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#115: From Hopeful Veterinarian to Certified Safety Professional
394 Plays6 months ago
Don't let her city roots fool you. Lisa Blotsky, a casualty risk consultant with AXA XL, got her start in safety by putting on her boots (PPE-approved, of course) and working at a large-scale poultry processing facility. In this episode, listen as Jill chats with Lisa about her childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian, her 24 years spent working in the poultry industry, and how she transitioned into insurance. Lisa also talks about her involvement with the American Society of Safety Professionals, her passion for advocating for agriculture, and the importance of safety in caring for human life.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Accidental Safety Pro'
00:00:09
Speaker
This is the Accidental Safety Pro brought to you by HSI. This episode was recorded March 12th, 2024.
Meet Lisa Blotsky: Safety Professional and Consultant
00:00:15
Speaker
My name is Jill James, HSI's Chief Safety Officer. And today my guest is Lisa Blotsky. Lisa is a U.S. Casually Risk Consultant with AXA XL.
00:00:26
Speaker
one of the world's largest insurance carriers. Lisa is a board certified safety professional, has a master's in occupational safety and health from Georgia Tech, and recently earned her associate in insurance and is working toward her associate in risk management. Lisa joins us today from Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome to the show, Lisa. Thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted to be here. So Lisa, how'd you get
Lisa's Early Aspirations in Veterinary Medicine
00:00:51
Speaker
your start? What's your origin story?
00:00:54
Speaker
So my origin story, I was born in Detroit and my parents moved us down to the suburbs of Atlanta when I was three years old. And it was actually, I remember it was Friday the 13th. What? You remember that? I remember that. And I think I've always, I've loved spooky things ever since. I think that was probably part of it. And I went, I went to a Catholic school kind of inside the footprint of Atlanta. There's a couple of different schools here, lots of Catholics in the area.
00:01:24
Speaker
And ever since I was three, I always wanted to be a veterinarian. And it was just, I loved animals. I actually had some allergies to animal dander and my parents were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're gonna outgrow this. And of course I did it, you know? And I volunteered in high school at a veterinarian.
00:01:49
Speaker
Our clinic was in, the clinic I worked out was actually a really kind of swanky part of town.
00:01:56
Speaker
It was the area where all the Braves players lived, and the movie stars, like the rappers. Michael Jackson had a house down the road. Oh my gosh. We were seeing the bougie dogs and cats, right? And so by the time, it was time for me to go to college, the vet that I had worked for was an Auburn grad.
Auburn University and Shift to Agriculture
00:02:18
Speaker
And I think that was part of why I specifically looked at Auburn. And I really wanted to be close to them.
00:02:24
Speaker
Atlanta area, so that if I needed to run home, I could run home a little bit. So I did look at UGA, I looked at Auburn, and I really felt when I went on campus that Auburn was a better fit for me.
00:02:43
Speaker
But then, or he, I love to tell this story. When I ended up selling out all the, like the post admission paperwork, you know what, my field of study was going to be, I said I wanted to be preventative medicine because I knew, you know, they had a college path directly on campus because there was a vet school there. And I sold out my paperwork and I got it back.
00:03:08
Speaker
They're like, okay, you've been accepted into the College of Agriculture. I'm like, hey, we've got a problem because I'm a city kid. I came from Detroit. I was working on dogs and cats. I don't even know what I'm doing necessarily around large animals. You're not a girl from the farm.
00:03:29
Speaker
No, I am not. You weren't in Future Farmers of America when you were in high school, okay? No, I didn't even know what that was until college, actually. And so we actually drove the two hours to go visit the dean of the College of Ag to be like, hey, you got to fix our paperwork.
00:03:49
Speaker
He, I remember him telling me, if you really want to be a vet, the science and math kids where you would have been, those kids are sitting in a classroom all day. If you really want to be a vet and you want to actually put your hands on an animal,
00:04:04
Speaker
then you need to be college bag.
Career Beginnings at Tyson Foods
00:04:06
Speaker
Trust me, you won't regret it. And I was like, all right, whatever. You're the pro. And I was really kind of scared to leave. You're already going to a different state. You're already leaving mom and dad. You're leaving that environment. But immediately I was welcomed in to the College of Agriculture and actually
00:04:31
Speaker
They actually had me do a lot of leadership roles. Once they realized I had a gift for GAB and I was comfortable in a crowd and I was comfortable with strangers, they ended up starting to use me for recruiting purposes for the College of Agriculture. We had a program there that was called the Ag Ambassadors. Most land-grant universities have that, like Auburn.
