Keynote Speaker – Scott Lesnick!

Session A. All Attendees – Mariner’s Ballroom

Transformational Safety Leadership: Building Workplace Occupational Safety and Health from the Inside/Out

Scott Lesnick is a Global Leadership Keynote Speaker. He presents powerful keynotes, training and interactive sessions at 40+ events a year and is an author. Also, Scott earned his CSP- Certified Speaking Professional from the National Speakers Association. Only 12% of speakers world-wide have this designation! Scott is also a Certified Virtual Presenter.
Scott recently presented at TEDx. And, he’s run the equivalent of 2X around the planet. That’s 50,000 miles!
In addition, Scott spent 24 award-winning sales and management years at Shaw Industries a Berkshire Hathaway Fortune 500 company.
Scott served as the Dean of the Academy for Professional Speakers in 2016-17. He is a graduate of The University of Miami, Florida.
His memoir, “Kidjacked – A Father’s Story” and his book Lifejacked: Life Lessons on Leadership were published to critical acclaim.
Learn more at www.scottlesnick.com

VPPPA Region I champion safety and health excellence by helping worksites achieve continuous improvement toward their occupational safety and health goals. This high‑energy, practical keynote gives leaders the tools to turn disruption into disciplined progress—so your efforts translate into fewer workplace fatalities, injuries, and illnesses.

We’ll tackle today’s realities head‑on: AI advancements and their effect on staff, budget constraints and doing more with less, repurposing resources, an aging and diverse workforce, employee complacency, and rising stress and burnout.

This keynote goes beyond storytelling—it’s a masterclass in resilience, inspired by the same perseverance that propelled leaders like Ray Dalio and backed by the science of grit as championed by Dr. Angela Duckworth.

You’ll learn how to strengthen leadership, give people a real voice, set clear responsibilities with autonomy, and build belonging—so performance and protection rise together. We’ll also outline right‑sized ways to use data and AI for leading indicators, near‑miss learning, and proactive risk control without overwhelming teams.

Leave energized and equipped to lead from the inside/out—elevating culture, collaboration, and results that keep every worker safer, every shift.

Key Takeaways:
1 Successfully lead and navigate positive change: align safety, operations, and maintenance to turn resistance into adoption and accelerate safety and health excellence on the floor and in the field.
2 Seven powerful actions (from my five‑year survey) to strengthen communications and inclusion: tiered huddles, learning teams, stop‑work authority, and feedback loops that improve coordination and trust.
3 Identify and address people challenges: practical methods to reduce stress and fatigue, cut burnout, and improve retention—plus mentorship and knowledge transfer for an aging workforce.
4 Build an agile, future‑ready vision: integrate AI and digital tools for predictive insights, combat employee complacency with engaging training, and target resources where risk is highest.

Session B. All Attendees – Mariner’s Ballroom

OSHA’s VPP Readiness

Andrew Palhof

Regional Compliance Assistance Specialist

OSHA – U.S. Department of Labor

Boston Region

Session C. All Attendees – Mariner’s Ballroom

Region 1 VPPPA Annual Safety Business Meeting

All are welcome to attend, including non VPPPA members.  This session will consist of our annual membership business meeting for the Voluntary Protection Program Participants Association Region 1 – New England. We will have committee updates and board member presentations.  We will also discuss how our organization can continue to help all business in New England improve their safety programs. Feedback is welcomed!

Session D.1 Regency Room

Journey Toward Safety Excellence

Myron Harper, Cintas Health & Safety Director, National VPPPA Board

Sending employees home in the same condition than which they arrived for their shift—it’s what every business strives for. But how do we actually achieve this objective?
Building on the principles of OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program, the Journey Toward Safety Excellence identifies the key components on the roadmap to “target zero.” Using the core elements of VPP along with lessons learned from sites and companies who have achieved VPP status, this presentation will arm attendees with a better understanding of the pathway toward building a culture where employee involvement and management commitment drive continuous improvement across the board.

Session D.2 Armory Room

How Does Maintenance Excellence = Safety Excellence?

John Perrotti III, Fuss & O’Neill Manufacturing Solutions, LLC

This presentation will explore how an effective maintenance strategy will equate to lower risks and escapes in your safety program.

 

 

Session D.3 Portland Room

Ensuring Machine Safeguarding Programs are VPP STAR

Jack Popp, CSP

VPP STAR manufacturing sites utilize numerous machines and technologies in their production processes. Often, new machines are being added, modified, or being relocated within the facility. These machine changes can present potential serious hazards, injuries, and losses (legal, financial, etc.). This breakout session will focus on the VPP elements and Best Practices needed to achieve and sustain machine safeguarding excellence at VPP STAR level.
 
