Centers of Excellence

UC EH&S Centers of Excellence

While the EHS Leadership Council and its various working groups have developed many best practice documents over the years, the challenge for many campuses is finding expertise and/or resources to implement the programs.  And, although campuses do share resources with each other, it is usually in response to an emergency event and for a very limited duration.  The main challenge, even in emergency situations, is that the lending campus cannot afford to loan a person out for an extended duration for fear of their program suffering.  The CoE program is intended to address this issue by being proactive in providing resources in advance and requiring a CoE to provide assistance to other campuses and system-wide leadership on their specific subject area.

Centers of Excellence are not a new concept and have been widely adopted by business and government organizations to promote thought leadership and innovation in the development of new programs and processes.  In general, CoE’s have the following characteristics or elements:

• Collection of subject matter experts on a given subject/topic
• Central repository for research and study materials
• Clearinghouse of process, standards and policy design
• Source of educational opportunities on the given subject/topic
• Development and monitoring of success criteria for metrics/systems of measurement

Current Centers of Excellence

The UC Systemwide Centers of Excellence (“CoE”) concept began in 2010 with the formation of the Center for Laboratory Safety at UCLA.  CoE recognizes unique pockets of expertise within a campus or medical center and through funding from the Office of the President, provides a forum to share information and best practices throughout the system through the coordination of training and support.

Dangerous Goods Shipping - Charles Borromeo, UCB
cborromeo@berkeley.edu   510.642.0117

Objective:  Systemwide expert guidance, support and training for shipping of hazardous good.

Ergonomics: Construction and System-wide Support - Kristie Elton, UCR
kristie.elton@ucr.edu  951.827.6315

Objective: Provide systemwide support for Ergonomics programs and act as the Ergonomic expert for design and construction.

Injury and Illness Prevention(IIP): Jim Gilson, UCB j_gilson@berkeley.edu  510.643.9575

Objective: Working in conjuction with sytemwide Workers Compensation Managers, provide systemwide support for general safety issues (not specific to an existing workgroup or CoE) focused on injury prevention.

Hospital Safety Management and Injury Reduction - Ajay Tejpal, UCDMC  Ajay.tejpal@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu    376.734.7321

Objective: Coordinate systemwide employee injury reduction programs for UC medical centers.

UC Center for Laboratory Safety - James Gibson, UCLA
jgibson@ehs.ucla.edu   310.206.6544 

Objective:  Sponsor and support research on laboratory safety including development and implementation of best practices.

Learning Management System - Nancy Terry, UCR
Nancy.terry@ucr.edu  951.827.4722
                                
Objective:  Assist and support campuses with LMS implementation.

Online Safety Training content development - Janette Ducut, UCR
Janette.ducut@ucr.edu  951.827.6303
                                               
Objective: Development of systemwide custom or specialized EHS-oriented training.

Safety Management and Metrics, Including Mindfulness – Sandra Conrrad,
Jessica Drew de Paz, UCI
sconrrad@uci.edu  949.824.6982
drewj@uci.edu  949.824.6634
                                               
Objective:  Provide leadership and focus in the area of injury prevention, including research on the impact of mindfulness.

Smart Labs - David Kang, UCI  kangds2@uci.edu   949.824.7574

Objective:  In support of Integrated Safety and Environmental Management (ISEM), provide systemwide expertise in sustainable laboratory practices.

Technology - Safa Hussain, UCD  smhussain@ucdavis.edu    530.633.7232

Objective:  Technology subject matter expertise in the area of off-the-shelf EHS applications including the in-house development and support applications.

Theater Arts Safety - Brent Cooley, UCSC  bcooley@ucsc.edu   831.459.1877

Objective:  Develop tools, resources and provide systemwide support for Theater Arts health & safety programs. Initial focus includes evaluating Theater facility design features that may create challenging working at height issues and how these risks can be mitigated through engineering, administrative or personal protective equipment controls.