PPSA 2013 Summer Conference
 
Dirk Krouskop - Vice President, Safety, Health and Environment - MeadWestvaco Corporation
Mr. Krouskop is vice president, Safety, Health and Environment. In this role, he is responsible for the company’s safety, health and environmental stewardship. Mr. Krouskop joined the company in 1979 as environmental specialist in the Corporate Human and Environmental Protection Department of Mead. From 1985 to 1990, he held the position of manager, Safety, Health and Environment at the Chillicothe, Ohio mill. In 1990, he became the corporate director of regulatory assurance and environmental management and assumed the role of director, environmental management with the merger of Mead and Westvaco. Most recently, he was the director, Safety, Health & Environment Global Policy & Strategy.

Shane Bush - Founder - BushCo, Inc

Mr. Bush is the founder of BushCo, Inc. whose primary mission is to provide services to aggressive organizations in the area of Performance Improvement. His work includes corporate clients such as BWXT, Battelle, Bechtel, Fluor, BNG America, Washington Group, Westinghouse, CH2M Hill, Grand Teton National Park, Forrest Service, Rosemark Health Care and numerous others. Mr. Bush has provided Keynote addresses at Princeton University, VPPPA Region X, Bechtel Safety Rally, Textron International (Montreal Canada), Safety Summits, Administration Professional Conference, and has made numerous presentations at national conventions.


Stanley Cherkasky - Managing Partner - Change Management Consulting, Inc.
Mr. Cherkasky has more than three decades of business and consulting experience, in both the private and public sectors, in the United States and abroad. He specializes in building high-performance teams, and working closely with leaders to achieve breakthrough financial, organizational, and operating improvement.

Founder of the firm, Mr. Cherkasky is the principal architect of the Performance Improvement Breakthrough™ methodology, and the Six Sigma Lean Advantage™—innovative and proven strategies that accelerate ROI and net income improvement, build customer loyalty, and create world-class recognition. He is known for his focus on leadership development, team building, and results. He has personally guided more than 35 leading organizations to realize a competitive advantage, and trained more than 150,000 managers in advanced leadership skills, organizational effectiveness, and change management techniques.

Mr. Cherkasky has been quoted in many business publications, including Fortune, Business Week and the Wall Street Journal. He is a senior member of ASQ and the American Management Association. His academic credentials include a BS in Engineering, and a Master’s in Management from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Greg K. Ellisor - Corporate Health & Safety Manager - Weyerhaeuser Company

Mr. Ellisor of Broken Bow, Oklahoma is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) with over 20 years of industrial, EHS experience. Mr. Ellisor is a 15-year Weyerhaeuser veteran as a Corporate Health and Safety Manager (13 years) after starting as a facility EHS Manager. He has supported EHS efforts in all businesses of the company including Wood Products, Cellulose Fibers, Timberlands and former Containerboard Packaging, Recycling and Fine Paper businesses. Mr. Ellisor currently provides strategic and technical safety and industrial hygiene support to Weyerhaeuser’s Lumber business and is the company’s OSB business safety leader. Prior to Weyerhaeuser, Mr. Ellisor worked as a health and safety consultant, community college EHS-program instructor, and product safety specialist for Bayer Corporation’s ag-chemical manufacturing business. Mr. Ellisor has a BS degree in Biology from the College of Charleston, South Carolina and an MS degree in Industrial Hygiene from the University of Oklahoma. After completing his undergraduate studies, Mr. Ellisor served 5 years as an officer in the United States Air Force, directing the flight of military assets aboard the E-3 AWACS aircraft.      


Warren Picken - Safety Consultant - SafeStart

Mr. Picken has over ten years’ experience in the field of managing health and safety. He played a key role in implementing and managing a behavior based safety program at the National Gypsum Company, a manufacturer in rural Quebec. His experience and dedication contributed to National Gypsum winning the "Plant Safety of the Year Award", an award they have won six out of the seven years of its existence.
 
