In our new home, the beautiful Grandview Ballroom overlooking Kidd Brewer Stadium, we will continue our mission of educating and informing safety employees, teams, and managers about the latest research in behavioral safety approaches to safety culture change.
Attendees will walk away from our conference armed with the tools and strategies to help motivate employees to maintain safe behavior that ensures a more productive and safe workplace.
Please join us and bask in an atmosphere of safety education.
Ten years of elevating your approach to behavioral safety and health!
Meet our Incredible Speakers!
E. Scott Geller, Ph.D.
E. Scott Geller, an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, has just completed his 54th year as a faculty member and Director of the Center for Applied Behavior Systems in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech. He is co-founder and Senior Partner of Safety Performance Solutions, Inc., a leading-edge training and consulting organization specializing in behavior-based safety since 1995 (www.safetyperformance.com). He is co-founder of GellerAC4P, a training/consulting firm dedicated to teaching and spreading the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) Movement worldwide (www.gellerac4p.com).
He has authored, edited or co-authored 52 books, 91 book chapters, 41 training manuals, 276 magazine articles, and more than 300 research articles addressing the development and evaluation of behavior change interventions to improve quality of life on a large scale. His most recent 700-page textbook, with 31 coauthors: Applied Psychology: Actively Caring for People defines Dr. Geller’s research, teaching, and scholarship career at Virginia Tech, which epitomizes the VT logo: Ut Prosim—”That I May Serve”.
Dr. Geller is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Association of Behavior Analysis International, and the World Academy of Productivity and Quality Sciences. He is past Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (1989-1992) and Associate Editor of Environment and Behavior (1982-2017), and current Consulting Editor for Behavior and Social Issues, the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, and the Journal of Safety Research. Dr. Geller has received lifetime achievement awards from the International Organizational Behavior Management Network (in 2008) and the American Psychological Foundation (in 2009). In 2019, the American Psychological Association, Division 25 honored Scott Geller with the Nathan H. Azrin Distinguished Contributions to Applied Behavior Analysis Award.
Marta Wilson, Ph.D.
Dr. Marta Wilson is an industrial-organizational psychologist and the CEO of Transformation Systems Inc. (TSI), an executive strategies and management systems engineering firm that helps customers work leaner, faster, and smarter. Marta has dedicated her career to leadership consultancy while serving as board member, author, catalyst, coach, mentor, researcher, speaker, trainer, volunteer, and fundraiser. With a passion to share proven strategies that drive client results, Marta has authored several business books including LEAP, Energized Enterprise, Everybody’s Business, Leaders in Motion, and the Transformation Desktop Guide. Marta has been named as a Heroine of Washington by Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the March of Dimes and as one of the Washington Business Journal’s Top 25 Women Business Leaders in DC.
With Marta at the helm, TSI has ranked on the Inc. 5000 list for five consecutive years as one of the fastest growing private companies in America. In addition, TSI has received recognition as one of the Washington Business Journal’s Best Places to Work, the National Jefferson Award for Public Service, Society for Human Resource Management’s Employer All-Star Award for Best Recruitment, Engagement, and Retention Practices, and Virginia’s Fantastic 50 Award.
Marta served as Board Secretary of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, Board Chairman of Easterseals DC MD VA, and as a Board member of the Association for Corporate Growth National Capital Region. To give back to the community, Marta created and steers the award-winning Feed to Lead Program. Feed to Lead puts corporate social responsibility in motion by providing funding and volunteer hours to charities and nourishing leadership potential in those who need a helping hand.
Michael Behm, Ph.D.
Michael Behm is a Professor of Occupational Safety at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. Mike serves on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Construction Sector Occupational Research and Prevention through Design (PtD) Councils. From 2016 – 2019, he served on NIOSH’s Board of Scientific Counselors. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology, Singapore evaluating safe design aspects of urban greenery systems, and a Visiting Research Fellow at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia focusing on safe design in the construction industry. A Certified Safety Professional since 1995, Mike holds a PhD in Public Health from Oregon State University.
Rear Admiral John Meier (Retired)
Rear Adm. John F. Meier, a native of Export, Pennsylvania, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in General Engineering. He completed flight training in Beeville, Texas, and was “winged” as a Naval Aviator in August 1988.
