Our Safety Team works diligently to ensure that Facilities Management (FM) staff are safe and supported in all of the crucial work they do for our campus. The team has almost 50 years of combined experience and is made up of 1 Environmental Health & Safety Manager and 3 safety Officers, listed below. 

• Randall Williams, Environmental Health and Safety Manager
• Robert Deman, Safety Officer
• Jonathan Parrott, Safety Officer
• Joshua Guillen, Safety Officer 

We sat down with Environmental Health and Safety Manager Randall Williams to learn more about the important work his team is doing. Randall says their most important responsibility is the overall health and safety of Facilities Management (FM) staff. They work to educate and train staff and ensure compliance with local, state, and federal regulations. Between the four of them, the team has many certifications, including Certified Asbestos Consultant, Lead Inspector/Assessor, Construction Health and Safety Technician, and more. 

A typical work day for the team includes leading training sessions, sampling for lead/asbestos, and completing safety inspections of shops and worksites.  In 2023, they inspected 349 anchor points on 13 campus buildings, 418 ladders, and 395 pieces of fall protection equipment! They also visited 75 campus buildings to sample hazardous materials. Recently, the team completed a hazardous material sampling after a large flood in one of our campus buildings. This not only reduced health risks for our staff and building occupants, but also allowed FM project managers to more accurately estimate the project by identifying if there were any environmental controls needed. 

The Safety Team is always looking for innovative solutions to keep our staff safe! One of the most recent, said Randall, is a system they devised for warning staff in the event of an emergency. They collaborated with Emily Ziser and Christina Blackman (FM Communications Team) and the UC Davis Safety Services Team to test and launch our organization's customized use of WarnMe, an emergency notification system already utilized by the UC Davis campus. The team asked staff to sign up for the system and will now be able to notify FM staff if a heat, storm, or smoke event will compromise their safety. This cost-effective and efficient solution will allow the Safety Team to more easily protect the safety of our staff! 

In order to stay up to date on safety advancements, the team attends professional training sessions through recognized accredited agencies, safety webinars through professional safety consulting firms, and EHS-based webinars through the Campus Safety Health & Environmental Management Association (CSHEMA). They also look at various safety trends/incidents happening in other Universities, and monitor OSHA newsletters for the latest trends and upcoming regulations!

Thank you to the safety team for everything you do to keep our staff safe!