The 12^th Annual ASSP WPA Professional Development Conference (PDC) was conducted on March 27, 2025, at The Loft Conference Center in Southpointe, Canonsburg PA from 8:00am to 4:45 pm.

The PDC featured the Opening Keynote of Jason Kunz CIH, CSP speaking on “The Future of Safety: FIVE Trends Shaping the Future of the Profession” and the lunchtime Speaker was Steve Scott speaking on “What is Human and Organizational Performance (HOP)?”. Thank you to Komatsu for being the exclusive Diamond Sponsor and the sponsor of the Keynote speakers. The Student Sections from IUP, SRU, and Thiel College providing the speakers for the closing session of the day. A new feature at this PDC was an auction of gifts generously donated by the vendors. The winners of the gifts had to be present to win.

Attendees had a choice of 8 sessions in 2 timeslots throughout the day. The event had a total attendance of 197 people, of which there were 144 Professionals and 53 Students. The event offered 0.7 CEUs for those that participated in the entire event.

Thank you! to our generous Sponsors: Komatsu, Range Resources, AM Health and Safety, ClickSafety, RJR Safety Inc, 2Six Advisors, Alpha Safety USA, and Snyder Brothers Inc. The PDC had 9 Vendors exhibiting during the event – AM Health and Safety, ClickSafety, RJR Safety Inc., Compliance Management International (CMI), Honeywell Portable Gas Detection, NovaCare Rehabilitation, Onsite Innovations, Square One Medical, Voxel, and West Virginia University. OSHA had an information table.

Thank you! to the 2025 PDC Planning Committee Members – Wayne Vanderhoof, Chris Sarracino, Kelley Edmier, Cody Bergad, Tracey Cekada, Daniel Finn, Carl Heinlein, Jillian Tilko, Majed Zreiqat, Melissa Heike, Cindy Medford, Hope Dropp, Sophia Naugle, John Aliveto, Dan Wible, Rick Bartlebaugh, Joe Losko, and students Elia McKnight (SRU), Hannah Wilson (SRU), Austin Little (IUP), Micah Nygren (IUP, and Meghan Roach (IUP).

The April Technical Meeting was conducted on Friday, April 04, 2025. It was hosted by the SRU Student Section at the Weisenfluh Dining Hall on the SRU campus as a lunchtime in-person meeting. The speaker was Mr. Bob Wengryn of Honeywell Safety Products speaking on “The Importance of Proper Fitting of PPE” which focused on the fitting of personal fall protection equipment for both male and female workers highlighting the differences in the equipment as well as explaining the need and steps to properly fit the harness to the wearer.

There was a total of 35 people in attendance of which there were 9 professionals and 26 students. The Professionals included members from the Western PA Chapter as well as the Northwest PA Chapter. The students were from SRU and one from IUP.

Thank you to Cindy Medford and the SRU Student Section for hosting the meeting!

Congratulations! from the ASSP Western PA Executive Committee to the students listed below for being selected and awarded a 2025 ASSP WPA Chapter Scholarship:

Emmalee Henthorn – Slippery Rock University
Justin Doty – Slippery Rock University
John Miskinis – Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Amy Simcik – Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Victoria Mackalica – Slippery Rock University

The Chapter is proud of each of our awardees and is pleased to assist each of them in their educational efforts at our Student Chapter schools. The Chapter awarded a total of $6,000.00 for scholarships which is about 10% of the annual budget.

The IUP Student Section of ASSP is pleased to announce the recipients for the 2024-2025 Academic Scholarships.

Eric Gaston-$1,000
Meghan Roach-$500
Maycie Lorelli-$325

IUP ASSP Research Scholarship Recipient
Michelle Cooke-$500

The IUP Student Section thanks everyone who applied and please be on the lookout for next year’s scholarship application in 2025-2026.

The February Technical Meeting was a tour conducted on Monday, February 03, 2025, as a tour of the Komatsu – Global Distribution Center in Charleroi, PA followed by a dinner and networking. The tour was hosted by David Johnson, Director EHS – Soft Rock at Komatsu. There were 10 participants including 4 students from SRU and 2 students from IUP.

Thank you to David Johnson for hosting the tour and meeting!