Category Archives: About Us

2020 CHAS Election Candidates

The 2020 CHAS elections will take place in May this year. The slate of candidates for this year’s election is provided below.

Candidate for Chair Elect

Chris Incarvito
Candidate for Secretary Monique Wilhelm
Candidates for Councilor
(highest number of votes)


Alternate Councilor
(second highest number of votes)

Brandon Chance

Frankie Wood-Black

Joe Pickel

Candidates for Member at Large

Kendra Denlinger


Joseph Crockett

Candidate for Chair Elect

Christopher Incarvito, PhD,
Associate Provost for Science Initiatives

Yale University

Dr. Incarvito joined Yale University in 2002 and currently serves as the Associate Provost for Science Initiatives. In this role he has broad responsibility for strategic planning and programmatic development in support of Yale’s Science Strategy – an ambitious prioritization of interdisciplinary and integrative initiatives that will catalyze new research programming and supplement existing research excellence.

He serves on a multitude of university committees including the EHS Laboratory Safety Committee and has worked collaboratively with Yale EHS on projects ranging from campus-wide chemical inventory systems, new safety policy development, and safety-driven laboratory renovations and retrofits.

The balance of his portfolio is in overseeing research operations and strategic scientific development of Yale West Campus, where he is responsible for the quality and creation of new research programming and facilities through collaborative work with faculty, directors, deans, department chairs, and other university leadership. He also spearheads an ambitious program of laboratory modernization across West Campus, delivering a significant expansion of Yale’s science and engineering capacity, and manages strategic capital investments, deployment of high-value shared research instrumentation laboratories, and collaborations with global scientific research organizations.

Dr. Incarvito has been a member of D-CHAS for eight years and has served as the division’s Development Chair for the last two. He was also named a CHAS Fellow in 2018.

He earned a PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of Delaware in 2002 and his continued research interests include the application of orthogonal analytical instrumentation to complex chemical and biological problems. His current professional interests are in modern laboratory design, specifically in the creation of spaces that support interdisciplinary research efforts, shared resources, and safety-driven design.

Secretary

Monique Wilhelm, M.S., NRCC Certified CHO
Laboratory Manager, Adjunct Lecturer, Chemistry Club Advisor
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry|University of Michigan-Flint

ACS CHAS Secretary|2017 CERM E. Ann Nalley Award Recipient

Monique Wilhelm is the Laboratory Manager in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Michigan-Flint.  Her work involves all business and operations within the chemistry labs including maintenance of instrumentation and all functions related to laboratory safety.  She has an M.S. in Chemistry, HAZWOPER Specialist certification, and is an NRCC Certified Chemical Hygiene Officer.  She was the 2018-2020 secretary for the executive board of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Chemical Health and Safety, is a member of the Safety Committee within the ACS Division of Chemical Education, and is an advocate for science literacy and the improvement of the popular view of chemistry.  

Councilor (highest number of votes)

Alternate Councilor (second highest number of votes)

Brandon S. Chance, MS, CCHO
Director of Environmental Health and Safety
Southern Methodist University

Brandon holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry with an emphasis on polymer and organic chemistry from Texas Lutheran University and Texas A&M University and has been an ACS member for 13 years. After serving as a bench chemist and researcher in academia and industry for four years, Brandon transitioned a role in environmental health and safety in 2008.

Over the last decade he has held various positions at Texas A&M University at Qatar, Princeton University, and most recently at Southern Methodist University, where he is currently the Director of Environmental Health and Safety. Brandon routinely gives talks at both Campus Safety Health and Environmental Management Association (CSHEMA) and American Chemical Society (ACS) national meetings.

He currently sits on the Executive Committee of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety (DCHAS) as an Alternate Councilor and Liaison to the Division of International Activities and is also on the conference education committee for CSHEMA and is a co-organizer for the 2020 CSHEMA Safety Symposium on Safety Culture. Brandon is an ACS-DCHAS Fellow and an ACS ChemLuminary Award recipient for Global Engagement. In addition to national talks, Brandon has also served as an invited speaker and panelist at various ACS International events including events in Malaysia and Qatar that focus on laboratory safety and security in conflict regions and international settings.

Frankie Wood-Black, Ph.D., REM, MBA
Principal – Sophic Pursuits


Dr. Frankie Wood-Black has been a member of the Division since the early 1990’s. She has been active in Divisional Activities throughout this time and has held a number of roles in the Division including the Chair and Counselor.  While representing the Division, she has been a member of a number of ACS committees and has participated in many governance activities, and currently is a member of the Nominations and Elections Committee for the ACS.  In addition, to her ACS activities, Dr. Wood-Black was an industrial scientist working in the areas of environmental compliance, sustainability, and chemical management.  In 2014, she left industry to return to academia and is currently the Division Chair for the Engineering, Physical Science, and Process Technology at Northern Oklahoma College, in Tonkawa, OK. 