00:04:59
Speaker
And it was there that I really got to meet a lot of folks from the state. I got to learn more about the work that is agriculture and the breadth of it. In my mind, it was chickens and pigs and cows. And in reality, I went, wait a minute.
00:05:22
Speaker
This is agronomy. This is soils. This is entomology. Etymology. Did I get it right? I think you got it.
00:05:43
Speaker
It wasn't just your typical farmer, turf grass management. Oh my gosh, wait a minute, I can get a degree. Not that that's obviously what I did, but I could get a degree in how to grow beautiful, pristine grass where sports teams play. What? Right? And so went through, you know, the College of Ag.
00:06:06
Speaker
I was in the program, totally invested in being a vet. I had continued to work at the vet over the summer and on breaks and I interned at Vets at Auburn and the whole nine yards. And I had applied once. Everyone applies really early and doesn't get in. It's kind of a practice, right? I don't get it. No big deal. And then, and I even had my like, hey, you didn't get in the letter on the wall.
00:06:34
Speaker
as inspiration and I study and I'm getting great grades and I'm ready to go again. And I literally have like the voice of God moment, your conscience, whatever you want to call it. I have the, you're not going to do this. Oh man.
00:06:48
Speaker
And I responded out loud, like, okay, that's great. What am I supposed to do? This is what I always wanted to do. And I got that, you'll figure it out. And I was obviously very concerned to tell my parents, hey, I'm not supposed to do this. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, but this isn't it. But I did. And they're like, well, what are you going to do? Are you going to change your major? Because at this point, I was already technically on paper a senior, but it was my junior year.
00:07:19
Speaker
And I went, okay, I don't know. I might as well finish this out, talking to counselors and whatever at the school. I already was so close to the end. I had a couple more classes to keep that pre-vet in my degree title. And so you might as well do it because it looks really good on a resume to say,
00:07:42
Speaker
Hey, I did all the extra stuff. I proved myself. I didn't just take the regular classes. I took the super hard stuff.
00:07:51
Speaker
And then, you know, thankfully I had been to a couple of career fairs at school, you know, you kind of walk around and yeah, it's, you know, it's his tractor supply. It's, you know, the company that does, oh, Agri-States, or there's a couple of different, like, Jake Purino was there.
00:08:12
Speaker
couple big names that I remember just kind of seeing. I kind of took the paperwork back and, you know, went back to the apartment and just kind of slept on it. Interviewed a couple places and I remember thinking, hey, I saw Tyson. There was a Tyson in South Georgia, Nevada, Georgia, and they had a representative there because it's across the border. And also a very agricultural area. And I remember speaking with their HR manager and said,
00:08:43
Speaker
I actually called him up later and said, you have one close to Atlanta, right? I remember there was a map in your display and he was like, yeah, but I'm only at this one. I was like, great, give me that phone number though. Because mom and dad are there and at least I have a link to home. It was down the road. So I started at Tyson as a production supervisor in August of 99.
00:09:07
Speaker
Well, working on the floor, pretty much straight out of school. It might have had a couple months off. So in a processing facility? In a processing facility, yes. In a processing facility. That facility employs the entire complex. So from egg, hatchery, farm, trucking, the whole process. All of that employs about 1,200 team members, 1,300 team members now.
00:09:35
Speaker
And I was just at the processing facility and I was in what's known as the evisceration department. So the department, right? The department where the birds come in. And what type of bird was it?
00:09:49
Speaker
Broiler, yeah, she was broiler. Oh yeah, sorry. I should say that. So it was chickens. And I remember starting and feeling very out of place, of course. But grateful that I had had hands-on agriculture experience. When I started, I remember very much feeling like
00:10:18
Speaker
I was seen as I wasn't going to make it. There were comments made. Like we say no microaggressions. I can see you in Auburn with a bow in your hair just kind of walk into campus. You just thought you were a preppy girl and you can't make it here.
00:10:38
Speaker
And I remember one particular supervisor I worked with saying something similar and she was just not nice to me. We're friends now. But I remember thinking, I'm going to prove you wrong. I'm going to make it. I know I'm going to make it.
