, determination, and hard work it took you to get here. I was not surprised when I heard about your award, as I know you're the perfect rinsing stars of safety. I have enjoyed working with you in the Government of New Brunswick for years, and I have watched you fine tune your health and safety skills. You have more responsibilities now, but I know you are ready to take on new challenges. If you ever need support, you can always reach out to me. I' proud of you both as a friend and as a colleague. I look forward to working more closely with you on different health and safety situation.

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Jeff Hanson
October 7, 2021
Congratulations Nate!!! Well deserved. It is a pleasure working with you daily and seeing you develop as a young leader with in this great company. From the time I met you I could tell you wanted to make a positive difference in everything you did and everyone you came in contact with. You have done a great job changing the perspective our customer has had related to safety. You are well respected with in the company and I look forward to working with you and your team in the future. Congratulations and a job well done.

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Shay
October 18, 2021
It was an awesome experience working with HHD as a COH safety officer on site. HHD did and great job. Congratulations to Tia keep up the good work, I am looking forward to other opportunities to work alongside our colleagues.

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Martha Rivera
October 27, 2021
Congratulations, great job

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John
November 9, 2021
Reza, is one of the best OHS leaders in the profession who is highly disciplined, experienced and educated. I wish him to become an OHS Director or Vice Present of Safety. He has the ability to lead the big team and deal with senior leaders.

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Muhammad Idrees khan
December 13, 2021
Muhammad Imtiaz, is one of the best OHS leaders in the profession who is highly disciplined, experienced and educated. Me and Muhammad Imtiaz had worked together on a project in Pakistan for the construction of tanks in green and brown feild and enjoyed a lot with working him. He has the ability to lead the team and deal with senior leaders. Really he is a big asset for any company where he is working. Congratulations, great job for acheiving this award.

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david gill
December 28, 2021
WOW that is a great list of accomplishments!!

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Fernando Salcido Jr
December 28, 2021
It just goes toshow how 1 person can make a difference. Excellent stories and awesome results, through innovation and hard work. Nothing comes for free or easy. Put in the time, dedication and the effort and all will pay off in the end.