Meier’s operational assignments include Electronic Attack Squadron-141 (VAQ-141), Carrier Air Wing Two (CVW-2), VAQ-128, and executive officer onboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), during which the command was recognized with the 2008, 2009 & 2010 Battle “E” and the 2009 Safety “S.” Command tours include VAQ-136, earning the Safety “S” and Battle “E” in 2004 as well as the 2005 Retention Excellence award; USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44), earning the 2011 Battle “E”; and Precommissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) earning the 2014 & 2015 Retention Excellence awards. Meier most recently commanded Carrier Strike Group Ten (SCG-10) earning the Humanitarian Service Award.
Meier’s shore assignments include tours at VAQ-129, where he was recognized as Instructor Pilot of the Year in 1995; EA-6B placement officer at Navy Personnel Command; senior operations officer and emergency actions officer on the Chairman on the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the National Military Command Center; requirements officer for EA-18G at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) N88; assistant chief of staff force readiness officer at Commander, Naval Air Forces; assistant commander, Navy Personnel Command for Career Management (PERS-4); and commander, Navy Warfare Development Command.
Meier has participated in operations around the world since Desert Storm, led Southern Partnership Station and built the crew and culture of USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) as her first commanding officer. He has accumulated over 4,000 flight hours and 675 carrier landings.
Meier assumed command of Naval Air Force Atlantic on May 1, 2020.
His decorations include Legion of Merit and various other personal and unit level awards.
Ryan Olsen, Ph.D.
Dr. Ryan Olsen is an Occupational Health Psychology who specializes in improving the safety and health of isolated workers in demanding jobs. In addition to his internationally recognized safety and health research with commercial drivers, Dr. Olson is a founding investigator and past Co-Director of the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center - a NIOSH Center of Excellence in Total Worker Health®. For over a decade he provided leadership for Oregon’s expanded occupational health surveillance program, which included workplace fatality surveillance, investigation, and prevention. Dr. Olson recently joined the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Utah where he is helping establish a new graduate training program in Occupational Health Psychology.
Walter C. Fluharty, Psy.D.
Dr. Walter C. Fluharty is currently Sr. Vice President – Environmental Health and Safety – for Simon Roofing and is responsible for safety systems and practices at their manufacturing facilities and 68 service centers nationwide.
In a career that spans more than 30 years, Dr. Fluharty has built a reputation developing world class safety cultures in a wide variety of industries. His experience includes developing the widely used training program, “It Can Happen Here”, which was funded by an OSHA New Directions Grant. He actively participated in the development of several OHSA standards including the Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals and Cadmium Standards.
Dr. Fluharty was first introduced to Behavioral Based Safety (BBS) while working as a Trainer in the field. While serving in a variety of EHS leadership roles, he went on to successfully integrate user friendly BBS principles into corporate safety systems within manufacturing, refining, pharmaceutical, biotech, distribution and construction industries.
Dr. Fluharty holds an M.S. in Safety Management from Marshall University, Huntington, WV and a Psy.D. from Southern California University for Professional Studies, Santa Ana, CA. Over his career, he has published numerous HS&E related articles and authored the chapter providing an overview of BBS in the text, “Human Factors Methods for Improving Performance in the Process Industries.” Dr. Fluharty is a frequent speaker at national and international HS&E professional symposiums.
Timothy Ludwig, Ph.D.
Timothy Ludwig earned his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech researching the benefits of employee-driven behavioral safety programs under E. Scott Geller continuing his post-doctoral work in industrial engineering studying applications of W. Edwards Deming to quality and safety improvement. His popular website Safety-Doc.com is a content-rich resource of safety culture stories, blogs, research, videos, and services. Dr. Ludwig was cited in Industrial Safety and Hygiene News (ISHN) “50 Leaders for Today and Tomorrow”. Dr. Ludwig serves on the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies’ Behavioral Safety Accreditation Commission that reviews best-in-industry safety practices and offers objective feedback on safety programs.
Dr. Ludwig is the author of dozens of scholarly articles that empirically document the successes of methods to improve safety and quality in industry through behavior-based solutions. His books include Intervening to Improve the Safety of Occupational Driving (2001), Behavioral Systems: Understanding Complexity in Organizations (2010), Behavioral Science Approaches to Process Safety: A Response to Industry’s Call (2018), Dysfunctional Practices that Kill your Safety Culture (2018) and, The Science and Best-Practices of Behavioral Safety: The Source for Reducing Injuries on the Front Line (2023).
Dr. Ludwig has over 30 years experience in research and practice in behavioral safety where he integrates empirical findings into his safety consulting. Within his consulting practice Dr. Ludwig has helped assess, design, and implement safety and quality improvement programs in over 50 companies. Dr. Ludwig has delivered over 50 of his popular keynote presentations in 15 countries worldwide.