00:10:54
Speaker
funny how that works. Right, right. And so I worked in evisceration. I worked in the live department where the birds come in off the trucks. I worked night shift. I worked day shift. I ended up and I was in what we call the debone department. So where the bird, the legs have already been separated from the front half and then the front half is cut into portions and those portions were
00:11:23
Speaker
marinated and frozen and then put into big boxes. Those big boxes go to some of the larger retailers with the large packaging, large portion. And from there, I think I worked also in mechanically deep-owned meat. We ran some product for some dog food and then there's a, I think we also ran some product maybe for some of the potted meats that are popular.
00:11:50
Speaker
And when I was kind of in the, maybe towards the end of my second year, I started to work in a lot of leadership roles. And, you know, I was happy to get that extra experience and feel like I was trusted to do extra things, work on the budget.
00:12:09
Speaker
actually come through and do other items where I was doing the team member evaluations, training managers on how to perform those evaluations, leadership classes for the supervisors. I was actually the trainer for those. It was great, but at the same time, I'm like,
00:12:33
Speaker
I don't know if I want to do this. What am I supposed to do? I had my peers kind of falling off. A lot of people end up in poultry that were pre-vet. And so people that came in with me, I'm going back to grad school and then now, like one in particular, she's a veterinarian now.
00:12:51
Speaker
Maybe that's what I'm supposed to be. I don't know. We both go work at a zoo, like literally. So you're hoping this voice comes back again to tell you- Right? I'm like- What's my next move? What's my next move? What am I supposed to do? What happened? Making a longer story, I'll make it a little short. I had been given this opportunity, a position opened up in safety.
00:13:15
Speaker
And at the time, I remember my first thought being, well, I'm off the floor. Like at least I've got a little office time and a little extra.
Transition to Safety and Further Education
00:13:24
Speaker
And it was kind of pitched to me like, well, you've got all these leadership skills and you've done all this extra, here's another extra opportunity. And after some hemming and hawing, just kind of like, okay, whatever. I jumped into the role and started seeing very quickly that the things that I had studied
00:13:44
Speaker
and my undergrad at Auburn, I could use them. The fact that I understood basic chemistry, because I had, of course, taken organic chemistries in physics and all these crazy classes, all of a sudden I went, oh, I can use that. And I actually, medical terminology, when a team member goes to the doctor and we get a diagnosis, immediately I understand what that diagnosis is.
00:14:10
Speaker
And the nurse is looking at me like her eyes are bugging out of her head. Like, how do you understand what that is? And I'm like, well, I know how to break it down. I know the Latin root. I know the suffix. I know the prefix, like I got it. And so I found that it was a natural fit and I was still, I still have my hands
00:14:32
Speaker
in the process. I was still touching a chicken. I still had that agriculture itch scratched a little bit. I still was able to deal with people and solve problems. I was using my background
00:14:51
Speaker
in the sciences, practical sciences, in agriculture, and I understood the process because of it. And then, therefore, when a safety problem came up, I wasn't coming at it from a completely ignorant perspective. I understood the process of how
00:15:11
Speaker
how the bird actually has to be run through and therefore what the person's impact is on that process and therefore how they can get injured or how we can solve for that equation and make it safer. And it was kind of validating to see that. And then because I had always had this drive to have
00:15:36
Speaker
you know, DVM, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine behind my name. I like, I like having the alphabet soup. I wanted someone to call me Dr. Lisa, like that was in my head since I was three. Wow.
00:15:49
Speaker
But then I had, thankfully, through all the leaders, I had one gentleman who told me one day, he's an area director and he's just in my area and we're hanging out and he's telling me he's studying for some tests. And I'm like, oh, okay, what are you studying for? And he tells me, oh, it's a board certification and I'm going to get my CSP. And I was like, a what? And he's like, certified safety professional. And I was like, really?
00:16:15
Speaker
That's a thing. You can do that. And he opened my eyes to wait a minute. This is legitimate. Like I'm not just like pushing papers around. Yeah, I'm solving problems. Sure. Okay, that feels good. But on some level, I'm checking boxes that have to be checked because someone at the government or someone at corporate says I have to.
00:16:38
Speaker
But then all of us said, wait a minute, I can I can solve problems and do things and I can have some personal satisfaction and feel like I'm awesome. Like I can be legitimized with a piece of paper. Like, wait, what?
