Rising Stars of Safety, Class of 2022

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What does it mean to be a leader in safety? At the National Safety Council, we know safety leaders aren’t just born – they’re created. Often, it’s from a personal experience: Someone they care about was either injured or killed in an unsafe situation. Other times, they’ve been tasked with understanding the day-to-day challenges people face in their workplace or community, and they’ve made it their mission to ensure a culture of safety.

Regardless of how one gets here, you don’t rise to the ranks of “leader” unless you truly believe in the importance of safety and embody what it means.

When it comes to true safety leaders, the 2022 NSC Rising Stars of Safety are second to none. Now in its 13th year, the program recognizes up-and-coming safety professionals under age 40 who have a proven track record of safety leadership in their organization and are dedicated to continuous improvement.

These 39 women and men hail from 31 states and eight countries, making this year’s class of Rising Stars NSC’s most diverse yet. Each has demonstrated enthusiasm, skills and leadership that will undoubtedly inspire other safety leaders and colleagues. They exhibit a commitment to doing their part in ensuring people live their best lives, free of preventable injury and death.

All have an inspiring and encouraging story to tell.

They’re innovators, like Tony Mudd. In 1996, Tony’s grandfather was crushed by 5,000 pounds of lumber while working. At the age of 7, Tony watched his grandfather fight for his life. After his grandfather’s injury, Tony decided he wanted to prevent others from having their life changed in a split second because of a work-related injury. He founded Sensori Safety in Kentucky and created a Vision and Neurocognitive Performance Training Program for mobile equipment operators, designed to help employers predict human error by assessing, analyzing and measuring their vision perception, accuracy, reaction time and other data points. The program has succeeded in giving employers real-time data to determine if workers are mentally and physically ready for work.

NSC’s Rising Stars are leaders, like Christina Donovan, vice president of safety at Farrell Roofing in New York state, who takes a hands-on approach to safety. Christina is the person who employees at all levels call when they’re looking for the answer to the question, “What should we do?” If Christina doesn’t have the answer, she’ll find it. She recently updated her company’s corporate safety site audit procedures. Their new inspection contains more than 100 questions answered in real time with photo evidence. Any deficiencies are noted on these inspections, flagged as “corrective action needed” and tracked to completion in real time.

These honorees are self-starters, like Usman Ali, a chemical engineer from Fatima Fertilizer Co. Ltd. (FFL) in Pakistan, whose contributions demonstrate a passion for improving his organization’s safety culture. Usman developed a system to log, record and publish all hours in which employees were injury-free. The publication and display of safe work hours encourages and motivates FFL employees to work safer and keep the clock ticking. In May 2021, FFL achieved more than 60.2 million injury-free work hours, earning the organization the title of the “Most Safe Work Hours in the Fertilizer Industry” in the Guinness World Records!

Read each profile to learn more about NSC’s Rising Stars of Safety, Class of 2022.

And thank you to each of our honorees. Your contributions to the NSC mission of keeping people safe – from the workplace to anyplace – are truly stellar.

— Lorraine M. Martin

View Rising Stars profiles as they appear in the print edition of Safety+Health.

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.