In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Zac Elliott, Safety Director at Mead & Hunt, to explore what modern safety leadership looks like across a diverse, nationwide engineering and consulting organization.


Mead & Hunt operates across architecture, engineering, aviation, transportation, water infrastructure, and environmental services. With more than 1,500 employees and teams operating across the country, Zac’s role involves managing safety exposure in environments the company often doesn’t directly control like construction sites and client facilities.


What makes Zac’s perspective particularly valuable is his background. Before moving into safety leadership, he spent years working in the trades, cutting his teeth in concrete work as a laborer and cement finisher. That hands-on experience continues to shape how he approaches safety leadership today.


In our conversation, we explore why field experience can dramatically improve safety leadership credibility, how organizations can balance internal and external safety expertise, and why driving risk remains one of the biggest safety exposures for many companies.


But the deeper theme running through the conversation is culture. Zac explains how strong company values, including taking care of people, doing the right thing, and doing what makes sense, create the foundation that makes a real safety culture possible.


Here are some highlights from my discussion with Zac:

• Why fleet safety and distracted driving represent one of the largest operational risks for modern organizations
• The value of hiring safety professionals directly from the trades
• How real-world experience builds credibility with frontline workers
• Balancing internal safety training with specialized external expertise
• Why a strong safety culture starts with a strong company culture
• How organizations can maintain cultural consistency while growing through acquisitions
  
  

If you're responsible for risk management, workforce safety, or operational leadership, this conversation offers practical insights into how safety leadership works.



Episode Resources

• Zac Elliott on LinkedIn
• Mead & Hunt Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube
  
  

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

"Once you hear that rack of that shotgun, if you take another step forward, we all know the outcome of that. When we ignore these so-called near misses, we lead ourselves down the road to having an incident." – Reginald Shubert, Director of Safety, Barr & Barr


What does it look like when someone who has worked in the trades for decades brings that lived experience to safety leadership? In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Reggie, Director of Safety at Barr & Barr, a 100% employee-owned construction management firm with a history stretching back to 1927, to find out.


Reginald spent years as a union ironworker with Ironworkers Local 401 in Philadelphia before being recruited into safety leadership, not once but three times. What finally convinced him wasn't a title or a pay raise. It was a foreman who walked into a job site trailer hunched over at 50, and a safety director who asked a simple question: do you want to be able to play with your grandkids?


In this conversation, we cover:

• How a 30-year career in the field shapes the way Reginald approaches safety leadership today
• Why psychological safety is the most underused tool in high-risk industries
• The near miss analogy that will change how you think about incident reporting
• The stigma around skilled trades and why the construction industry deserves more respect
• His work with the Ebony Tie Affair Youth Symposium and what it means to give back alongside professional success
• The technique he uses on job sites to make personal safety feel personal
  
  

Reginald Shubert brings over 30 years in construction, starting out as a union ironworker with Ironworkers Local 401 in Philadelphia before making his way into safety leadership. He is a firm believer in moving organisations from compliance to commitment, and he has spent his career building high-performing teams, reducing incidents, and managing multi-site programmes across some genuinely high-stakes environments. Outside of work, he is an EMT, a track and field coach, and the vice chair of the Ebony Tie Affair Youth Symposium. Reginald, thank you for being here. 


This episode is for safety professionals who came up through the field, for executives wondering why their culture programs aren't sticking, and for anyone who has ever had an almost-bad day at work and said nothing about it. Reginald makes a compelling case for why that silence is the most dangerous thing on any job site.



Episode Resources:

• Reginald Shubert on LinkedIn
• Barr & Barr Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

What if the secret to better safety wasn't stricter policies, but smarter ones?


In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Matt Shaffer, Director of Vision Technologies, to unpack the leadership philosophy that has transformed safety programs across airports, construction sites, and critical infrastructure.


We explore: 

• Why eliminating "safety vs. operations" language changes worker engagement immediately 
• How a return-to-work program became a competitive advantage at Swissport 
• The audit philosophy that measures leadership quality, not just compliance 
• Why fresh eyes from different industries solve the blind spots veterans no longer see 
• How to build safety cultures where near-miss reporting actually happens 
• What "celebrating the 100%" looks like and why it sustains culture long-term
  
  

Matt Shaffer started his career in insurance and financial planning before being pulled into safety consulting at Dulles Airport. What followed was over a decade of leading programs across aviation, construction, and critical infrastructure. He is now the Director of Safety at Vision Technologies, a national low-voltage infrastructure company serving data centers, healthcare, and higher education. His reputation is built on one core belief: nobody comes to work wanting to get hurt, and your job as a safety leader is to build the systems that honor that.


For EHS leaders, compliance professionals, and executives navigating the complexity of distributed safety programs, this episode offers a genuine reset. Safety culture isn't built on fear or checklists but rather on trust, clear expectations, and leaders who show up as partners.