00:16:54
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And once I got that, oh, okay, like there's some level of satisfaction, then that led eventually to, oh, I can get a master's in this because I never had formal education in it. Yeah. Okay. I took an OSHA class or two. Okay. I went to our internal safety courses. Sure. To be a hazmat instructor or whatever. Okay. I went to a conference. They go up to you. No, I can be
00:17:21
Speaker
internationally recognized with an acronym that says, hey, she actually knows this stuff. Like, you know, it gave me some credibility. That's right. How long into, you know, working in safety from the time you got that, like, there's an opening in the safety department to when you decided to start grad school?
00:17:42
Speaker
grad school was probably, I probably started thinking about that maybe in 2015 or 2016 because in part I thought the CSP was gonna teach me more practical knowledge and I wanted a little bit more. I definitely value the certification. I promote it. I think there is
00:18:10
Speaker
There's a lot that comes with earning it, and there's a lot that comes with keeping it that is valuable. But I wanted more about safety culture. I wanted more about the sciences behind why we do certain things, the psychology of it, the biology of it. I wanted more of that than what I got with a CSP.
00:18:37
Speaker
And some people do it the opposite direction, but I went, oh, okay, because I had the CSP, I really should say that, because I had the CSP and to maintain it, I was in the American Society of Safety Professionals and was going to their meetings. And at their meeting,
00:18:54
Speaker
We had a presenter from Columbia Southern, I think it was. And at the time they presented, you know, hey, this is how you can get your degree. This is our, this is what we have, you know, up for offer. And, and I, because of the poultry,
00:19:13
Speaker
the National Safety Council, or whoop, let me reverse. I was involved at the time with Georgia Tech through their National Safety Conference for the Poultry Industry. That's right, yeah. I've been part of that one too. Right, we talked about that. Because I was part of that,
00:19:33
Speaker
I had connections at Georgia Tech because Georgia Tech was very involved. And I heard whisperings that they were working on a program. And here I am, somebody who thought she was going to be a doctor. And I'll admit it, I like the clout of Georgia Tech. I like feeling like, hey, I might not have been a veterinarian, but I went to a really quality school.
00:19:57
Speaker
And I went, oh, and I have these connections. So these are people that are already part of my community that would be teaching people. I already knew face to face that I already worked with. And I felt that I had some respect and they respected me like there was this mutual admiration society thing we had going on. And I thought that that might be something I was interested in. So I kind of just sat on it for a little bit.
00:20:25
Speaker
I honestly don't remember if I applied to multiple schools, but I do remember going through the process and applying to Georgia Tech. And then I deferred for a year because I thought there was some scholarship money out there that admittedly I wish there was more available to us as safety professionals. But what was available was not as drastic as I thought it was going to be. And so I deferred for a year and I joined in the second cohort at Georgia Tech.
00:20:56
Speaker
and then we were, let's see here through our, what, first year or so in the pandemic hit.
00:21:03
Speaker
Oh, wow. This is pretty new in terms of earning your degree, but you had been working in the field for quite a long time. I had. That was such an excellent program because we did have people that were straight out of grad school in our cohort, literally straight out of school.
00:21:26
Speaker
Yeah, they went high school, college, grad school. And they were coming in and they were learning from someone like me who was kind of, I'll say, I'll guess midpoint in my career. And then you had folks that had always wanted to go to a grad school program, but something had not really worked with them. We had folks that were in their sixties. Yeah.
00:21:48
Speaker
and 70s that were getting their masters, and we had so much to learn from them because they had just an absolute wealth of knowledge.
00:21:58
Speaker
in practical application of safety, whereas a lot of the stuff you would learn in a school is theoretical. And so you're able to kind of put that together. And we all came from different aspects of industry, even though it was a small group. I think we were 20 something in the cohort. Everybody came from different areas. So we were all able to learn from each other.
00:22:24
Speaker
on a fairly internet level, I have no experience in construction. My only experience is if we added on to the processing facility or hold equipment in. But then having folks that actually did that, large scale projects, that was really gratifying. People that worked in textiles. Did you keep your job at Tyson Lawyer in grad school?
00:22:51
Speaker
I did, yes. And I had two young kids at home at the time. And I looked back and wonder how I did it. Yeah, right? And I was asleep. And I probably was not a very nice person to live with. So from a practitioner standpoint, as an EHS professional, CSP,
00:23:20
Speaker
What do you love about Ag? Because my gosh, did you say you were in the Ag field for 24 years?
Experiences in the Poultry Industry
00:23:31
Speaker
Yes. It was just shy of 24 before I came over to insurance. Was it poultry the whole time? It was. It was Tyson. It was poultry the entire time.
