Instructor Highlight: Richard Gleason
Rick is an invaluable mentor, teacher and advocate for so many students. He instilled a love for learning that transcends the classroom. His approach focused on inquiry — inspiring students to ask questions, engage with peers and seek the necessary resources for building effective health and safety programs.
Inspiration to Teach Health and Safety
When asked what inspires him to teach health & safety, Richard replied:
"What I like about teaching for UW OSHA is seeing students for the last 30 years who come up at conferences and still remember the class they took and comment on how it helped them in their safety career."
Professional Journey
Mr. Gleason worked for Federal OSHA and State Labour & Industries, Department of Occupational Safety & Health (DOSH), Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act (WISHA) as an inspector for 13 years. He taught at the University of Washington for 26 years. He also assisted the University of Washington Pacific Northwest OSHA Training center and provided services to Region 10 comprising Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.
Mr. Gleason also assisted in third-party liability cases as an expert witness in construction, general industry and maritime safety cases. After the cases were settled, he used the information (without the names of the establishments) as real-world case histories in his courses.
Academic and Current Role
Richard Gleason is Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington, where he taught ENV 460/560 (Occupational Safety Management), ENVH 453 (Industrial Hygiene) and ENVH 462/562 (Technical Aspects of Industrial Safety). He is also a graduate of the MS in Industrial Hygiene program at DEOHS.
Upcoming Courses
Don't miss out on Rick's OSHA courses that he will be teaching in December, one covers the OSHA requirements for maintaining and posting records of occupational injuries and illnesses, and the other gives an introduction to basic accident investigation procedures and describes accident analysis techniques. Enroll for OSHA #7845 Recordkeeping Rule Seminar on December 17th and OSHA #7505 Introduction to Incident (Accident) Investigation on December 19th.