Joseph (Joe) M. Pickel, Ph.D., CCHO

Joe received his B.S. in Chemistry from Villanova University in 1998 and his Ph. D. in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Akron in 2003. After graduate school, he began working as a postdoctoral researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee and soon after became a Research and Operations Staff member at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences serving as chemical inventory manager, environmental protection officer, and work control coordinator for this division. In 2012 he became the Research Support Group Leader for the Chemical Sciences Division, responsible for coordinating all aspects of ESH, quality and operational activities within the division. He is also responsible for the Work Planning and Control process for all R&D at ORNL.

He joined ACS in 1996 and has been a member of CHAS since 2007. Joe has also been a member of the Division of Polymer Chemistry and the Division of Chemical Information. As a member of CHAS, Joe has organized numerous symposia including several Presidential symposia and given presentations in the area safety of nanomaterials, chemical management, research facility design, and other topics. He has been an active volunteer in CHAS serving as Chair (2018) Membership Chair, Alternate Councilor and co-chair of the Programming Committee. He has been a Certified Chemical Hygiene Officer with the National Registry of Certified Chemists since 2007 and serves on its Board of Directors.

Member at Large

Kendra Leahy Denlinger, Ph.D.
Teaching Professor of Chemistry
Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH

I am a Teaching Professor of Chemistry at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH, where I started working in the fall of 2017 after earning my Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Cincinnati. During my last year of graduate school, I participated in a 6-week internship with ACS in Washington, D.C., and I have been involved with the chemical safety community ever since. During this internship, I developed a presentation about the ACS website Hazard Assessment in Research Laboratories, which I presented at my graduate institution as well as at Keene State College, Harvard University, and MIT.

My graduate research background is in green chemistry, which is why I was drawn to the area of chemical safety. Chemical safety and green chemistry complement each other, and I believe there are many benefits to closer collaboration between the two. I have been involved with the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety since fall of 2018 and am currently serving as an associate member. I am a member of the Division of Chemical Health and Safety, and am currently working on a project with the division funded by an ACS Innovative Project Grant. We are designing an electronic tool to help guide undergraduate chemistry laboratory students through the RAMP process.

I have enjoyed working with the chemical safety community and learning from them, so I am excited to get more involved with the division in serving as a Member-at-Large!

Joseph M Crockett
A LeRoy and Wanda H Baker Chair of Science
Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
Bridgewater College

I am the A Leroy and Wanda H Baker Professor of Science and Professor of Chemistry at Bridgewater College (retiring this year after 43 years teaching). I have been involved with lab safety in different aspects for my entire career. I instituted the lab safety program at Bridgewater, one level for freshmen and sophomores and an upper level for Chemistry majors. I have chaired the safety committee for the Virginia Section ACS, I have been a member of CHAS for 27+ years, I am a member of the Committee on Chemical Safety ACS, and I have worked on several project including the writing of the new ACS test on Chemical Health and Safety.

March, 2020 Call for comments on ISEA eyewash & safety shower standard

 

CHAS recommends that its members consider commenting on the current proposal to reaffirm the American National Standard for Emergency Eyewash and Shower Equipment (ANSI/ISEA Z-358.1) with no revisions. 

A Word template for a letter with suggested wording for  such a comment can be found below.

Questions and comments on this letter can be directed to Sammye Sigmann <sigmannsb@appstate.edu> or Mary Beth Koza <MBKoza@ehs.unc.edu>

ACS Chemical Health & Safety Now accepting Submissions!

ACS Publications is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of ACS Chemical Health & Safety, a global journal devoted to recognizing the importance of safety within the chemistry ecosystem.

ACS Publications is pleased to introduce ACS Chemical Health & Safety. The journal focuses on publishing high-quality articles of interest to scientists, EH&S professionals, and non-research personnel who manage or work in areas where chemicals are used or hazordous waste is generated. Examples submissions to the new journal may include:

  • Scientific reports that describe and analyze a scenario in the form of a case study
  • Methods, protocols, or best practices for safety procedures
  • Evaluation of potential safety hazards associated with common reactions or procedures
  • Reviews of the literature, resources, regulations, or methodologies
  •  Other research or scholarly discussions on topics of interest to the chemical health and safety community

Mary Beth Mulcahy, PhD, Editor-in-Chief

“The chemical safety community is so diverse, extending beyond scientists and other practitioners to include students, environmental health and safety professionals, managers, regulators and others,” says Mulcahy. “I am excited to lead the journal as it embraces the sharing of best practice and new ideas under the auspices of the ACS.”

The Development Editor of the Journal is Dr. Kali Miller.