00:23:42
Speaker
And then, I mean, I guess you can tack on another four years of collegiate experience, you know, for what that's worth. Yeah, of course. So, oh my God. Now that I think about it, that's like close to 30 years, which is nuts. That's where I'm at, sister. 30 years this year. And also with experience in the poultry industry, but not as long as you have. Just crazy.
00:24:05
Speaker
I think there is, let's go back to that initial. I mentioned my coworker who was like, you're not going to make it. I remember that immediately putting a grit into me, like, oh my gosh, I've got to make it. Agriculture is its own beast, but poultry is different. I mean, there's a whole lot to it. It's fast paced.
00:24:33
Speaker
every piece is interlocked. You are part of
00:24:40
Speaker
you're part of the whole natural world and that vibrancy and the energy that comes with that, it's always moving forward. An animal keeps growing, it has to, it logically does. And that energy pushes the process, the actual poultry process, it's time bound, and it moves you through it. And you're on, if you don't,
00:25:06
Speaker
Grab on you're kind of just moving along with it. So is this where I'm supposed to ask you what came first the chicken or the egg? I think they actually don't actually have a scientific answer for that now and I don't remember what it was. I think I think I ran an article and now of course that didn't stick in my brain. It just seemed to fit at this moment because yes, okay. You alright?
00:25:29
Speaker
But I love the vibrancy of the people. I will admit, that's one thing I miss. I was telling a peer just yesterday that I was like, I went from 1,200 people wanting something or needing something or just, you know, even if it wasn't safety-related, right? From that to, you know, working
00:25:53
Speaker
remotely. And yes, I'll go to a facility, but it's not an everyday occurrence, right? So that energy level is... I miss a little bit of that, but I love this family environment.
00:26:13
Speaker
That can be a problematic word in the workplace because there's a lot of sacrifice that comes with family. I hate to say, oh, we're a family, but there are so many families at the workplace that I think they feel- In agriculture specifically. In agriculture. Yeah, in agriculture specifically.
00:26:37
Speaker
that as I remember telling people in orientation classes, look around like you're going to work with somebody's brother, somebody's sister, somebody's cousin. And what does that say about the place and the culture itself? Would you bring your auntie to come work with you at a facility that you didn't think was safe?
00:26:58
Speaker
that you didn't feel like it was a good place to work, that you didn't feel validated in the product you're producing, right? And I love that sense of it. I love seeing little communities of people that would sit together at the lunch table and they all would care for each other. I miss, I love that
00:27:26
Speaker
the baby showers and the bridal showers and literally passing a bucket around if families on hard times. That energy that I don't know that you see in other industries, because we worked with family farms, people would pass these farms down for generations.
00:27:46
Speaker
and seeing that investment carried through, that it was ingrained. I'm caring for the land, I'm caring for these birds, I'm caring for the process, I'm invested in my farm's reputation, I'm the grower. I loved that about it. That was my experience too, it's wonderful. Lisa, when you have a special word that you made up
00:28:16
Speaker
What was your word? Ag something? Agvaket, maybe? Yes, that's the word. That's the word. For a second, I was like, what is it? Where is she going? Agvaket. Explain what that is, because I think you're headed in that direction right now.
00:28:33
Speaker
I consider myself an advocate, so agriculture advocate and you just kind of slush them together. Not only do I obviously, obviously, you know, we're here talking about safety, not only do I care about safety, but I care about, a lot about
00:28:51
Speaker
the perception of agriculture in the world, I care about the fact that 2% of this nation is feeding the other 98%. And that other 98% in large part doesn't know where their food comes from.
00:29:09
Speaker
doesn't understand, it had no exposure, and not necessarily any fault of their own. It's just the way society is these days. We live in the city like I did, kind of bringing it back full circle. And there's just not an exposure to it. And even there's a sanitization, I think that's a word.
00:29:30
Speaker
of how our food is made. And therefore, when people are confronted with any little snippet of anything that's stinky or messy, that they don't understand it. They shun away from it. They don't ask questions.
00:29:52
Speaker
And so I, and I guess it's from being an Ag Ambassador and being welcomed into that community and educated myself that I feel a desire to advocate for that industry and for the people that are feeding us.
