The OSU Safety Award program named two winners on University Day, recognizing both an individual and team for outstanding workplace safety practices at OSU. The program debuted in 2023 and is led by Environmental Health and Safety.
The OSU Safety Award was originally developed as a group project from the Division of Finance and Administration’s Emerging Leaders program. The group included Jenette Paul, laboratory safety officer with Environmental Health and Safety, Stephanie Smith, fiscal coordinator with Accounts Payable and Rafael Mendoza, painter with Facilities Services. Paul brought the idea for the project to her group based on her work on the OSU Safety Culture Taskforce.
Paul, Smith and Mendoza presented a business case for the idea as their Emerging Leaders capstone project. From there, Paul began working to bring the program to life.
“Luckily, through the capstone project, I already had an idea of what we needed to get done,” she said.
Paul submitted the award program to University Day organizers to add to their agenda and formed an award committee, charged with reviewing nominations and selecting winners. The five member committee includes representatives from the College of Agricultural Sciences, Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine and Environmental Health and Safety.
The committee began accepting nominations for the awards in 2023 and selected the first two winners in April 2024. There are two awards, one for an individual and one for a group. The OSU Exceptional Leadership in Safety Award recognizes an individual who promotes a positive safety culture, creates new ways of accomplishing safety goals and/or demonstrates improvement in safety conditions or works to improve safety culture for their team. The OSU Exceptional Safety Team Award recognizes three or more individuals who work as a team to embrace change and innovation in safety, proactively search for solutions to safety challenges, demonstrate improvement in previous conditions and/or foster a positive safety culture with the ability to discuss concerns.
Barbara Lagerquist, research coordinator with the Marine Mammal Institute, was named the winner of the OSU Exceptional Leadership in Safety Award. The Landscape Shop was named the winner of the OSU Exceptional Safety Team Award.
The OSU Safety Award accepts nominations from September 1 through April 1. Winners are chosen in April and awards are presented on University Day in September. Nominees must be OSU employees (student, faculty or staff) and working at least part-time to qualify.
