AnnMarie Campbell

Safety is truly important, and you need to make sure that you lead with leadership skills. The thing with safety is, it is generally more of a man-dominated field, so to be in here, you gotta remember to be strong, hold your ground, be that leader, because you know your skills. It's okay to be assertive. It's okay to put your foot down and say, hey, this is not right, you know, what's going on here? Why are you doing this? Why don't we do it a different way? Honestly, as a woman in safety, I've had to work very hard to earn respect, and the key is, one, don't give up. Two, be that leader, because people do listen to people who are assertive and that are leaders. And ultimately, as long as you show that you know your knowledge, and you can share it with others, people will listen. I just want every woman to know that anyone can do it. I feel really passionate about it, because more women should do it, and I know it can be difficult, but I really think that we all have the smarts, and I don't want someone to feel like they can't do it because it's a man-dominated field, because there are successful women doing this kind of thing and helping others. Also, keep their head up, because I know it gets tiring, and I know sometimes you feel that you're not making a difference, and people aren't listening, but you are, and you are making a difference, and they can.

The challenge that we're gonna face in our industry is that safety and production always seem to - and this is something that I've struggled with my entire career - is getting production managers and production goals to meet safety. It's constantly a battle. So, figuring out the perfect mix of safety and production and meeting them in the middle. I know that's something that many struggle with. I've had to sell the production managers, hey, this is the reason why. But instead, there's a different way to do it. So, giving them the reason why, telling them the reason why it's so important, and coming together as a group and going, hey, we need safety here, let's brainstorm so how it doesn't affect production as much. There's a middle ground, and most of the time that works if you approach it the right way. You have safety that wants to make sure that everyone goes home safe. You've got production and managers saying, hey, we need to get this done. However, if we work together - and that's the key, and that's the hardest part - is making sure that we work together with the safety and production.