Mr. Picken has a great passion for safety and believes that it must be present 24/7. He has been actively involved in live theatre and he brings this passion and drama into his presentations. He is firmly convinced that being safe is a source of financial savings, but more importantly, this belief drives him to take safety home to share with his wife and two sons.

Melvin C. Jones – Executive Director – Virginia Operation Life Saver
Mr. Jones has been the Executive Director of the Virginia Operation Lifesaver since 2005. He is a certified Operation Lifesaver Presenter and a Grade Crossing Collision Investigations Instructor. Prior to his work at Operation Lifesaver, Mr. Jones worked as the Chief of Police and Public Safety Director at Virginia State University. He also worked as a Law Enforcement Officer from 1974 until his retirement in 2001. As a Law Enforcement officer, he held numerous position including Lieutenant, Investigator and Patrol Officer in the city of Petersburg, VA.

Tim Autrey – CEO – Practicing Perfection Institute
Mr. Autrey is a recognized thought leader in human performance. Through his ground-breaking approach known as Practicing Perfection® and creation of the Practicing Perfection Institute (PPI), he has helped organizations around the world develop next-level leadership while enhancing safety and reducing human error.
Mr. Autrey has been a student of behavioral psychology since his earliest days. He spent over a year of his life underwater aboard the USS Ohio (the first Trident submarine) studying human behavior.
During a twenty-year career in the US commercial nuclear power industry, Mr. Autrey orchestrated and achieved major successes in human performance.
Mr. Autrey continues to lead as CEO of PPI, blazing the trail of constant and never-ending improvement that has become the hallmark of the Institute. Whether developing new insights and materials, or delivering his message in the US, Canada, Europe, China, or Russia, he does so as an uncompromising champion of human possibility.
In addition to giving keynote speeches and conducting executive-level trainings, he continues to publish. He recently authored the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) publication, Human Error Reduction: An Implementation Guideline (2010). His latest work, Practicing Perfection®: How to Achieve Safe, Reliable, and Sustainable Human Performance, will be released in April 2013, as will the first-ever magazine dedicated to improving human performance, “The HU Factor™”. 

Terry Hughes - Safety Manager - Domtar-Ashdown, Arkansas Facility
Mr. Hughes is the Safety Manager for the Domtar-Ashdown, Arkansas facility. He started his career with Domtar in 2011. Prior to starting his career in the Pulp and Paper industry his involvement with safety started with 19 years in the Fire and Emergency Response field. During his career in safety he has served as a Health and Safety Officer for a municipal fire department and a large Environmental Emergency Response company where he worked closely with the Drug Enforcement Agency on several large operations. He is an adjunct instructor with Southern Arkansas University Fire Academy where he teaches courses in Fire and Emergency Response, Hazardous Materials, Health and Safety, and Company Officer Courses. He has been able to take his learning’s in the Fire and Emergency Response field and infuse them into his role in the Pulp and Paper Industry. Mr. Hughes is a certified EMT, FFI, FFII, Arson Investigator and Peace Officer in the State of Arkansas.
He and his wife Peggy have 1 daughter and 4 sons. His hobbies include camping and riding ATV’s
 

Jeffry Tong - Hazard Mapping Coordinator for the Domtar-Ashdown, Arkansas Facility
Mr. Tong is the Hazard Mapping Coordinator for the Domtar-Ashdown, Arkansas facility. He started his career with Domtar in 2000. He worked 6 years in the Paper department, on 61 Paper Machine. In 2006 he moved to the Pulp department where he became the department Training Coordinator. After 2 years he moved to his current position. He works with the Safety department to bring the safety ideas, of mill leadership, to life. Jeffry is a First Responder and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. He and his wife Lindsey have 1 son, Ty and enjoy traveling.  
 

