By publishing articles in Professional Safety journal, our members help advance the professional conversation about OSH issues, trends, solutions and important industry topics. The award-winning Professional Safety is a top-rated member benefit because of the expertise shared by authors through their article contributions. Each year, ASSP honors the valuable contributions of these authors through the Professional Safety Article of the Year Awards, which recognize the top three articles and their authors. Award recipients receive a commemorative certificate and are recognized in ASSP’s publications and awards celebrations.
Frank D’Orsi, chair of ASSP's Editorial Review Board, speaks about the importance of the award recognition. “Through their contributions to Professional Safety, these authors provide current cutting-edge information that increases the body of knowledge and ultimately the level of excellence of the OSH profession,” he says. "This reaches far beyond ASSP, as many of these articles are read and referenced by other future articles, thus further expanding the body of knowledge. The Professional Safety Article of the Year Award winners are at the pinnacle of our contributors representing the absolute best of the best for the year.”
Join us in congratulating the 2020 Professional Safety Article of the Year Award winners:
1st Place
Recognized for the article “The Role of Leading and Lagging Indicators in OSH Performance Management,” published in the August 2020 issue:
Walaski says the award confirms that she was not alone in trying to look deeper into the topic of leading and lagging indicators. "Contributing to the OSH body of knowledge is both an honor and a privilege,” she says. “Writing articles, chapters and other materials is something I have spent a fair amount of time on over the last 10 years of my career. I have come to really enjoy the work so it's quite rewarding to have my efforts acknowledged.”
Walaski’s primary purpose was to put in writing some of the questions she had been struggling with around indicators and OSH performance measurement, along with some information she came across while trying to answer those questions. “What I found was that there are no hard and fast answers,” she says. “At the end of the day, this article was about my journey and how it shaped a path forward for me to keep exploring and asking more questions. I hope my fellow OSH professionals will join me in adding to this evolution.”
2nd Place
Recognized for the article “The Power of What If: Assessing and Understanding Risk,” published in the June 2020 issue:
“We are very humbled and honored to be selected for this award among the many great articles published in PSJ each year,” Lyon and Popov share. They say their goal in writing the article was to “challenge and inspire OSH professionals to be critical thinkers, and to take a collaborative and inquisitive approach to managing risk.”
The authors hope that the article encourages OSH professionals to "consider expanding traditional what-if hazard analysis methods into risk assessments that not only ask 'what if' but also ask how and why.”
3rd Place
Recognized for the article “Safety in the Multigenerational Workplace,” published in the May 2020 issue:
"This was such a great surprise and honor,” Smeak says. “I am humbled knowing this journal is read by so many dedicated and experienced safety and health professionals. I am thrilled if these hard-working people can glean information from my manuscript that can help make their jobs a little easier. That's such a great feeling.”
Smeak also recognizes the value of writing and learning from Professional Safety. "The field of safety and health is so varied that PSJ is a great source of information for safety professionals,” she says. “Personally, I learn something new from each publication. I teach future safety professionals at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, and I use older copies to help plan my lecture.”
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