This month the YPC talked with Roxanne Schneider, who is the youngest person to be elected chair of the Safety & Health Division and who is also a young professional. Roxy explained what the Safety & Health Division is all about and what opportunities are available for members as well as young professionals.
Tell us a little about the Safety & Health Division?
The Safety & Health division is committed to reducing process safety risk throughout the chemical engineering industry. Process safety professionals must be a jack of all trades in order to understand the many facets of process safety and risk in the oil & gas, chemical, and environmental industries. Because of this, Safety & Health is a diverse division made up of people from many professional backgrounds. There are members from many different industries as well as some members who aren’t chemical engineers. There are also experienced people, who have 20+ years of experience, as well as younger people, who are towards beginning of careers and bring new ideas and ways of thinking to the process safety table. The Safety & Health committee has a reputation for being very welcoming and excited for new people to join.
What benefits are there from becoming a member of this Division?
Probably the first thing one receives from a Safety & Health Division membership is a subscription to the division’s journal “Process Safety Progress.” In addition, membership in the division gives individuals a voice in process safety and influence over the direction of the industry. Members help determine what is important in process safety.
In addition, joining the division and getting involved can be helpful in gaining leadership experience. The division is always looking to prepare its new leaders and currently has young professionals in 2 of its 7 leadership roles. It is also a great division for networking, because one of the best ways to learn about the industry is through the Safety & Health division members. The members are quite friendly and helpful, and are always willing to offer advice and career counseling.
What opportunities are available for members to get involved? What is a good way for Young Professional Members to get started?
The first thing YPs and others can do to get involved is attended the Global Congress on Process Safety (GCPS), which coincides with AIChE’s Spring Meeting in April. While there, individuals can learn about process safety issues, meet Safety & Health members, and attend the Safety & Health dinner and open membership meeting. This year, we are encouraging people to communicate about the conference on twitter, so be sure to follow #GCPS and @ChEnected.
Safety & Health also has several working groups that work on issues for the division. These include an archive library group involved in turning the large amounts of literature and materials produced by the division over the years into a useful tool for companies and division members. This group would be a great way for YPs to get involved, because YPs are most likely to be the target audience for an archive library like this. Another working group is the government affairs group, which works with government entities and policy issues.
Another way to get involved is to help plan conferences. People who are running the Global Congress on Process Safety (GCPS) are shaping the field of process safety by determining what topics and papers should be presented at the leading process safety conference in the world. There are several committees that plan sessions at GCPS. The Loss Prevention and Process Safety committee (LPS) works with technical aspects of process safety including consequence modeling and risk analysis. The Process Plant Safety Safety Symposium committee (PPSS) works with best practices in process safety and the application of process safety techniques. The newest area of Safety & Health is the Process Safety Management Mentoring (PSM2, say “P-S-M-squared”) session at GCPS, which covers topics that may be of interest to people who are new to the process safety area. All of these groups offer chair and co-chair positions to current members, so feel free to apply to a committee.
The division is also always looking for new people with new ideas. It is always looking for an area where it might be able to learn and grow.
When does the Division hold events or meetings?
The main division meeting is held at the Spring Meeting before the Safety & Health Division dinner. There are several other meetings throughout the year for working groups for the division including the government affairs group and the archive group. There are also about 3 leadership meetings each year.
How does someone become a member?
The easiest way to join the division is to select the Safety & Health Division when you renew your membership online. If you need to do it before you renew, you can call AIChE customer service and ask them to add the membership. We are also working on getting a form on our website. Membership is 35$ per year and includes a subscription to Safety & Health’s journal “Process Safety Progress.”
Who can I contact with any questions or to get more involved?
The first place to look would be the Safety & Health division website. The leadership team is listed there and any of those people would be willing to answer any questions. Jing Chen (jingc@aiche.org) is also the AIChE Representative for the division, and Roxy Schneider (roxanne.schneider@bp.com) is the current chair. Either of them would also be happy to answer questions.
Anything else YPs need to konw about the Division?
Safety & Health is an impressive division, because it was founded in 1979, which was before Bhopal, which is one of the worst industrial accidents in history and is considered by many to have been the catalyst which created the idea of Process Safety. AIChE and Chemical Engineers were concerned with safety and health issues in the chemical engineering industries even before it became so apparent it was necessary. It is quite rewarding to be involved in this division, and we encourage you to get involved by attending the division meeting at Spring Meeting as well as the Safety & Health dinner.
If you are attending the AIChE Spring Meeting and are interested in attending the Safety & Health division meeting and dinner, but may be inhibited by the cost, there will be several scholarships available this year through the division. Email Kendall Werts at kmwerts@gmail.com for more information.
- Log in to post comments