Rewards and Recognition for University Faculty, Staff and Students Creating a Strong Culture of Safety
Principal Investigators, laboratory staff, and students should be recognized for demonstrating a constructive and proactive safety culture. EHS has developed a rewards and recognition program to show our commitment in recognizing these individuals.
Recognize an individual here.
Research Lab Eligibility
All laboratories and associated staff that are reviewed by EHS’s Safety Advisor Team are eligible for the awards described below and are automatically evaluated as part of this program. Nominations will also be accepted from the research community for the Individual and Innovation Awards as discussed below.
Criteria for review
- Performance on annual safety reviews and laboratory safety rounds. Labs with no deficiencies or those with few deficiencies that are corrected will receive favorable ratings.
- Prompt, appropriate response and implementation of corrective actions, where applicable.
- Collaboration with EHS and departmental Health & Safety Coordinators to resolve concerns and unsafe conditions. Labs will NOT be penalized for reporting incidents or spills.
- Engagement in safety and demonstrating initiative to improve the lab safety culture among lab personnel.
- Innovations and exceptional performance in safety practices and culture.
Categories
Laboratory/Group
Research laboratories will be assessed and rated. Up to 10 labs will be recognized for their Excellence in Safety with one lab receiving the Top Prize for outstanding performance among the recognized labs. Safety advisors will submit nominations to the Laboratory Safety Committee in March from the prior calendar year; the committee will choose award winners with announcements made in the spring semester.
All awarded laboratories will receive the following:
- Article published in the Office of the Vice President for Research Newsletter and EHS’s SAFETYmatters; the article will be submitted to other news outlets for consideration.
- Excellence in Safety certificate.
2023 Review Period
- Kevin Campbell Lab, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics - Top Lab
- Michelle Howard, Department of Radiation Oncology
Individual Award
A formal recognition award will be issued to laboratory safety leaders through a nomination and selection process. Submission of the Individual Nomination Form and a description of how the individual’s actions have positively impacted laboratory safety is required. Nominations will be accepted on a continuing basis. The Laboratory Safety Committee will choose award winners at the end of each term (spring, summer, and fall) with announcements made shortly thereafter.
2023 Review Period
- Junko Kasuya, Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology
- Chris Knutson, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Emily Witt, Department of Radiation
Spring 2021
- Kathy Frees, Department of Otolaryngology
Fall 2020
- Jessica DeYoung, Department of Chemistry
- Raquel Gomez, Department of Chemistry
- Alissia Milani, Department of Chemistry
- Madeline Parker, Department of Chemistry
- Leah Scharlott, Department of Chemistry
Summer 2020
- Edward Gillan, Department of Chemistry
- Larissa Stebounova, UI Pharmaceuticals
- Florence Williams, Department of Chemistry
Spring 2020
- Renee Cole, Department of Chemistry
- Dagen Hughes, Department of Chemistry
- Shonda Monette, Department of Chemistry
Innovation in Safety
This award is to recognize individuals in the University of Iowa community for their innovations in safety and dedication to the safe conduct in research, teaching, or other campus work. The innovation should significantly improve campus safety and be sustainable and potentially scalable (i.e., new process that could be used across campus). Up to one award will be made annually in each of two categories: student and faculty/staff. Details about the award and nomination process is available on the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) website.
Recipients will receive a $1,000 cash prize and a commemorative gift. Recipients will be recognized formally at the Celebrating Excellence: The University of Iowa Discovery & Innovation Awards Ceremony that highlights research and innovation achievements and on the OVPR’s Dare to Discover – Research Awards & Recognition page.
2024
Curtis Iburg, manager of sterilization services in the College of Dentistry, led a major renovation of the College of Dentistry’s instrument processing and sterilization area, with the aim of encouraging better workflow and support for future growth. “His innovations in workspace are a valuable asset to the greater University and demonstrates that the most important people to be involved in a space renovation are those that use the area because they can see how the facility can better function and how it can be designed for future needs,” said Kecia Leary, associate dean of clinics.
2022
Ben Anzelc, Facilities and Safety Coordinator in the School of Art and Art History, identified a gap in needing to provide students more equipment-specific training and a need to be able to accurately track who has done that training and whether they are qualified to work on a piece of equipment. This is challenging due to the hundreds of students enrolled in the program and that students may be exposed to new equipment and hazards every semester. Ben’s innovation included developing safety specific content for individual online courses and partnering with IT to automatically enroll students into the needed course(s), track their completion progress, provide reports, and email them and their instructors with reminders, if necessary, to complete the training. The other unique innovation is that this information can be tied to a student’s ID card. If they scan in to use a particular classroom or studio and have not completed all the relevant training, then the instructor will not allow them to use the facility until their training is up to date.
Emily Finzel, Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, led efforts both within the University of Iowa and nationally to develop best practices for field safety protocols, including addressing a gap in safety oversight for field-camp-like scenarios where individuals are spread out over a wide area day after day. Dr. Finzel collaborated with several internal University departments including Risk Management and the Office of the General Counsel to draft a Pre-Activity Statement for each field trip. The statement requires instructors to consider potential risks and mitigation strategies. She also compiled a Field Safety Best Practices document to outline University and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences guidelines and forms required for planning field courses and field-based research. On a national scale, Dr. Finzel created a field safety forum for instructors of summer field camps. She arranged for a National Outdoor Leadership School Wilderness First Aid course for individuals where Emergency Medical Service response could take approximately 8 hours, such as in field scenarios.
2021
Christine Cifra, clinical associate professor in CCOM's Department of Pediatrics, recognized the risks associated with endotracheal intubation on pediatric patients at the onset of the pandemic. Tina used her experience as a researcher with expertise in Quality Improvement initiatives and assembled a team to develop consensus intubation guidelines for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. An innovative structured simulation program was developed to rapidly train the PICU staff. Training videos were produced with the modified intubation procedure and 50 unique PICU staff members were trained that first week. Staff confidence and perceptions of preparedness markedly improved following training and use of this new procedure. Tina played an instrumental role with her timely innovation to significantly improve the safety of PICU staff at the outset of the global pandemic.
2020
Edward Gillan, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, leads the department in training students and staff in safety protocols and establishing a strong and ingrained culture of safety and respect for potential hazards. Ed instituted a mandatory, annual departmental "all-hands" safety meeting to review best practices and departmental safety improvements, as well as to present important/recent case studies that illustrate the need for vigilance. He developed and regularly conducts safety orientations for new grad students, teaching assistants, and summer undergraduate researchers. Ed integrated graduate students from each faculty member's research group into a team of safety liaisons who collaborate to communicate about safety issues they encounter and how best to handle them. As one example. every graduate student now presents a “safety minute” before seminar presentations they give in our department that addresses a relevant safety-related feature of the topic that they will be presenting.