Jack Popp, CSP has 40+ years of global Safety, Health, Environmental, Security, and Facilities experience. He is a graduate of Indiana University of PA (Env. Health BS degree) and has completed post grad studies at Penn State, Oklahoma State, and Dartmouth. Jack is a past Chairperson of Board of Directors of ASSE/ASSP Greater Boston Chapter and VPPPA Region 1. He was also a past member of the Board of Directors of ASSE International and a National Board member of VPPPA. Jack has been recognized as an ASSE Safety Professional of the Year, VPPPA Mentor of the Year, and OSHA Region 1 SGE of the Year. Jack is currently an Emeritus member of VPPPA Region 1 Board of Directors, an instructor at OSHA Training Institute, and a safety consultant. Jack has presented breakout presentations at numerous VPPPA National and Regional Conferences.

 

Session E.1 Regency Room

Organizational Decision-making: Maintaining Benefit & Risk Balance

Peter Susca, OpX Safety

Senior management makes the first decision, and the workers make the last.  And the last one is the one that counts.

This session provides an overview of how unbalanced decision-making throughout the organization can create excessive risk and unnecessary downstream decisions.  How decision-making fits within a common relationship that illustrates the organizational cause and effect process. The session will center around overriding principles that that will be used to illustrate the key elements of risk creation and prediction, and how leaders can better understand how to prevent unnecessary risk creation and negative cultural impact.

Session E.2 Armory Room

Procedures of the Living Dead: The Science of Usability

Mike Hanna, Usability Mapping Inc.

The gap between the work and the worker has always been known. That gap is often filled with technology, intelligence, and hard work…then why are the people that need to cross still getting hurt? This presentation will explore common reasons and solutions to bridge this gap with:

The primary reason your procedures aren’t usable.
Identify the relationship between procedures and usability.
Methods to build usability before any document is created.

Session E.3 Portland Room

Prevention Through Design – Moving from Hazard Management to Hazard Elimination

Steve Gauthier

Prevention through Design (PtD) is a NIOSH-led initiative focused on designing out occupational hazards, illnesses, and injuries at the source, rather than managing them later. It involves proactive safety planning during the design phase of tools, equipment, facilities, and processes to protect workers, often saving money and improving efficiency.

Stephen Gauthier is a retired machinist and Special Government Employee (SGE) with more than 45 years of experience in industry. Since 2007, he has been actively involved in advancing Prevention through Design (PtD), focusing on eliminating hazards at the source to improve workplace safety and health outcomes.
Throughout his career, Stephen has represented a broad range of stakeholders, including union and nonunion workers, businesses, and government organizations across the United States. He is a respected leader within the safety community, having served two terms as National and Boston Region Chapter Chair of the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association (VPPPA), along with numerous other leadership roles.
In recognition of his contributions, Stephen was named a Massachusetts Toxic Use Reduction Champion by UMass Lowell. His work continues to promote innovative approaches that move industry beyond risk management toward hazard elimination.

Session F.1 Regency Room

Leadership in Safety

Miriam Owens, Vermont OSHA’s Compliance Assistant Specialist

This presentation explores the critical role leadership plays in building and sustaining a strong safety culture. We’ll review OSHA regulations related to employer responsibilities and employee rights, clarifying what compliance looks like in day-to-day operations. The session will also highlight why visible leadership commitment is essential to safety success, introduce key concepts of Human & Organizational Performance (HOP), and examine how systems, processes, and leadership decisions influence outcomes. Finally, we’ll connect these ideas to Caterpillar’s Safety Fundamentals, providing practical insights into how effective safety leadership drives accountability, learning, and continuous improvement at all levels of an organization.

Session F.2 Armory Room

Radiation and Radiation Protection

Jay Peters, Haley & Aldrich, Inc.

This presentation will educate participants on concepts of radiation, radiation exposure, and radiation protection. The presentation content for these three focus areas will include the following:

– Radiation: The presentation will begin by exploring what radiation fundamentally is, where it comes from, how it is measured, and what the measurements mean.

– Radiation exposure: The presentation will then expand on how people can be exposed to radiation, how exposure is measured, and what the measurements mean. This segment will also include information on the levels of radiation that people are exposed to through everyday activities, levels that people are exposed to through different occupations, and how those levels compare to health standards for radiation protection, as well as the health outcomes that are associated with too much radiation exposure.

– Radiation protection: With the groundwork on radiation basics covered in the first to segments (where does radiation come from, how are we exposed, and what is the safe level of exposure), the presentation will then review radiation protection standards and right-to-know for workers who do not work in the nuclear industry (workers in the nuclear industry are well aware of this information).

 

Session F.3 Portland Room

Technology is a Game Changer

Jason McCree, Everguard Ai

This presentation will introduce a software platform using Computer Vision and AI technologies to enhance existing safety efforts. These “NEXT LEVEL” safety opportunities will be demonstrated via real video evidence.

The opportunities will be demonstrated via real video evidence. Solutions will be shared that were designed to identify predetermined conditions, actions, and behaviors that are leading indicators of injuries, which can be added to new and/or antiquated equipment, machines, and facilities alike.

Session G: All Attendee Session – Mariner’s Ballroom

“Living a Culture of Collaboration” Interview Panel

Bring your questions to our safety experts during our interview panel!

John Mullen, Matt Twerdy, Jeff Houle, Jay Culbert