March 2018 President’s Message

Why do we matter? That’s a question your Executive Committee has been asking ourselves a lot over the past several months. To most of you reading this, the answer is likely obvious. However, to high school and college students that are interested in Science, Technology, Engineering or Math (STEM) curriculum or degrees, our profession is not as well known. And that’s both our challenge, and our opportunity.

At last month’s meeting, I mentioned that Dan Preisler, one of our members, had agreed to fill the role of “Outreach Coordinator” for our section. This is a new role for NJAIHA and Dan will be working with the Executive Committee (EC) to expand our efforts to connect with younger EHS professionals and college and high school student. The primary goal is to raise awareness of what industrial hygienists do, the contributions we make to protecting worker health and the fact that there are career opportunities in this field. After all, none of us are getting younger and we need to help mentor and develop the industrial hygienists and EHS professionals who will take over from us. How great would it be to start seeing an influx of young students and EHS professionals start coming to our meetings?

On another note, the EC has renewed the e-learning subscription for NJAIHA members we had last year. This is an excellent and FREE means of obtaining additional CEU’s for our membership. Additional details will be communicated to our membership on this year’s program. I encourage all of you to take advantage of this great resource. Thursday March 15 is our annual Tri-fecta at Snuffy’s. Come on out and see your colleagues in NJASSE and MABSA and hear some great topics.

We look forward to seeing you!

Best Regards,
Craig R. Doolittle, PE, CSP
President NJAIHA