Conference & Exhibition Agenda:

Click to access Region-1-VPPPA-Conference-Exhibition-Agenda.pdf

KEYNOTES

Opening Keynote Speaker

Matthew J. Twerdy, CSP, CHMM Environment, Health, Safety, & Sustainability | Human and Organizational Performance Thought Leader Collins Aerospace (An RTX Business)

Matthew J. Twerdy is a Director of EH&S at Collins Aerospace, an RTX Company. Matt leads a staff of EH&S professionals covering a large workforce across multiple sites. In his role Matt works with all levels of the organization driving EH&S excellence and active learning.

 

Stephen Jenkins, MSc., MBA, CPE Vice President of Health & Safety, Cintas Corporation

Closing Keynote Speaker

VPP Success: Cultural alignment and personal leadership

We want to take a more holistic understanding of the many conditions in everyday work. And we do this by using the Human & Organizational Performance (HOP) philosophy to grow and care for our safety culture creating an active learning culture. There are five principles within HOP that shape and influence the way organizations think, act, view success and respond to failure. These principles work together to change the way we think about work and how to improve it.

Cintas has over 130 VPP sites.  To achieve this level of VPP engagement, we have aligned our H&S strategy with our Cintas culture – the shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which govern how people behave in Cintas.  Deeply understanding our culture and how H&S fits with it, is critical to our success.  Refining our personal leadership styles to best leverage this culture, accelerates our H&S success. During this session, Stephen will ask you to join him in reflecting on organizational culture, leadership approaches and how we can all look in the mirror to achieve next-level leadership and drive H&S and VPP success in our organizations.

Breakout Presentations

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Session A – Ballroom

Best Practice Bonanza!

Jeff Stolz

A Sharing Singing (yes, we will sing) Safety Solution Smorgasbord!

Simply put, we all bring at least one great idea or best practice and go home with many more to share.  This will be a unique and exciting celebration of all that VPPPA can be.  We will apply the four VPP elements to help lead us uncover robust safety practices which will help create safer workplaces for each of our teams!

All participants will rotate between idea centers for each of the VPP Elements sharing their ideas and then voting for the ideas that will have the biggest impact on their Safety Organizations. 

Prizes will be given for the winning ‘Best Practices’ but truly, we will all be winners as we take home ideas and best practices that will lift up our people and our safety programs by realizing the VPP principles of safety excellence and injury reduction.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Session B – Breakout Meeting Rooms

Shannon Prescott, CWCA, COSS

Intro to Developing Psychological Safety

Increasingly, organizations have come to understand that one of the true keys to organizational wellness and business success is increasing the level of Employee Engagement within their organizations. There is plenty of research and documentation to support this understanding. We also know that people work
better when their physical safety is being watched after. In this session, we will dive deeper and look at the most critical factor in employee engagement, better performing teams and increased retention rates: Psychological Safety & Wellness. Learn what diverse industries such as airlines, healthcare, nuclear power operators and companies like Google have found:  organizations with higher levels of psychological safety have more engaged, more empowered and more connected employees. In this interactive, fast-paced session, we will learn more about how to identify and increase psychological safety & wellness within our organizations.
 
Participants will gain by the end of this workshop:
a) A clear definition of Psychological Safety.
b) An understanding of the importance of Psychological Safety as key element in Employee
Engagement and overall employee wellbeing.

 

Meeting Room 1

Mike Hanna, Usability Mapping Inc.

Usability and Operations Procedures 

This presentation will managers and safety specialists with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about usability engineering documents.

 

Meeting Room 2

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

How Does Maintenance Excellence = Safety Excellence? 

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

 

Meeting Room 3

Session C – Ballroom

Rena Harrington, United Support & Memorial for Workplace Fatalities, (USMWF)

Worker Fatalities

A presentation to share how Rena’s organization offers support, guidance and resources to those affected by work-related injuries, illnesses or diseases. Dedicated to sharing lessons learned that leads a movement of change in promoting actions for safe and healthy working conditions. Through the collective voice of families of fallen workers and other activists, we strive for the elimination and controls of workplace hazards.

Ms. Rena Harrington became a strong workplace safety advocate after the loss of her son, Justin Harrington in January 2018, due to a construction incident. Rena started volunteering for USMWF in 2020. She has become a strong voice for change and prevention of occupational incidents, illnesses and diseases. Through sharing her story of the workplace incident that took her son’s life she reiterates the importance of safety leadership in the workplace and how growing female leadership matters.

Rena has been interviewed by NBC News twice, has done in person and virtual presentations at several area OSHA offices including all of Massachusetts OSHA offices, Orlando FL, Tampa FL, Ft. Lauderdale, FL and St Paul Minn. She has presented at NASA Headquarters at Cape Canaveral, Fl. Rena attended the Department of Labor’s Workers’ Memorial Ceremony in Washington, DC last April, where she resigned the USMWF Alliance with OSHA. She has presented at the National Labor Council’s annual conference as well at the United Utility Workers’ Association (UUWA) annual gas conference.