Episode Resources: 

• Matt Shaffer on LinkedIn 
• Vision Technologies Website 
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube
  
  

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

What if Disability isn’t a disadvantage in business, but preparation for it? In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I speak with Diego Mariscal, Founder and CEO of 2Gether-International, about transforming how society and investors think about disability and entrepreneurship.


We explore:

• Why daily adaptation builds entrepreneurial resilience
• The systemic “poverty trap” that discourages Disabled founders from scaling
• ABLE accounts and corporate structures that protect independence
• The principle of “Nothing About Us Without Us”
• Why curb cuts, iPhones, and audiobooks prove Disability-first design scales
• How ecosystem-level change happens from startup cohorts to the SEC
  
  

Born prematurely in the United States but raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Diego grew up immersed in entrepreneurial culture. He launched his first company in high school, educating students on Disability experiences. That early exposure to innovation and systems thinking shaped what would become 2Gether-International, an organization dedicated to reframing Disability as a competitive advantage. 

Over the past decade, Diego and his team at 2GI have supported more than 1000 startups and helped them raise and generate millions of dollars in investment, revenue, and acquisitions. The organization itself has given more than half a million dollars in non-diluted capital to founders with Disabilities. Now, Diego is raising the first-ever multi-million dollar blended-capital fund exclusively for founders with Disabilities.
For EHS leaders, compliance professionals, and executives navigating complex workforce dynamics, this episode offers a powerful lens shift: inclusion isn’t charity, it’s a strategic advantage. If you’re serious about unlocking overlooked talent and building systems that reward resilience, this conversation will challenge how you think about leadership.


Episode Resources:

• Diego Mariscal on LinkedIn
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

"It's not me, it's the people that work around me. If you have a good, strong team and everyone's focused on the same goals, it makes everything a lot easier." Eric Yates, VP EHS at Balfour Beatty US
Most organizations say they want to scale safety. Fewer are willing to scale accountability, trust, and the right expertise along with it. That’s where things break down. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Eric Yates, VP of Environmental Health & Safety at Balfour Beatty, to talk about what it really takes to build high-performing EHS teams across complex, multi-state operations. With 27 years in construction and heavy civil, Eric shares hard-earned lessons on navigating OSHA, state plans, MSHA, DOT, and FRA requirements, without losing sight of the people doing the work.


We dig into why regional expertise beats one-size-fits-all staffing, how project-based safety professionals can scale with demand, and why chasing a “perfect” safety record may actually undermine reporting. If you’re serious about embedding a people-first safety culture at scale, this conversation will challenge you and equip you to lead differently.


Here are some highlights from my discussion with Eric:

• How to build EHS programs across fragmented regulatory landscapes 
• Why regional expertise matters more than centralized staffing 
• The real difference between oil & gas safety culture and civil construction
• How to scale on-site EHS representation without traditional staffing overhead
• Why "perfect safety records" are the wrong goal 
• The leadership principle that multiplies impact
  
  

Eric Yates is Vice President of Environmental, Health and Safety at Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, where he leads the strategic direction of EHS programs across complex civil projects. With 27 years in construction and more than 15 in safety leadership, he champions a Zero Harm culture grounded in field experience and regulatory expertise. A CSP, ASP, and CHST, Eric is passionate about building high-performing teams, leveraging data and technology, and ensuring every worker goes home safely.



Episode Resources:

• Jennifer Morrison on LinkedIn
• Balfour Beatty Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube
  
  

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

"What we're trying to do is prevent (protect) the most precious cargo, the people. Right? And that's what the systems are designed for. That's why we're really proud to have some of those top safety ratings in the industry.”- Jennifer Morrison, Director, Vehicle Safety Strategy at Mazda
Most of us don’t think about vehicle safety until something goes wrong. That’s a problem. Because the real work of safety happens long before impact. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Jennifer Morrison, Director of Vehicle Safety Strategies at Mazda North America, to talk about what it really takes to prevent crashes—not just investigate them. With two decades of experience at the NTSB and NHTSA, Jennifer brings a powerful perspective on why affordability should never mean compromising protection.


We unpack how data is proving that technologies like automatic emergency braking prevent up to 60% of rear-end crashes, why making blind spot monitoring standard is a leadership decision, not a luxury one, and how regulators, manufacturers, and human drivers intersect at highway speeds. If you care about fleet safety, workplace risk, or the people riding in your car, this conversation is for you.

