Trendway Safety Specialist Named 2015 Professional of the Year
Holland, Mich. . . Institute for Safety and Health Management (ISHM) announced that Stephanie Walsh, ASHM, Safety Specialist for Trendway Corp., has been named the 2015 Safety Management Professional of the Year. ISHM is a national organization and accreditor of Safety practitioners. She was honored at their annual board meeting on Sept. 27, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Ms. Walsh has the wisdom of a more seasoned safety professional and the results she has attained are noteworthy and impressive,” said Joe DeMaria, Ph.D, CSHM, President and CEO of Americana Safety and chairman of ISHM’s award review committee.
Walsh puts a very young – and female – face on the safety profession. She has worked at Trendway for three years, during which she implemented a two-tier approach that is credited with a 55 percent reduction in the company’s incident rate. She is a one-woman department, and enlisting the help of other managers and workers in every department has been vital to her success.
Her interest in safety began at the age of 15 while working a summer job. “I spent about 5 years as a lifeguard and one year as an aquatic facility manager, training and certifying lifeguards,” says Walsh. “I had my first “save” during my first summer as a guard, a little boy… and that was a terrifying yet extremely rewarding experience that really sparked my interest in helping others”. While attending GVSU, she discovered occupational safety and health as a career and made that her focus. “It just made sense to me – I get to be more proactive in my approach to helping people!”
According to Mike Dean, Quality and CI Organizational Excellence Team Leader for Trendway, “Stephanie takes a fresh, fun approach to occupational health and safety, but exhibits maturity beyond her years when it comes to the serious work of keeping people safe. I’ve been in manufacturing for 30 years and have never seen someone have the same level of impact on a company’s safety culture.”
About Trendway
Trendway Corporation, an employee owned company in Holland, Michigan, helps customers create beautiful and effective work environments with a wide range of furniture and architectural products. A company with more than 45 years of exceptional performance, Trendway provides customers peace of mind through outstanding service, quality products, guaranteed delivery, and fast/flexible custom solutions. The company offers many products including panel systems, filing, storage, casegoods, seating, and architectural solutions with moveable walls, glass storefront and raised floor. Trendway has served government customers as a GSA Contractor for more than 20 years. A Zero Waste to Landfill facility, its products are tested for conformance to SCS Indoor Advantage™ or Indoor Advantage™ Gold requirements. Many Trendway product lines have been level 1 certified by the NSF International. For more information on Trendway, please call (616) 399-3900 or visit www.trendway.com.