Last week, the University of Iowa Environmental Health and Safety Office named Haley Sinn its new permanent director.

Sinn had been the interim director since February 2017 when previous Director Carol McGhan retired.

She received a Ph.D. in the UI Biology Department and was a postdoctoral fellow in the UI Urology Department. She interacted with the Environmental Health Office on several occasions and was involved in regulatory and safety activities in the laboratories.

Sinn has worked in the office since 2005, first as an associate biosafety officer.

“I was interested in a career path other than a principal investigator and decided to pursue the associate biosafety officer position when advertised,” she said.

Her new role will be managing the more than 100 safety-related educational programs that are intended to inform people regarding potential hazards in their workplaces. According to the office’s website, its goal is to continually improve workplace safety for faculty, staff, and students.

“We are excited to have Haley as our new director, and we all look forward to her new ideas that she will be bringing to our department,” said Christal Quigley, Environmental Health’s web and ICON training administrator.

Sinn said the purpose of the agency is to promote health and safety at the UI for all faculty, staff, and students.

“There is a wide range of job positions and duties that could expose an individual to a potentially hazardous material or situation,” she said. “Providing a safe working and learning environment, as well as complying with regulations, is a critical aspect to the success of the university.”

One of her goals as the new director is to increase collaboration between the office and the faculty, staff, and students covered by its programs.

She said in an effort to gain additional input and feedback on the laboratory-audit process, she established a Laboratory Safety Committee comprising faculty, staff, and students across the various colleges and administrative units. The panel met for the first time in September.

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Jennifer Lassner, the senior assistant vice president for Research, was responsible for promoting Sinn to her new role. She said Sinn has been an indispensable member of an office that oversees a range of activities, labs, and workplaces in which potentially hazardous materials are used for research or other purposes.

“Keeping faculty, staff, and students safe is a top priority for the university, and Haley’s skills, experience, and extensive qualifications give me every confidence that she’s the person to lead that effort,” Lassner said.

Sinn is also working toward improving the consistency among the various agency sections through a review of procedures, training, and safety material available to the campus.

According to the office’s website, people who receive the training will be more capable of identifying risks involved in their work and understand the approach to take in order to protect not only themselves but others in the immediate area.

Lassner said Sinn’s work will ensure that these materials are obtained, used, and disposed of appropriately and provide a safe working and learning environment at the university.

“We are excited to have Haley as our new director, and we all look forward to her new ideas that she will be bringing to our department,” Lassner said.