00:30:10
Speaker
And so, yes, advocate, ag advocate, ag advocates, right? All day long. And in fact, the other day I was like, I have to find a t-shirt. I need to make myself a t-shirt of that, right? Because there is just so little out there. And I live in a community, so I'm north of Atlanta. I say Atlanta because it makes sense to people, but I'm north of Atlanta.
00:30:36
Speaker
in a community that when I was in college, when I was in high school, this is the area where Smokey and the Bandit filmed, right? Like literally, literally, you know, the car is riding through the hills. And there was a dirt road. When I was in high school, I interned at a vet out here and it was a dirt road to get to it. By the time I was in college, it was paved.
00:31:02
Speaker
Currently, the community is considering welcoming a National Hockey League arena to our area. Urban Sprawl is here, right? It's left Atlanta and it's made it 30, 45 minutes up the interstate.
00:31:20
Speaker
And we have always, in this area, for the 25 years that I was at Tyson, we've always, because it's down the road from where I still live, we've always fought the, oh god, the chicken plants in the middle of town. And
00:31:36
Speaker
Many people do not know that this community would not have survived if it wasn't for poultry coming in in the 30s and 40s. The people in this community had no source of wealth. They had no source of income. And there wasn't a rail line to bring anything to them.
00:31:59
Speaker
And the community started to have agriculture, started to have, at the time, the veterinarian that actually I go to now, he'll tell me about the good old days and how poultry came in and started to create jobs.
00:32:17
Speaker
And Wilson Foods, I believe it was, was the facility here in town. And it got bought by Holly Farms, and then Holly Farms was bought by Tyson. And we're not the only, I say we, like I still work for Tyson, but the facility here is not the only one in town. There's others, we just happen to be the one that's more prominently visible. Sure, the largest one.
00:32:44
Speaker
Right. The largest one. Lisa, when you decided to leave poultry and now you're with insurance, how did that, yeah, why did you make that shift or how did you make that shift and what's it like?
Shift to Insurance Industry with AXA XL
00:33:00
Speaker
So that shift was kind of a combination of different things. I mean, I'll admit, you start to expand your worldview a little bit like I did. I got the masters and was kind of exposed to other things. And you start to think, do I want to do this forever? Obviously, clearly agriculture is in my blood and I'm stuck with it.
00:33:22
Speaker
But honestly, with my networking with the ASSP, with the Women in Safety Excellence group specifically, one of my peers, Christina Rolle, she actually had come over to AXA XL
00:33:41
Speaker
And they knew that they were expanding the role, that there was just too much work for her to handle alone. And she reached out to me and said, hey, have you thought about doing something else? And I was like, what you got, you know? And they just kind of went, huh, what's, and I will, I will say talking with everyone through the
00:34:02
Speaker
the informal interview process. I mean, yes, there's a formality to it. You set up meetings and so on. But the conversations were very informal and I felt very comfortable. I mentioned all these different times in my life where I felt psychologically safe and comfortable. I felt very comfortable and I felt that all of this hard work that I had done to educate myself,
00:34:26
Speaker
was of value to someone. And it was of value to insurance. And specifically they saw that, oh gosh, we were able to take people that have specific knowledge. So some of the, I should say like my incoming class, you know, my freshmen classmates at AXA XL, we had folks that had done amazing research in genetics and chemistry.
00:34:54
Speaker
people that had worked in the automobile industry. Just all these different experiences that they didn't have an official degree in safety. They had had all of these experiences that then was seen as beneficial to the insurance industry because they understood, again, that process. So just like I understood how
00:35:21
Speaker
how a bird is processed and therefore can address the safety hazards of the process. Here were these people and their individual industries and that was seen as a benefit. So it has made for a comfortable process in coming in and they've definitely honed in on my experience with food and beverage and agriculture.
00:35:44
Speaker
They've definitely used me for that. I'm so happy to be able to do that because those are my people. That's the process I understand. But then I've also had to learn some of the jargon in insurance. That's foreign to me, but I'm being given plenty of opportunity to learn. It sounds like you really like learning.
00:36:05
Speaker
I do. I do. I'm a nerd. I'm a professional nerd. Yeah. So you're a professional nerd, but what about in your volunteer time? Because I think you might dip your toe. I mean, I'm interested to hear what you do in your volunteer time, in your community time. I mean, I teach breath and meditation and yoga, but what do you do, Lisa? Oh, wow. That's a good one.
