Professor David Michaels
Professor and Public Speaker
George Washington University School of Public Health
Workplace Safety Management and Operational Excellence
There is a close link between workplace safety management and operational excellence: if workers are being hurt in the job, the work activity is not being performed in an optimal way. In the years I ran OSHA, I observed that firms that embrace collaborative safety management thrive and others that do not pay a high price, both in terms of worker injuries and shareholder value.
David Michaels, PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist and Professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, in Washington DC. He served as US Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health from 2009 to January 2017, the longest serving administrator in OSHA’s history. He was also a member of the Biden Haris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board.
During the Clinton Administration, Dr. Michaels served as US Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety, and Health, charged with protecting the workers, community, and environment around the nation’s nuclear weapons facilities. In that position, he was the chief architect of the historic initiative to compensate nuclear weapons workers who were sickened by radiation, beryllium, and other toxic exposures.