My Big Safety Challenge

Anthony Dohmann joins My Big Safety Challenge to share his unexpected journey into the safety profession and the experiences that shaped his leadership style. He discusses early career challenges, the shift from authority to influence, and how mentorship and relationships became central to his approach to safety.

He also reflects on navigating a workplace fatality, the importance of continuous learning, and why investing in others ultimately strengthens safety culture. This episode offers practical insight and inspiration for safety professionals at any stage of their career.

Stay connected with the My Big Safety Challenge podcast community. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Season 6 kicks off with hosts Merle Heckman and Shelley Baber as they talk with Shannon Overland, a seasoned safety leader whose journey began in the rugged forests of Western Canada. What started as a college job in tree planting evolved into co-owning a contracting company—and ultimately discovering what real safety leadership looks like.

Shannon shares the pivotal moments that reshaped her mindset, including a near-miss that changed her family business forever. She discusses how shifting from compliance to curiosity, from telling to asking, and from managing to developing people can dramatically strengthen safety culture.

Stay connected with the My Big Safety Challenge podcast community. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Welcome to Season 6 of My Big Safety Challenge — where real stories meet real leadership.

Hosted by Merle Heckman and Shelley Baber, Season 6 dives deeper than ever into the human side of safety. This season brings together industry experts, frontline leaders, and professionals from around the country who share candid conversations about the challenges, turning points, and breakthroughs that shape safer, stronger workplaces.

From transformative leadership experiences to the moments that changed everything, each episode reveals new insights into culture, communication, human performance, and what it truly means to lead with purpose.

Stay connected with the My Big Safety Challenge podcast community. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

This week on My Big Safety Challenge, we sit down with David Musgrave. With a background in psychology, specifically in autism spectrum disorder and neurodiversity, David brings a human-centered lens to the safety world. Now serving as the Senior Vice President of DEKRA North America, he helps companies move beyond outdated thinking and platitudes to create lasting cultural changes. He even tracks worn-out phrases in what he playfully calls his list of “Dinosaur Safety Sentiments.”

David isn’t afraid to ask for the big things. He challenges the people he works with and believes technical jargon should stay with the technical folks. What matters more, he says, is connecting, building strong relationships that allow you to speak up, push back, and create meaningful progress.

Join us for this episode to hear why intentional leadership matters and how doing good work draws others in. David’s insights are smart, inspiring, and just a little bit rebellious.

Shelley Baber, CSP, began her career chasing perfection. She wanted to make an immediate impact and thought that if something wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t right. But after 25 years in the field, now serving as EHS Director for Eaton’s Electrical Engineering Services and Systems Division, she’s learned that real progress is made through baby steps, or, as she puts it, “Don’t let no progress get in the way of any progress.”

In this episode of My Big Safety Challenge, Shelley shares the lessons that have shaped her journey, starting with the power of building relationships in the workplace. She believes the best safety cultures feel like family, where trust and connection allow teams to grow together. At the same time, she’s clear that family outside of work comes first. For Shelley, it’s not about achieving a perfect balance between work and life. It’s about blending the two in a way that makes room for both.

You’ll also hear why mentoring is now at the heart of her mission and how safety professionals are in a unique position to make an impact at every level of an organization.

If you enjoy this conversation, keep an eye out for our next season of My Big Safety Challenge. Shelley will be joining us again, this time as cohost.

This week on My Big Safety Challenge, we sit down with David Musgrave. With a background in psychology, specifically in autism spectrum disorder and neurodiversity, David brings a human-centered lens to the safety world. Now serving as the Senior Vice President of DEKRA North America, he helps companies move beyond outdated thinking and platitudes to create lasting cultural changes. He even tracks worn-out phrases in what he playfully calls his list of “Dinosaur Safety Sentiments.”

David isn’t afraid to ask for the big things. He challenges the people he works with and believes technical jargon should stay with the technical folks. What matters more, he says, is connecting, building strong relationships that allow you to speak up, push back, and create meaningful progress.

Join us for this episode to hear why intentional leadership matters and how doing good work draws others in. David’s insights are smart, inspiring, and just a little bit rebellious.

Shelley Baber, CSP, began her career chasing perfection. She wanted to make an immediate impact and thought that if something wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t right. But after 25 years in the field, now serving as EHS Director for Eaton’s Electrical Engineering Services and Systems Division, she’s learned that real progress is made through baby steps, or, as she puts it, “Don’t let no progress get in the way of any progress.”

In this episode of My Big Safety Challenge, Shelley shares the lessons that have shaped her journey, starting with the power of building relationships in the workplace. She believes the best safety cultures feel like family, where trust and connection allow teams to grow together. At the same time, she’s clear that family outside of work comes first. For Shelley, it’s not about achieving a perfect balance between work and life. It’s about blending the two in a way that makes room for both.

You’ll also hear why mentoring is now at the heart of her mission and how safety professionals are in a unique position to make an impact at every level of an organization.

If you enjoy this conversation, keep an eye out for our next season of My Big Safety Challenge. Shelley will be joining us again, this time as cohost.

Heather MacDougall, a lawyer and advisory board member, was in Washington, D.C., when an offer to join the National Labor Relations Board under the Bush Administration changed her career trajectory forever.

A lawyer? On a safety and leadership podcast? It makes perfect sense, just trust us.

While she didn’t get that position, she did shortly thereafter become the Chief Counsel to the Chairman at the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, eventually becoming Commissioner of the Council before joining Amazon as the Chief Safety Officer.

See, we told you it would start to make sense.

From labor lawyer to leading safety at one of the world’s largest companies, Heather has shaped a powerful perspective on what it takes to lead in safety today and how innovation and technology are useful tools in reducing incidents. Tune into this episode of My Big Safety Challenge as Heather shares why she believes safety is never a finished product and why the constant pursuit of improvement is one of the field’s greatest strengths.

Heather MacDougall, a lawyer and advisory board member, was in Washington, D.C., when an offer to join the National Labor Relations Board under the Bush Administration changed her career trajectory forever.

A lawyer? On a safety and leadership podcast? It makes perfect sense, just trust us.

While she didn’t get that position, she did shortly thereafter become the Chief Counsel to the Chairman at the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, eventually becoming Commissioner of the Council before joining Amazon as the Chief Safety Officer.

See, we told you it would start to make sense.

From labor lawyer to leading safety at one of the world’s largest companies, Heather has shaped a powerful perspective on what it takes to lead in safety today and how innovation and technology are useful tools in reducing incidents. Tune into this episode of My Big Safety Challenge as Heather shares why she believes safety is never a finished product and why the constant pursuit of improvement is one of the field’s greatest strengths.

One of the more admirable, yet often overlooked, qualities of the safety profession is the spirit of camaraderie that exists even among industry competitors. As Marty Lalick, CSP, Associate Director at ESPN, shares in this episode of My Big Safety Challenge: “There are no trade secrets [in safety].”

This mindset of partnership is woven throughout the conversation, as Marty discusses the tremendous value of openly sharing safety best practices with other broadcast studios—a lesson he has carried through his 27 years of experience spanning environmental cleanup, rapid response, construction, manufacturing, and now television broadcasting.

How does someone with dreams of becoming a teacher find themselves leading remediation efforts at Ground Zero after 9/11? Tune in to Marty’s episode to hear his incredible story and explore how an educator’s perspective can transform the way we see the safety profession.