COEH Grads Play Key Roles in Cal/OSHA

Quite a number of alumni from COEH programs hold influential positions at Cal/OSHA in the Bay Area and beyond.  In June 2011, for example, Governor Jerry Brown appointed COEH grad Deborah Gold, SPH ’93, Deputy Chief for Health with the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OHSA). Gold started with Cal/OSHA in 1993 as a compliance industrial hygienist and has been a senior safety engineer in the Research & Standards unit since 2000. Earlier, she was a staff research associate at UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program. 

Garrett Brown, SPH '91, has been named as Special Assistant to new Chief, Ellen Widess, appointed by Governor Brown in April 2011. Brown, a Cal/OSHA compliance industrial hygienist for 17 years in Oakland before his new role, is a member of COEH’s Advisory Committee.

“We are delighted to have so many COEH graduates working at Cal/OSHA, and playing such important roles in the organization,” says Chief Widess.  “Their expertise and dedication to the mission of protecting our state’s workers is testimony to the high quality of COEH’s programs and its faculty. We are just now starting to hire again after a long drought — so we encourage more COEH grads to join us in the essential work of protecting all workers’ right to come home at the end of the day safe and sound. We look forward to deepening our ties with COEH students and faculty in joint efforts to research and solve the key occupational health and safety problems of our day.”

Additional alumni making a difference at Cal/OSHA

• Janice Prudhomme, MD, SPH ‘96, Manager of the Cal/OSHA Medical Unit, Oakland
• Robert Nakamura, SPH '74, Senior Safety Engineer, Research and Standards Health Unit, Oakland
• Scott McAllister, SPH '76,  Senior Safety Engineer, Research and Standards Health Unit, Oakland
• Amalia Neidhardt, SPH '96, Senior Safety Engineer, Region VI in Sacramento
• Eric Berg, SPH '96, Senior Safety Engineer, Region VI in Concord
• Chris Kirkham, SPH '98, Senior Safety Engineer, Region I in Oakland
• Luis Ramon Mireles, SPH ‘92, Senior Safety Engineer, Region VI in San Diego
• Patrick Corcoran, SPH '00, Compliance Safety and Health Officer, Sacramento District Office
• Susan Eckhardt, SPH ‘85,  Compliance Safety and Health Officer, Fremont District Office
• Clement Hsieh, SPH '03, Compliance Safety and Health Officer, High Hazard Unit - North, Oakland
• Shohreh Kheradpir, SPH ’01, Compliance Safety and Health Officer, High Hazard Unit - North, Oakland
• David Hornung, SPH '07, Compliance Safety and Health Officer, Oakland District Office

Other COEH grads have made important contributions to Cal/OSHA, including Len Welsh, SPH '84 and Robert Harrison, MD, SPH ’83. Welsh was Chief of the agency from 2002 to 2011. Harrison, clinical professor of Medicine in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at UCSF, was a member of the Standards Board.