Think Safe First

Vision

“To become a skilled, qualified, and experienced consulting safety professional, and a specialist in analyzing systems, who determines areas of opportunity within them. ”

Mission

“To develop integrated workplace safety programs that include quantitative risk assessment, corporate loss control, regulatory compliance, monitoring, and training.”

Goals

“I aspire to be part of the Board of Certified Safety Professionals, and I believe that pursuing a Master of Science in Occupational and Environmental Hygiene at UBC will give me the tools I need to protect the workforce.

I want to focus on designing a long-term project centered on prevention rather than offering corrective measures. My ultimate aim is to convince members of organizations throughout the world, that prevention programs are not only cost effective, but also continually improve the quality delivered to customers, which is a core element of business strategy. ”

As I immersed myself in the environment of logistics and product assembly lines, I discovered a notion that is not formulated explicitly, but is often acted upon. This notion is that efficiency in production lines is the ultimate goal of a manufacturing company. Companies are struggling with aggressive and competitive environments in which cost and productivity are fundamental variables. As a result, pressures are great to place more priority on reducing costs than on preventing risks.

Since coping with budget limitations is inevitable, safety professionals are now in the position of developing new strategies to convince companies of visualizing safety as an investment factor rather than as an expense. The challenge facing us all consists on how to move beyond misperceptions about accident causation to tools and models that help us understand human complexity, design better operating policies, and thus, improve forecasting.  I plan to do this through applying “Systems Thinking” and “Dynamic Modeling” to safety, which are methods grounded in mathematics and statistics that enhance learning in complex systems including the interaction between humans, money, machines, and policies.

I am Gabriela de la Paz. I was born in Monterrey, Mexico, one of the most important production and business centers in the country. I completed a B.S. Industrial Engineering at Tecnológico de Monterrey University in December 2011. I also participated in an exchange program with the University of British Columbia, where I successfully completed a Certificate in Supply Chain Management. Over the past 4 years I have focused on acquiring experience and knowledge in the occupational safety field by  conducting my research projects in topics such as systems safety and safety equipment manufacturing. I gained work experience at Mayoreo de Articulos de Seguridad, a company specialized in selling occupational safety and health supplies.

My ultimate goal is to become a Certified Safety Professional.