IUPUI Associate Professor Elected President of AIHA
Dr. Steven E. Lacey, associate professor and chair of the department of environmental health science, was recently elected as president of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA).
[Photo: Dr. Steven E. Lacey]
Dr. Lacey has been an active member of AIHA for over a decade and has served as director and then treasurer prior to the presidential role. He has also served on AIHA committees, including chair of the Engineering Committee, and as founding chair of the Student and Early Career Professionals Committee. He is an integral part of the AIHA IH Professional Pathways program.
“It is an honor to be representing AIHA in the presidential capacity,” Dr. Lacey said. “I look forward to building on AIHA’s 75 years of supporting the professionals that protect worker health.”
Industrial hygienists anticipate workplace health and safety hazards and design solutions to prevent them. Founded in 1939, AIHA is one of the largest international associations serving occupational and environmental health and safety professionals practicing industrial hygiene, and is a resource for those in government, large corporations, small businesses, and consultants. AIHA is a nonprofit organization devoted to achieving and maintaining the highest professional standards for its 10,000 members, and administers comprehensive continuing education and laboratory accreditation programs.
Each year in the U.S. nearly 5,000 people die from workplace traumatic injuries, and an estimated 50,000 die from work-related diseases. Workplace injury and illness costs the U.S. economy approximately $50 billion every year. Dr. Lacey envisions his position as president of AIHA as an opportunity to build relationships that can be leveraged to bolster teaching, research and service in worker health protection at the Fairbanks School of Public Health and across the Indianapolis campus.