Elizabeth Dajnowicz - Global Health & Safety Program Manager - IP
Ms. Dajnowicz is a Global Health & Safety Program Manager with International Paper in Memphis, Tennessee. She supports all IP businesses (forestry, pulp and paper manufacturing, paper converting including corrugated box, specialty packaging and foodservice) worldwide by providing subject matter expertise on health & safety issues. Ms. Dajnowicz leads the Machine Safeguarding effort as a part of the LIFE program (LIFE-Changing Injury and Fatality Elimination) working toward eliminating all serious injuries and fatalities as a result of exposure to moving or energized equipment. Prior to IP, Ms. Dajnowicz worked at Honda of America Mfg., Inc. as an industrial hygienist, safety/environmental manager and international human resources specialist. Her specialties include machine guarding, lockout, fall protection, ergonomics and industrial hygiene.   She is a graduate of The Ohio University.

Mike Miller - Reliability Technology Manager - Buckeye Technologies Inc.
Mr. Miller has a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and has been with Buckeye over 27 years. He has 8 years of operational experience and more than 19 years of maintenance, risk and project management experience. Over his career he has worked at five of the company’s manufacturing locations, including corporate process development. Mr. Miller currently is the Reliability Technology Manager at the Foley, Florida Plant responsible for plant maintenance and risk management.

 


Thomas E. Evans - Founder - Training Logic

Mr. Evans founded Training Logic Inc. on the belief that business results are available through people. He has 30 years of training experience. Mr. Evans started his training career as an instructor for the Dale Carnegie Training Systems in 1982 and was employed as the National Training Manager with Willamette Industries, Inc. in 1988. In August 2002 he opened Training Logic, Inc. and started building a team of professional trainers which has worked with many pulp and paper organizations across the Nation such as:  Weyerhaeuser, Boise Cascade, Domtar, International Paper, Graphic Packaging, RockTenn, etc. While offering many topics in the area of; Leadership Development, Sales, and Communications training, Mr. Evans and his team of professional trainers are extremely proud of the safety results they have helped many organizations achieve. http://traininglogic.net/ tevans@traininglogic.net


Eric Hobbs - Partner - Michael Best & Friedrich Law Firm

Mr. Hobbs is a partner whose practice focuses on labor and employment, with an emphasis on employment counseling and policy development, occupational safety and health, worker’s compensation, wage and hour matters, clergy abuse and employment discrimination litigation. He also has experience in wage-hour, employment discrimination and multi-district class action cases.
Mr. Hobbs represents employers of all sizes in a variety of industries from service to heavy manufacturing. He has litigated before state and federal agencies and courts throughout the United States and has experience in Canadian occupational safety and health laws issues.

 

Lawrence “Larry” Halprin – Partner - Keller and Heckman
Mr. Halprin is nationally recognized for his work in the areas of occupational safety and health, and chemical regulation, at the federal and state levels. His occupational safety and health practice covers all aspects of legal advocacy, including: legislative reform and oversight; participation in OSHA, NIOSH and MSHA rulemakings and stakeholders processes; participation in the development of national consensus standards under the ANSI process, and TLVs under the ACGIH process; bringing and intervening in pre-enforcement challenges to final OSHA rules; providing compliance counseling and training; conducting incident investigations, compliance audits and program reviews; representing clients in OSHA investigations; and defending clients in OSHA and MSHA enforcement actions.

 Read his complete bio.


Ralph Mosely - Certified Safety Professional - REM Safety Consulting Inc

Mr. Mosely is a Certified Safety Professional who specializes in safety concerns with robots, automated machinery, and large manufacturing machinery. He is a Machine Safety Consultant and works for many of the Pulp and Paper industry’s most well known companies, as well as in numerous other industries. He has qualified as an expert in this area in our court system, and has worked both for OSHA and for manufacturing clients either contesting or working out OSHA citations. His company, REM Safety Consulting, Inc., is located in Sand Springs, OK, a suburb of Tulsa.