Editor's Note: The Safety Hero of the Year is awarded to a safety professional who demonstrates an extraordinary personal commitment to safety both inside and outside the workplace. Last year, this Saxcie? was awarded to Jeffrey D. Ambrose, ASP, CHST, CET, of Clark Construction Group, LLC. We would like to reprint an edited version of the essay submitted by the person who nominated Jeff for the award, not only because it's moving but because it does such an effective job of capturing the qualities of a safety hero.

When I saw that SafetyXChange was going to bestow a special award on a safety hero, I knew right away that I had the perfect person to nominate. My nomination for Safety Hero of the Year is Jeffrey Ambrose, ASP, CHST, CET and Area Safety Manager (Washington, DC) for Clark Construction Group, LLC. I am a construction safety professional and Jeff is my mentor and my role model. Jeff is also my husband.

A Career & a Life in Safety

Obviously, it's hard for me to be completely objective about Jeff. And I won't pretend to try. Still, my admiration for Jeff and his contribution to safety is shared by countless others. I don't have to travel far in any direction to find others in the safety community who recognize Jeff's outstanding abilities and contributions to the profession.

Jeff began his career with a heavy highway construction company in the Baltimore-Washington area. He was the Training Coordinator and Field Safety Officer and was later promoted to Corporate Safety Director. His leadership helped the company achieve incident rates and EMR well below industry averages. Jeff joined Clark Construction Group in January 2005 as a Safety Manager assigned to several projects. Nine months later, he was promoted to Area Safety Manager and remains in that position today.

Jeff's daily routine is a reflection of his deep commitment to safety. Just getting to work is a job for Jeff. He has to leave very early every morning and travel across 75+ miles of the second most congested traffic area in the nation to get to his office in Washington, D.C. Jeff spends his days monitoring jobsites in the area, mentoring and assisting other field safety personnel, developing and presenting training, supporting current safety initiatives and helping to develop new ones. He often puts in 12-hour days before arriving home where he will then spend hours more on work-related tasks at his computer.

In his ?spare time? when he's not protecting his construction workers, Jeff dedicates his energy to keeping his community safe. For more than 30 years, he's been a volunteer firefighter as a fire line officer and training officer. I'm especially proud of the fact that he's now mentoring our son as a volunteer firefighter. Jeff also finds the time to serve as a member of the Harford County Hazardous Materials Response Team, teach at the local community college and participate in industry groups. But he still manages to spend quality time with the family and even squeeze in an occasional round of golf.

What Makes Jeff Ambrose a Safety Hero

Jeff is always striving for new ways to get the safety message across. One recent example I recall was Jeff's total commitment and persistence to develop fall protection training which he presented to over 150 Clark employees. He spent many hours after work and on weekends developing the presentation, building display panels for all the latest and greatest "show and tell" equipment. His props included watermelons, which Jeff dropped onto a hard surface to demonstrate the effect of falling from heights while working without fall protection.

After the session, I asked Jeff how it went. He didn't have to say a word. I knew from the way his eyes lit up and a smile came across his face that he had connected with the guys. He told me how supervisors came up to him afterwards and thanked him, how they asked questions and requested that he come to their jobsites so he could give them some more specific guidance. These were the very same people who just a week before wouldn't have bothered to give the safety guy the time of day!

Jeff may be most in tune with his work when he's mentoring a young or new safety manager in his area. He knows the challenges they face each day and he does everything he can to help them.

Conclusion

I have had the honor of having Jeff as a great support in my own career as a safety professional. He has never given in to the temptation to coddle me through my professional development; instead, he's allowed me to take the hard knocks that any safety professional needs to learn.

I am not nominating Jeff because of one single heroic act but for the many little heroic things he does every day. It is hard to convey in 1,000 words or less just what an awesome safety professional we have in Jeff Ambrose. And the things that I see that many others do not make him my Safety Hero of the Year, hands down.

TRAININGXCHANGE

Advice for New Supervisors

We asked you what you would say to a new supervisor about safety. Here were your responses.

COMMUNICATE & FOLLOW UP

I would advise a new supervisor to walk the talk:

Get in there and work with the employee while performing all safety procedures correctly and wearing all required PPE.

Address the employees' safety concerns...if something cannot be addressed easily or as quickly as possible communicate that to the employee.

Follow through on what you say you would do...always get back to the employee.

Allow employees to take ownership of the safety process...assign employees safety inspection, safety training and other similar duties (running a safety meeting, etc.)

Orlando Cerrillo
Loss Control Consultant

KEEP YOUR EYES, EARS & MIND OPEN

Walk softly, softly, look, listen & learn.

I believe a new person on the block can learn a lot from the people on the floor who have been doing the job for ages.

Talk to these people in a non threatening style, gain their confidence, and learn to communicate with them. Remember communication is a two way street. You will at times be surprised how much they know.

Be acceptable to their comments, even if you do not agree with them.

Do not try to implement changes without good reason. Do your research; identify the gains and losses of system change.

Any changes should only be carried out in consultation and with the approval of management. (Remember, you may have to sell your point of view at times).

Make changes gradually. This must be done in consultation with the workers (if you don't want a riot).

Explain to the workers why things should be changed.

At this point I am temped to say "Good Luck", but I believe luck does not come into it.

If you do your job things will come out right.

Brian Battle
HSE Coordinator

PROTECT THE VULNERABLE

Make sure your mentors &/or mentor crews understand that they really need to help & look out for the Green hands. What if he or she was you're little brother or sister & sent out into a dangerous work area (which they all are, even the most seemingly mundane) & some irresponsible supervisor or even crew member killed him or her? And why? Because they didn't care enough to help get that person through the most deadly time of their working life, that first six months, six weeks or next six minutes.

We make lots of mistakes but our mentorship program is called THUG.

T - Treat them the way you would liked to have been treated when you were green.
H - Help them to ID understand & control hazards.
U - Understand their individual strengths & weaknesses.
G - Get them through each & every day safe & sound.

Rick Willcock
Safety Coordinator
Bandit Pipeline

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

ALWAYS be sure of your sources and that what you are saying is true. If you do not understand STUDY! If you don't it is guaranteed that someone will ask you a question you cannot answer. (Conversely don't expect too many questions on your favorite topics!!)

Shirley Grover
Phosphor Training Coordinator

DON'T BE SCARED TO ASK FOR HELP

Remember the olden days when the Safety guy was selected because no one else wanted the job? I do. In another lifetime with another employer, a steel foundry, on a Friday, I was told, "If you are here Monday, you are our Safety Director." It made no difference that I had no idea what a Safety director did.

My response was to contact the primary vendors of Safety PPE and other safety related items and ask for assistance. I was pleasantly surprised that most of them when out of their way to provide assistance. Most of those providing help did so without expecting anything in return, not even a promise of added business.

The moral of this story is not to be embarrassed to ask for help. Admitting a lack of knowledge is not bad, most people are more than ready to help without expecting anything in return.

Phillip Wells, Personnel Director
Willert Home Products

If you had one bit of advice to share with a new safety supervisor - a lesson learned, a training technique, a brilliant solution etc. - what would it be? Send your stories and bits of wisdom to catherinej@bongarde.com and let us know if we can use your name/company name.

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