00:36:32
Speaker
I need that for my singing ability. It's my good breath support. So I do some volunteering at church. I think that not yet dipping into the safety field, but I was a musical theater person in high school. And so I do some singing and that sort of thing at church. Currently that's on hiatus because of my little ones. My husband also does musical theater and the music program at church.
00:37:01
Speaker
So currently I'm a wedding coordinator, so I have my organizational skills and my event planning and making things happen on time. I use it for that, but I am using my safety skills at a local charity haunted house called Four Sites, which is the county we live in, Four Sites, so it's a plan word.
Volunteer Work and Professional Engagements
00:37:22
Speaker
And I have been doing that two years now and I am so sucked in. I love it. So you mentioned at the beginning of the show that you like scary things. So you're volunteering at a haunted house doing safety stuff? Safety. I am, believe it or not.
00:37:39
Speaker
Because you imagine when you go into a haunted house, any of these professional, you know, professionally organized haunted houses, there is an aspect of safety. You have fog, you have dim lights, you have maybe some sort of pyrotechnics you might have. Obviously, you've got electrical things. So you have fire hazards, and you have people hazards.
00:38:03
Speaker
So part of my job, along with the rest of the security and safety team, is we actually walk the facility to make sure that they are not trip hazards. Because our particular haunted house is not a permanent installation. It's erected at a fairground just for the spoopy season, just for October, and then it's taken down.
00:38:26
Speaker
So we'll go through and we inspect the facility on a, we do safety walks. We work with the fire marshal and the police department to make sure that the actors are safe during the time that they're there. And then the part that I particularly enjoy is working the cameras where we get to watch everyone in the community come out and get spooked. And that is phenomenal. And it's especially fun when I get to watch my now forward
00:38:55
Speaker
teammates from
00:38:58
Speaker
from the chicken plant kind of come through, you know, these maintenance guys, I can recognize them on the camera. Well, there is Carlos and I walk him, watch him go through and just be spooked and it's hilarious. It's fantastic. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. Yeah. So I, so I get to, um, you know, get my, get my spook on at the same time that I'm being useful with my particular skillset. Oh man. So everything. Yeah. So our job for listeners in case
00:39:26
Speaker
this is a first for you, can also include haunted houses. Because I mean, a hazard exists in every place that a human body works, that's for sure. Or the undead. Yes, or the undead, the zombie safety. Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned earlier, ASSP and your connection to it. Yes. And why specifically
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, what has, what has ASSP and being part of a chapter and why is, how has that helped your professional career?
00:40:00
Speaker
Oh, it's been excellent. I would say, firstly, I would not have known about the opportunities for further education at all, if it wasn't for ASSP, because they locally, most states, most big cities will have a chapter and have regular meetings, if not in a local area on a regional level. So being able to be
00:40:30
Speaker
in those sessions, I've been exposed to either further education in the meeting itself, further education outside of that. So whether it's at the collegiate level, then if there have been special classes, oh, I didn't know that I could be
00:40:52
Speaker
An OSHA outreach trainer? Oh, that's cool. Tell me more about that. Because obviously, as we already discussed, I like learning. So any opportunity to expand on that. And then our Georgia chapter, gosh, I wish I could remember what year it was, but we started an actual chapter of the Women in Safety Excellence.
00:41:16
Speaker
And Christina, who I mentioned before, was part of starting up that chapter of WISE. And there were a group of four of us women who were part of the steering committee and started really getting it active and kind of rolling and doing our own separate things outside of the ASSP meetings. And I was able to build this really fun
00:41:42
Speaker
an empowering group of women, that community kind of built that up. And then, you know, shocker of shockers, we actually had gentlemen that decided to join because our content was so much fun and we had so much to offer and they wanted to lift us up just like we wanted to be part of a community. And then that was so gratifying and I really loved it. And we were, man, we were rocking. And then the pandemic hit.
00:42:09
Speaker
And, well, I'm out. Dang pandemic. I think, you know, there's some silver lining is out in it. Like, I will say, right? There's silver lining. My silver lining was, you know, by the end of my collegiate career, my graduate school career, I, there were no other distractions and I could study and I could ace it, you know? And I could get out of there, you know, with those grades that like my inner,
00:42:36
Speaker
my inner nerd really wanted to get. But it killed some of those social organizations. So sadly, we are working to build that organization back up. And even the chapter itself, we're building that chapter back up. I shouldn't say we. The chapter is being built back up. I'm just a side note to that. But we're kind of trying to build the, let me say, the Excellence Group back up locally. Obviously, it's still going naturally, but we're trying to build that up locally as well.
