Safe at Work Breakfast Series

Session Title:  Mandating the COVID-19 Vaccine:  Important Considerations 

The COVID-19 vaccine will begin to become available to Americans soon.  It will initially be available only to frontline healthcare workers and people with increased risk for severe illness or death from COVID-19.  Nevertheless, employers should now be considering whether they will require their employees to be vaccinated.

Speaker Bio:  
R.J. (Randy) Stevenson is Chair of the Baird Holm's Labor, Employment and Employee Benefits Law Group. He counsels and represents private and public employers in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including matters involving workplace safety and health (OSHA) across the United States.

Randy is one of only a handful of labor and employment lawyers in the region who has been elected a Fellow of “The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers,” the premier peer-selected organization of labor and employment lawyers in North America. Admission is by invitation only, following a rigorous screening process.

Since 2003, Randy has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® in the fields of Employment Law and Labor Law, and was named that publication’s 2016 and 2020 “Labor Law – Management Lawyer of the Year” for Omaha and its 2017 “Employment Law – Management Lawyer of the Year.” He has been listed for many years in Great Plains Super Lawyers®, Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business® (“Band A”), and in Martindale-Hubbell® with an “AV” (the highest) rating. Additionally, Randy is listed as a “Midwest Star” in Benchmark, America’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys

Session:  Safety Culture

This presentation will discuss the foundations of building a Safety Culture through an unique approach that focuses on psychology, unconscious perception, and traditional misconceptions. Participants will walk away with a better understanding of how people think, why traditional safety needs to be challenged frequently, and how to create an environment for people to be successful.

Speaker:  Benjamin Honig, CSP, CIT
District Safety Manager
Kiewit Fire Sprinkler Group

Ben Honig is a Certified Safety Profession and Certified Instructional Trainer with 15 years of experience in the construction industry. Ben has managed safety programs and developed successful safety cultures for Kiewit Corporation over multiple projects across the country, including the $2B Denver VA Medical Center project and $1.3B US Stratcom project. Ben specifically focuses his energy on creating environments for people to be successful. Ben is currently assigned to the Kiewit Fire Sprinkler Group as their District Safety Manager.

Session:  Building your safety committee;  Where as much gets done as is said.

Speakers:  Jim Steele and Abbey Cherney, Airlite Plastics

Session:  Excavation Safety

Speaker:  Shane Docken, MS, CSP, ASP, SHEP
Safety Manager, Hazmat Coordinator
Metropolitan Utilities District

Safety EQ - Harness the Power of Emotional Intelligence -
Camille Oakes, Better Safety

Presentation Info: Good safety professionals understand the Science of Safety but Great Safety Pros can use the Superpower of Emotional Intelligence to enact real change in their organizations. In this session, you will learn to use EQ to improve communication, inspire action, and become a better safety leader.

Speaker Info:  Camille Oakes, CSP is a safety professional with over thirteen years of experience in the field of safety and health in diverse industries including warehousing, transportation, logistics and supply chain, packaging, government and military contracting. Camille holds a Master’s Degree in Advanced Safety and Engineering Management from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Bachelor’s degree in Safety Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She is a skilled trainer, facilitator and content creator. Ms. Oakes is a Past President of the Georgia Chapter of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) and has been a member of the Georgia Chapter executive board since 2012.

Camille is particularly passionate about the Art of Safety and helping safety professionals become partners with their operations leaders in order to advance the safety management system and make real change happen. As the founder of Better Safety, Camille consults with companies to employ better training, better culture and better business practices by developing their safety professionals and improving their safety performance. She teaches safety and operations managers to partner with each other so they can figure out a way to do what operations wants, yet still be safe. Camille conducts leadership training for operations leaders on how to manage with safety in mind. She also works to develop safety professionals through speaking engagements and workshops that include sales techniques, presentational skills, preparation and communicating with non-safety professionals. She is happily a resident of Atlanta, GA where she lives with her husband, toddler son and schnauzer.