Itasca, Ill., Sept. 27, 2021 – The National Safety Council is proud to announce its 12th class of Rising Stars of Safety – a group of leaders younger than 40 dedicated to making workplaces safer. The 38 honorees for 2021 have promoted continuous safety improvement within their organizations throughout the pandemic and created initiatives focused on measurable outcomes to provide workforces safe environments.
“It’s no secret that we find ourselves in a challenging moment for workplace safety. But with leaders like this year’s class of Rising Star honorees innovating new safety solutions every day, the future of safety and health is bright,” said Lorraine Martin, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. “The contributions of these ‘stars’ to the NSC mission to keep people safe, from the workplace to anyplace are truly stellar.”
The class of 2021 honorees are listed below and featured in the October issue of Safety+Health magazine.
- Robert “Bobby” Everett Alred: S&H Operations Manager, Strata-G
- Akhil Ananthakrishnan: Health and Safety Manager, ENGIE Solutions Middle East
- Scott Bailey: Safety Coordinator, Dawn Food Products
- Siddharth Bhandari: Associate Director of Research, and Research Faculty University of Colorado Boulder
- Anna Copeland: Safety Director, Brandt Construction Co.
- Meagan Densford: Risk Control Manager, Coca-Cola Consolidated
- Carter Divine: Safety Manager, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division
- Ryan P. Finley: Project Safety Manager, The Lane Construction Corp.
- Lori Gillespie: EHS Specialist, Chemours
- Olivia Gleason: Safety Professional, Stellantis
- Master Sgt. Victorio Gutierrez: Wing Safety Superintendent, U.S. Air Force
- Tahir Hameed: Process Safety Engineer, Engro Fertilizers Limited Daharki
- Reva Rose Hartenstein: Senior Safety Management Consultant, SAIF Corp.
- Christopher Hinson: Senior EHS Specialist, Merck
- Catherine Hovde: Global Senior Manager Industrial Hygiene, Amazon
- Alan Hurtado: Safety Consultant, STC Safety Training & Compliance
- Muhammad Imtiaz: HSE Trainer, QAPCO
- Tia N. Johnson: Division Manager, COVID-19 Testing, City of Houston, Houston Health Department
- Emily Jorgenson: Division Safety Manager, Clark Construction Group LLC
- Megan Kaup: EHS Manager, Valmont Industries
- Brady Keene: Clinical Assistant Professor, Keene State College
- LettaJoe Kelly: Senior Risk Control Consultant, Liberty Mutual Insurance
- Michell LaFond: Geographic Process Safety Technology Leader and Risk Management Program SME, Dow Chemical
- Rocco Martini: Safety Specialist, Shell Polymers
- Andrew McDonald: Safety Director, Arcadis
- Chrispus Muhindi Mercy: Occupational Health and Safety Engineer, The Boeing Co.
- Allie J. Meyerhoefer: EHS Manager, Willow Wood Global
- Sarah Phelan: Director, Sustainability and EHS, Personal Care, Ashland LLC
- Mehboob Reza: OHS Consultant and Researcher, Government of New Brunswick and University of New Brunswick
- Cynthia Rivera: ES&H Integration Manager, Sandia National Laboratory
- Mark C. Schall Jr.: Associate Professor, Auburn University
- Dhiraj Prakash Sethi: Principal Consultant, Traffic and Safety, V R TECHNICHE Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
- Travis Spagnolo: Safety Specialist, Safex
- Nathaniel A. Stanton: EHS Manager, General Dynamics NASSCO-Norfolk
- Benjamin Watson: Manager of Safety Advancement, NiSource Inc.
- Rowland Welch: Manager of Safety, Orange County Public Schools
- Scott Winter: Safety Manager, John Deere Harvester Works
- Daniel Woods Jr.: Manager, Strategic Programs, ComEd
About the National Safety Council
The National Safety Council is America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate – and has been for over 100 years. As a mission-based organization, we work to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death and injury, focusing our efforts on the workplace, roadway and impairment. We create a culture of safety to not only keep people safer at work, but also beyond the workplace so they can live their fullest lives.