00:43:06
Speaker
Yeah, Lisa, you and I met at a trade show this year. Yeah, we were at National Safety Expo of Congress. Yes. Yeah. National Safety Council Congress or yes. Yes. And so what does your year look like for
00:43:24
Speaker
for further education conferences, how do you approach your continuing ed? What does that look like for you? Oh, that's a great question. I'm currently self-studying for the Associate in Risk Management. So that's my own personal thing. I can do that on my own. You have personal time and on some work time, just computer-based. So that's my own personal thing.
00:43:53
Speaker
but then also still involved with the local ASSP in getting some further education there. And the way of conferences our Region 4 ASSP meeting is coming up, I believe, in April, the end of April.
00:44:08
Speaker
beginning May. And that will be in Orlando, Florida. And then continuing with ASSP, we will be having that conference in the fall in Denver, Colorado. And I will be working with the Women and Safety Excellence to put on the runway show for the PPE that is inclusive of women's body shapes and styles and not just pink and smaller.
00:44:36
Speaker
So I will be helping out with that. And then I think National Safety Council as well, the Congress again, will be later in the year. I don't have the dates. Yeah, right. I'll see you at both of those shows. I'll be at that for sure. But I definitely encourage people to come on out to the women's fashion PPE runway show at ASSP.
00:45:01
Speaker
and if there's anyone listening to the podcast that's interested in sponsoring that as being part of it, then I'll be happy to provide them with more information for sure. Lisa, what keeps you going in this? I mean, now we've identified the shocking length of each of our careers. What gets you out of bed every day to keep working on this other than the internal nerd, but what is it in that inside nerd that keeps you going?
Lisa's Passion for Safety and Animal Care
00:45:30
Speaker
Oh, you know, if I have to go down to the core, the sanctity of life. I believe that life has value and is intrinsically must be taken care of and loved and nourished. And part of that is staying alive and being safe, psychologically, physically safe. And there is work to be done. I will tell people I will always have a job.
00:45:58
Speaker
whether for good or bad. There's always hazards. Life is hazardous. Life is risky. But if we can reduce that and we can continue to be productive members of society, and if I can support people in that mission, then I am happy to do it. I feel like
00:46:17
Speaker
I was led down a path to get me the skills so that I could do the work that I'm doing now. And I never would have been exposed to that world where I was as a child or a young adult. That was not part of the community that I was in. And the path that I was taken on gave me those skills to get me to that point.
00:46:47
Speaker
Beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. As we're, as we're wrapping up our time today, you know, you've, you knew what you wanted to do since you were three years old and actually have a memory of it and it includes agriculture and animals. How are animals still part of your life today if they are?
00:47:09
Speaker
They are, we have a menagerie in our home. We currently have two dogs of our own, and currently I have two foster dogs. I work with the Georgia English Bulldog Rescue, even as a, I think, graduate of two programs that are diametrically opposed to having bulldogs in your house, both Auburn and Georgia Tech are rivals of University of Georgia, but here I am.
00:47:36
Speaker
I had this skill set, so I'm happy to help. And that's a dog that's definitely in need, so we help out with that. And a different story for another day. My husband and I were brought together by a bunny. Again, story for another day, but we happened to currently have a rescue bunny and some fish. And if I give my ways about me one day, we'll probably have a snake or something scaly in the house. We're just not currently there yet.
00:48:05
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Well, when we see one another at ASSP or NSC, I'm going to ask you for that bunny story. Oh, yes, I'll definitely share. Oh, Lisa, this has been such a pleasure and thank you for sharing your, thank you for sharing your story and your ag-vocacy.
00:48:24
Speaker
for all things agriculture. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. I'm happy to. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you all for spending your time listening today. And more importantly, thank you for your contribution toward the common good.
00:48:38
Speaker
May our employees and those we influence know that our profession cares deeply about human well-being, which is the core of our practice. If you aren't subscribed and want to hear past and future episodes, you can subscribe in iTunes, the Apple Podcast app, or any other podcast player you'd like. Or if you prefer to read the transcript, you can listen and read at hsi.com.
00:48:58
Speaker
We'd love it if you could leave a rating and review it on iTunes. It really helps us connect the show with more and more health and safety professionals like Lisa and I. Special thanks to Emily Gould, our podcast producer, and until next time, thanks for listening.