• How to shift from reactive crash investigation to proactive safety strategy
• Why making safety standard, not optional, is both a moral and business imperative
• The connected vehicle data advantage that most companies aren't leveraging
• How to exceed compliance without becoming compliance-obsessed
• Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) vs. autonomous vehicles
• The overlooked intersection of occupational and vehicle safety
  
  

Jennifer Morrison is the Director of Vehicle Safety Strategies at Mazda North America Operations, bringing over two decades of expertise in crash investigation, regulatory compliance, and automotive safety innovation. With a background spanning the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and 15 years as a highway crash investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Jennifer has witnessed firsthand the real-world impact of safety failures and the life-saving potential of prevention. At Mazda, she leads the company's vision for a no-fatalities society by 2040, spearheading the deployment of crash avoidance technologies, occupant protection systems, and evidence-based safety strategies that exceed federal minimums.



Episode Chapters:

• 00:00 Intro: Welcome to the Canary Report: Risk Leaders and Safety Professionals
• 02:23 From Midwest Freedom to Vehicle Safety Innovation
• 12:42 From NHTSA Investigator to NTSB Crash Scene Responder
• 18:19 The Toll of Emergency Response Work on Family and Career
• 21:47 Translating Engineering Innovation Into Real-World Safety Compliance
• 26:06 Connected Vehicle Data Proves What Actually Saves Lives
• 28:51 Automatic Emergency Braking Prevents 50-60% of Rear-End Crashes
• 30:53 The Moment Technology Saves Your Teen Driver
• 32:32 Why Affordable Safety Should Be Standard, Not Optional
• 34:14 Standardizing Measurements Across EHS and Vehicle Safety Ecosystems
• 38:19 Fleet Safety Bridges Occupational and Vehicle Risk Management
• 40:44 Human Behavior Remains the Primary Safety System
• 41:35 SAE Levels Explained: Why Mazda Focuses on Level 0-2 ADAS
• 45:26 Blind Spot Monitoring as Standard—A Philosophy, Not a Feature
• 46:10 Key Takeaways: Prevention Over Reaction, People Over Technology
  
  

Episode Resources:

• Jennifer Morrison on LinkedIn
• Mazda North America Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

"We do not want people to have to pay extra for something that is proven to save lives and reduce crashes. So that's standard on every vehicle that Mazda sells." - Jennifer Morrison, Director, Vehicle Safety Strategy at Mazda
Most of us don’t think about vehicle safety until something goes wrong. That’s a problem. Because the real work of safety happens long before impact. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Jennifer Morrison, Director of Vehicle Safety Strategies at Mazda North America, to talk about what it really takes to prevent crashes—not just investigate them. With two decades of experience at the NTSB and NHTSA, Jennifer brings a powerful perspective on why affordability should never mean compromising protection.


We unpack how data is proving that technologies like automatic emergency braking prevent up to 60% of rear-end crashes, why making blind spot monitoring standard is a leadership decision, not a luxury one, and how regulators, manufacturers, and human drivers intersect at highway speeds. If you care about fleet safety, workplace risk, or the people riding in your car, this conversation is for you.

• How to shift from reactive crash investigation to proactive safety strategy
• Why making safety standard, not optional, is both a moral and business imperative
• The connected vehicle data advantage that most companies aren't leveraging
• How to exceed compliance without becoming compliance-obsessed
• Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) vs. autonomous vehicles
• The overlooked intersection of occupational and vehicle safety
  
  

Jennifer Morrison is the Director of Vehicle Safety Strategies at Mazda North America Operations, bringing over two decades of expertise in crash investigation, regulatory compliance, and automotive safety innovation. With a background spanning the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and 15 years as a highway crash investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Jennifer has witnessed firsthand the real-world impact of safety failures and the life-saving potential of prevention. At Mazda, she leads the company's vision for a no-fatalities society by 2040, spearheading the deployment of crash avoidance technologies, occupant protection systems, and evidence-based safety strategies that exceed federal minimums.


Episode Resources:

• Jennifer Morrison on LinkedIn
• Mazda North America Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube
  
  

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

"There are five aspects to a safety program that if you align to these five elements and you connect them, the more connection points that you have between them, the better and stronger your safety program will be.” Steve Davis, VP of EHS at Forbes Brothers Companies
Most organisations I work with are investing heavily in safety, but still not getting the results they expect. That’s exactly why this conversation with Steve Davis mattered so much to me. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I talk to Steve Davis, Vice President of EHS at Forbes Brothers Companies. Steve brings a rare mix of operational experience and practical clarity to a space that’s often cluttered with noise.


We dig into why disconnected safety programs fail, even when they look great on paper. Steve walks through a five-element framework that helps leaders connect the dots between programs, processes, metrics, communication, and structure, turning activity into real protection. We also talk candidly about why “good catches” tell you far more about your culture than lagging indicators, why high-energy hazards require a different mindset, and how to turn data into lessons people actually remember. 