Session D – Breakout Meeting Rooms

Stephen Gauthier, Gauthier Safety Consulting

Moving from Risk Management to Hazard Elimination

Prevention through Design (PtD) is an approach in occupational health and safety that focuses on addressing potential risks and hazards early in the design phase or redesign of products, systems, or processes. The goal is to minimize the possibility of accidents, injuries, or environmental damage by making safety and health an integral part of the design process. This proactive approach is in contrast to traditional reactive safety measures that focus on addressing hazards after they occur.

Meeting Room 1

Mike Hanna

Crash and Burn – How Usability Brought Down the 737 MAX

346 lives were lost even though the one person that had the most training, most expertise, and was in the best position to act…held the answer in their hands. As modern commercial aircraft become more complex, pressures regarding capability, efficiency, and comfort make the implementation of user experience (UX) solutions more crucial than ever.
By understanding human behavior, communication techniques, and cognitive limits under stress, we can significantly enhance safety in aviation as well as any industry where people need documents to do work.

Learning outcomes from this presentation include:
• Identify UX challenges under stress
• Recognize UX compliant checklists
• Recognize UX compliant procedures
• Understand the importance of navigational design in critical documents

Meeting Room 2

Rich Sarnie, CSP, P.E., ARM, CCPSC, MBA – United Alliance

Just Calling 911 is NOT an Emergency Plan Ensuring Safety for First Responders  

First responders are the professionals we call in an emergency.
They are going into places that we are leaving from. While they are highly trained, they are not as well versed of the hazards in every workplace.
Industry has an obligation to train first responders of our hazards and what they can possibly encounter during an emergency.
Whether its confined spaces, excavations, chemical process hazards, or explosion possibilities, industry must take a role in education prior to calling 911.
 
Meeting Room 3

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Session E – Breakout Meeting Rooms

Brady Keene, MS, CSP, ASP, CHST, STSC – StepoAI & Keene State College 

Coming of Age: AI Safety Assistants and Agents

This presentation explores the evolution of AI safety assistants and agents, examining their growing role in workplace safety, compliance, and decision-making. It highlights advancements in AI-driven safety tools, their impact on risk management, and how they shape modern safety culture by bridging the gap between compliance, real-time insights, and predictive analytics.

Meeting Room 1

Miriam Owens, VOSHA Compliance Assistant Specialist – VOSHA Compliance Assistant Specialist

Leadership in Safety

Being a leader in safety is more than just compliance; it’s creating an environment where safety is forefront. Let’s explore ways to improve safety culture in the workplace by increasing Leaders in safety.

Management provides the leadership, vision, and resources needed to implement an effective safety and health program. With leaders in safety, they create a culture that is engaging to employees where safety is the top priority for everyone in the organization. In this session we will explore ways to create an environment where safety is forefront. Such as developing a safety vision and mission, engaging employees at all levels, investing in training and development, fostering a culture of accountability, conducting regular audits, and promoting open communication.

Learning outcomes:
Understanding the importance of leadership in safety.
How to improve safety culture in the workplace through Safety and Health programs.

https://www.osha.gov/safety-management/additional-resources
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925753513001549
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022437524000446

 

Meeting Room 2

Session F – Breakout Meeting Rooms

Myron Harper, Health & Safety Director – Cintas

Transformational Safety

Meeting Room 1

Elie H. Haddad, P.E.

Shoulder Exoskeleton in Construction: What New Evidence Say

Is a passive shoulder exoskeleton effective in injury prevention? In this presentation you will learn about the physical and mental demands of a passive shoulder exoskeleton used in overhead construction tasks and decide whether your business should adopt the technology.

The rapid advancement of wearable technology, particularly exoskeletons, presents a promising solution for reducing the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among construction workers. This presentation will explore the effectiveness and limitations of a passive shoulder exoskeleton in alleviating cognitive workload and muscular demands during overhead construction tasks. Through an experimental study involving 26 participants, we assessed muscle activity and cognitive load using surface electromyography (EMG) and the NASA-TLX scale, respectively. The results indicate a significant reduction in both cognitive load and muscle activity, particularly in the anterior deltoids of female participants. These findings align with existing research, highlighting the benefits of exoskeletons in mitigating work-related MSD risks. However, to ensure safe and sustainable implementation, it is crucial to address the technology’s limitations and conduct further research in real-world occupational settings.

By the end of this presentation, attendees will be able to:

  1. Understand the role of passive shoulder exoskeletons in reducing musculoskeletal strain in construction work.
  2. Interpret the impact of exoskeletons on cognitive workload and muscle activity during overhead tasks.
  3. Analyze gender-specific differences in muscle activity reduction when using exoskeletons.
  4. Recognize the limitations of exoskeleton technology and its implications for workplace adoption.
  5. Identify areas for future research to enhance the effectiveness and safety of exoskeleton implementation in occupational settings.

Meeting Room 2