Nicole Greeson Elected Chair of American Board of Industrial Hygiene®

LANSING, Mich. - Oct. 27, 2014 - PRLog -- Nicole Greeson, CIH, has been elected Chair of the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH^®).  Ms. Greeson has served on the Board since 2011.  She is a Safety & Health Specialist at Duke University and has an MS in Environmental Sciences/Industrial Hygiene from the University of Texas-Houston, and holds a BSPH in Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina. Ms. Greeson has over sixteen years health and safety experience in the electronics industry and university settings while also serving as a member of AIHA’s Laboratory Health and Safety Committee, Ergonomics Committee, Students & Early Career Professionals Committee, Healthcare Working Group, and is Vice Chair of the new Mentoring and Professional Development Committee.  She has also served as a Councilor for the Academy of Industrial Hygiene. She’s a graduate of the AIHA Future Leaders Institute and has served in a variety of positions for organizations: AIHA – Texas Hill Country, Austin Area Ergo Round Table and SEMI S8 (Ergo) Task Force. During her tenure with ABIH, Ms. Greeson has served as the Vice Chair and been a member of the Nominations Committee and Exam Audit Committee. Ms. Greeson succeeds Dr. Mark Finn who is rotating to the Board’s Past Chair role.

“The ABIH Certified Industrial Hygienist program is the top occupational hygiene certification in the world,” reported Ms. Greeson. “We have achieved this position through the hard work and dedication of former Boards, our staff, including recently retired Executive Director Lynn C. O’Donnell, and of course the CIHs themselves, who are our most passionate advocates and ambassadors. I’m quite confident that the current ABIH Board of Directors will continue to protect our core strengths while also bringing a renewed energy as we work with our new CEO, Ulric Chung, to globally strengthen the CIH with students, universities, employers and the public, the very people that we are charged to protect.”

Ms. Greeson will lead a slate of ABIH Directors that includes two new CIH^® Directors and eight returning Directors. Susan Ripple, CIH, was elected to the Board’s Vice Chair role. The new Board was officially installed at the conclusion of the October 2014 Board meeting. Each CIH Director serves a four-year term. The Public Member Director serves a 2 year term with the option of renewal.

The new CIH Directors include the following individuals:

Srinivas Durgam, CIH, is a Global IH and Ergonomics Program Leader at General Electric. Mr. Durgam has a MS in Public Health and a MS in Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago; and, a BS in Chemical Engineering, University of Madras, India. He became a CIH in 2009 and has over 9 years of experience managing H&S risks in private and public sectors. He has served on the leadership board for a number of AIHA committees (Hazard Prevention and Engineering Controls and Laboratory Health and Safety), president-elect for the newest AIHA local section, Eastern New York, and has been the recipient of numerous awards from GE and NIOSH. In addition, he is a graduate of the AIHA Future Leaders Institute program.

Hector R. Rodriguez, CIH, is Senior Director, Global EHS + Sustainability at Biogen Idec. Mr. Rodriquez has an MBA, General Management, Stern School of Business; an MS Industrial Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology; and, a BS in Chemistry, Inter‐American University of Puerto Rico. He became a CIH in 2000 and has over 20 years’ experience as an EHS & sustainability professional. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors, Center for Sustainable Enterprise, at the University of Massachusetts where he also serves as an Adjunct Professor at their College of Management.

The eight continuing Directors are:

Patricia Beach, CIH, Harris & Lee Environmental Sciences, LLC
Bret Clausen, CIH, CSP, CHMM, ARM, CH2M Hill
Mark Finn, PhD, CIH, Past Chair, Finn LP
Michael D. Larrañaga, PhD, CIH, CSP, PE, ENVIRON International Corporation
Tim Paz, CIH, Architect of the Capitol
Susan Ripple, CIH, Vice Chair, The Dow Chemical Company
David Roskelley, CIH, CSP, R&R Environmental, Inc,
Michael Shanklin, Public Member, CEO, Kidspace Children’s Museum

Three Directors have completed their service and have now rotated off the Board. They are:

Kimberly Castillon, CIH, OSHA
Lydia Renton, CIH, ROH, WESA, a div. of BluMetric Environmental Inc.
Shamini Samuel, CIH, CSP, ROH, Suncor Energy Services Inc.

ABIH offers the premier certification in the world for occupational hygienists, the Certified Industrial Hygienist^® (CIH). These are professionals dedicated to protecting the health and safety of the workforce and our communities. Earning the CIH requires that candidates meet rigorous education and experience requirements, pass an examination, and recertify every five years by fulfilling certification maintenance requirements designed to enhance the ongoing knowledge and skills of the CIH. Globally, there are approximately 6700 CIHs.