Here are some highlights from my discussion with Steve:

• The Five-Element Framework that connects isolated safety programs 
• Why measuring "good catches" is the leading indicator of genuine safety culture
• How to stop measuring the wrong thing
• Why high-energy hazards demand a completely different safety approach 
• The "Take Two" tool that prevents catastrophic events before hands-on work begins
• How to translate data into stories people actually remember
  
  

Steve Davis is Vice President of Environmental Health & Safety at Forbes Brothers Companies, and is known for building safety cultures that move beyond compliance into measurable, repeatable behaviour change. Drawing on leadership experience across five organisations, Steve integrates programs, processes, communication, and metrics into cohesive safety systems. His work blends quantitative and qualitative data with human performance and behavioural science to reduce mishaps and SIF risk. A recognised industry voice, Steve is a sought-after speaker and advisor to leading energy, construction, and nuclear organisations.



Episode Resources:

• Steve Davis on LinkedIn
• Forbes Brothers Companies Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube
  
  

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

"Brennan's really looking to take a different approach with employee safety. We're gonna start looking at bringing people on who have the personality for it and who are trainable." Victor Buhr, Director of Safety at J.F. Brennan Company
OK everyone, this is one of those conversations that really reframes how we think about safety leadership. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Victor Buhr, Director of Safety at J.F. Brennan Company, a century-old marine construction and environmental remediation firm, operating in the US and Canada with over 600 employees. Together, they explore why the future of safety isn’t about being the “cop on site,” but about earning trust and genuinely caring whether people make it home.


Victor breaks down why Brennan hires for personality and trainability before credentials, how they build safety training that actually sticks in a surge-demand, high-risk industry, and what it takes to manage compliance and skills verification at scale. At the heart of it all is a simple truth: safety isn’t paperwork, it’s people, their families, and the responsibility leaders carry every single day. This one’s for anyone ready to move safety from compliance to culture.


Here are some of the topics that Victor and I explore:

• How to reframe safety hiring from credential-first to culture-first
• Why your safety program must extend beyond the jobsite to the families at home
• The playbook for managing training across a dispersed and unionized workforce
• How to operationalize skills verification with real-time
• Why Power BI and automated compliance alerts beat spreadsheets 
• The hidden advantage of niche industries in managing language and cultural complexity

Victor Buhr is Director of Safety at J.F. Brennan Company, a century-old, family-owned marine heavy civil engineering contractor operating across 48 states. With over a decade of experience in marine construction and underwater services, Victor oversees all risk management, training, and compliance initiatives for a workforce of 100+ professional divers and hundreds of additional field personnel. His expertise spans complex regulatory environments, from OSHA and MSHA to Army Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard requirements, across multiple high-risk divisions including environmental remediation, underwater dive operations, and hydroelectric construction.


Episode Resources:

• Victor Buhr on LinkedIn
• J.F. Brennan Company  Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube
  
  

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

"One of my phrases is make it easy for people to follow the rules. And I understand that if we've got a trade going from one general contractor to another, you want it to be as consistent as possible.” Kathryn Prus, EHS Director at Skanska
OK, everyone, this one hits at the heart of what actually makes safety work at scale. The secret sauce isn’t stricter rules, but making it easier for people to follow them. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Kathryn Prus, Environmental Health & Safety Director at Skanska, for a grounded and honest conversation about building safety cultures that people want to be part of. We dig into why consistency across trade partners matters more than adding another rule, how authentic leadership creates real psychological safety on job sites, and what it takes to engage crews beyond compliance checklists. 
Kathryn shares practical strategies, from standardising expectations across projects to using hands-on, gamified approaches that get workers actively spotting hazards instead of tuning out. We also talk openly about mental health in construction and why making space for those conversations isn’t optional anymore. This episode is about moving safety from paperwork to people, so everyone goes home safe at the end of the day.
Here are some of the topics that Kathryn and I explore:

• How to make consistency your competitive advantage by standardizing safety rules 
• Why gamification and hands-on engagement beat lecture-based training
• The psychology of calculated risk in safety leadership
• How to build psychological safety into construction culture 
• The trade partner audit approach: review lift plans and certifications 
• Why regional collaboration among competing contractors strengthens everyone's safety program

Kathryn Prus is the Environmental Health and Safety Director for Skanska's Oregon operations, overseeing commercial construction projects across schools, airports, hospitals, and complex infrastructure developments. With a career trajectory spanning administrative EHS roles to executive leadership, she has built a reputation for transforming safety culture through authenticity, clear communication, and strategic technology integration, moving well beyond compliance to create sustainable safety excellence. Her approach emphasizes making safety rules easy to follow for trade partners and subcontractors, recognizing that consistency across general contractors directly impacts worker safety and engagement.


Episode Resources:

• Kathryn Prus on LinkedIn
• Skanska Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts 
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on YouTube
  
  

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so