Tim Page-Bottorff, M.S., CSP, CIT, is a senior consultant and executive advisor at SafeStart. He began his safety career more than 30 years ago as a U.S. Marine in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. He served a three-year term on ASSP’s Board of Directors that began July 1, 2021.
Page-Bottorff is a safety trainer, author, podcast host and motivational keynote speaker who has been an ASSP member since 2001. He lectures for the OSHA Training Institute at the University of California San Diego Extension and at the University of Maryland Global Campus. He is the author of “The Core of Four” and has earned Safety Professional of the Year (SPY) honors at the chapter, region and practice specialty levels, as well as the coveted Society-level SPY Award.
Page-Bottorff previously served as the Society’s Region II vice president, deputy vice president of the Council on Region Affairs and a member of the Finance Committee. He regularly speaks at conferences and events across the country, including ASSP’s annual Professional Development Conference and Exposition.
Page-Bottorff holds a bachelor’s degree in business management and a master’s degree in occupational safety and health management from Central Washington University. He is the father of three, married to the amazing Sheila, and they have just become grandparents. He resides in Mesa, AZ.
As a candidate for ASSP senior vice president, advancing the field of occupational safety and health (OSH) through collaboration is a prime objective. Collaboration transcends mere cooperation — it ignites unity, drives innovation and transforms challenges into opportunities for success. Using this central theme of collaboration, focused on embracing diversity, cultivating partnerships, empowering members, advocating for holistic safety, and fostering innovative collaboration, ASSP and its members and the safety profession can work toward higher standards of excellence and measurable impact.
Embrace diversity. ASSP members represent a broad spectrum of diversity. Fostering an inclusive environment that values everyone’s perspectives, thoughts, and experiences is imperative. Celebrating and building on our differences can create a more robust safety community that brings together unique insights to address complex challenges. Launching a “Member Voices” campaign will give our members a platform to be heard, without having to tread through another computer-based survey. This can be done through focus groups or meetings of the membership during annual events (e.g. ROC, PDC) locally, regionally, and at the society level.
Cultivate Partnerships. Forging strategic partnerships with industry leaders, regulatory agencies and educational institutions will be a priority. These alliances will not only amplify ASSP’s influence but also enable us to pool resources, expertise and insights to tackle safety issues collectively. Understanding we have competition in the safety space, we should all strive to be partners in safety first. We have one common goal — ensuring the safety, health and well-being of every worker.
Empower Members. To incorporate advocacy, I will recommend restructuring the Council on Practices and Standards (COPS). Our common interest groups are incredible for advocacy, but it stays within their own group like a silo. My hope is that we expand COPS to the Council on Advocacy for Practices, Standards and Common Interests. This will give each active member an opportunity to train and educate other members who are not in these silos, so it is not perceived as an echo chamber.
Support Holistic Safety. Safety extends beyond traditional boundaries. By creating momentum to advocate for a holistic approach to safety that aligns compliance and caring while encompassing mental health, well-being and overall workforce resilience, we ensure safer, healthier and more sustainable work environments. This approach ignites a personal belief in the critical importance of having multiple tools to address our problems.
Foster Innovation. Nurturing an environment that encourages creativity, experimentation and forward-thinking, and fostering collaboration helps to spark innovation. By leveraging our collective body of knowledge, we can drive the development of groundbreaking safety practices and technologies. Let’s strive to create cross-functional and cross-generational teams that include emerging professionals and current members, as well as past presidents and Fellows.
By embracing diversity, cultivating partnerships, empowering members, advocating for holistic safety and fostering innovative collaboration, we can achieve unparalleled advancements in safety leadership. Will you join me on this journey? We are all in this together.