Orlando CHAS At a Glance

CHAS at a Glance for the Spring, 2019 National Meeting is now available here.

CHAS at a Glance includes information about the CHAS workshops, technical symposium, and social hour. If you’re able to attend the meeting, which starts this Sunday, please stop by our CHAS Open Business Meeting on Sunday, March 31, 2019 10 AM to Noon in
Orange County Convention Center – Room W 312 C, Orlando, FL. You can download the agenda of this meeting here:

We hope see you there!

SDS 23 Years Later updated with survey results!

In the December, 1995 issue of the Division’s Journal of Chemical Health and Safety, Neal Langerman reported on a survey he conducted among industrial clients of his company about the value of MSDS collections for the companies. His article can be downloaded here:

Twenty-three years later, much has changed in the world of chemical hazard communication, both in terms of the communications technology used to share the information involved and, with the advent of the GHS system, the contents of the materials itself. 

To help assess us what progress has been made in hazard communication performance, we did an informal poll of the CHAS membership. We received 139 responses, with distinct patterns to their responses.

You can download summaries of their responses and comments in 5 files:

Related to this topic, there is an interesting 2018 article on Evaluating the readability and suitability of construction occupational safety and health materials designed for workers that includes SDS’s as part of their evaluation of safety literature for construction workers.

Nominations sought for 2019 CHAS awards

The American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Health and Safety is seeking nominations for the division awards described below.  

More information about each of the awards can be found on the CHAS website at https://dchas.org/chas-award-nominations/

The deadline for nominations is December 1, 2018.  

All awardees will be notified by Spring 2019, and awards will be presented at the national ACS meeting in August, 2019.  Please direct all questions and submit nominations to the Awards Chair, Kimi Brown, at awards@dchas.org.

  • Tillmanns-Skolnik Award was established in 1984 to recognize and honor outstanding, long-term service to the Division of Chemical Health and Safety. Nominees must have been an active member of the division for at least five years and have shown, though personal effort, outstanding support for the realization of CHAS’s goals in Chemical Health and Safety.
  • The Lifetime Achievement Award from the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety recognizes a lifetime of dedication and service to the American Chemical Society, the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety, and the field of chemical health and safety.  The awardee will have shown support for the goals and activities of CHAS, the ACS, and the chemical health and safety community; and will have, through personal effort, helped CHAS and the ACS reach those goals.

Safety as an ACS Core Value

In December, 2016, the American Chemical Society’s Board of Directors adopted “Professionalism, Safety and Ethics” as a core value of the Society in its Strategic Plan.

In order to make this commitment more concrete, ACS’s 2018 President, Dr. Peter Dorhout (his twitter feed can be found here) convened an ACS “Safety Summit” in February, 2018. The report on the ACS Safety Summit can be downloaded here.C&EN’s report on the summit can be found here.

Ralph Stuart, the chair of the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety reported to the Committee on the summit and how the Society is planning on incorporating safety into its overall strategy to support its members, educators, decision-makers and the public. His presentation to the committee can be downloaded here.

Please feel free to share any questions and comments on this work with either Peter or Ralph.

Safety Guidelines for the Chemistry Professional

Over the course of 2016 and 2017, representatives of the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Chemical Safety and Division of Chemical Health and Safety developed an ACS policy statement on chemical safety as well as document describing Safety Guidelines for the Chemistry Professional. These are designed to support chemists as they perform their daily work in safe and environmentally responsible way.

Catching up with Runaway Hot Plates

Attached to this link is a PDF version of the poster below on Runaway Hot Plates. This poster was part of the DCHAS collection at the 2017 SciMix sessions in Washington, DC. Questions about the poster should be directed to the authors:

  • Kimberly Brown of the Office of Environmental Health and Radiation Safety at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA,
  • Mark Mathews of the Environmental Safety and Health Directorate, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge TN and
  • Joseph Pickel of the Physical Sciences Directorate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge TN

Developing a Safety Culture

Institutional & Enterprise Level Efforts to Developing a Safety Culture

The Chemical Safety Board: Safety is good business and good policy. V. Sutherland

Safety Googles aren’t for nerds. T. George

Changing the federal oversight model of the Department of Energy National Laboratories. J. McBrearty

Are you prepared for a journey? K. Jeskie

Grassroots Approaches to Developing a Safety Culture

Improving Safety in the Chemical Enterprise Through Transparent Sharing of Best Safety Practices. M. Jones, L. Sellor, Dow

Back to Safety Basics at Northwestern University. M. Blayney

Building a Safety Culture: An Undergrad Perspective N. Fredstrom

OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs. D. Kalinowski

The Joint Safety Team: A researcher-led initiative for improving academic safety culture C. Gee

Collaborative efforts between faculty and embedded safety professionals to improve critical thinking skills of undergraduates
S. Sigmann