CUHMMC 2026
TECHNICAL SESSIONS
Building a Culture of Compliance and Continuous Improvement
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Creating a culture of compliance within an organization is essential to ensuring long-term regulatory adherence, operational excellence, and a strong ethical foundation. This presentation focuses on the four pivotal components that form the bedrock of a compliant culture: document management, risk assessments, training plans and drills, and response preparation. By integrating these elements, organizations can foster a proactive and resilient compliance environment that supports zero violations and continuous improvement. 1. Document Management - Document management is the cornerstone of any compliance program. Effective documentation ensures that all policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements are accurately recorded, easily accessible, and consistently updated. A robust document management system allows organizations to maintain a clear record of compliance-related activities, providing transparency and accountability. Key elements include maintaining up-to-date operating procedures, storing historical inspection records, and ensuring that documentation practices comply with relevant regulations. 2. Risk Assessments - Conducting thorough risk assessments is critical to identifying and mitigating potential compliance issues before they escalate. This process involves systematically evaluating the organization's processes, systems, and activities to determine areas of vulnerability and non-compliance risks. Regular risk assessments enable organizations to proactively address potential threats, allocate resources effectively, and implement appropriate control measures. By integrating risk assessments into the compliance strategy, organizations can prioritize their efforts, focusing on high-risk areas and continuously improving their compliance posture. Embedding risk assessment practices into daily operations reinforces a culture where compliance is a shared responsibility. 3. Training Plans and Drills - Comprehensive training plans and periodic drills are essential to embedding compliance into the organizational culture. Training plans should be designed to equip employees with the knowledge and skills needed to understand and adhere to regulatory requirements and internal policies. These plans should cover onboarding training for new hires, regular refresher courses, and specialized training for roles with specific compliance responsibilities. Additionally, conducting drills and simulations helps prepare staff for real-world compliance scenarios and emergency situations. Drills reinforce the importance of compliance, test the effectiveness of policies and procedures, and identify areas for improvement. 4. Response Preparation - Preparation for compliance-related incidents and violations is a crucial aspect of a resilient compliance culture. Organizations must develop comprehensive response plans outlining the steps to be taken in the event of a compliance breach or regulatory inquiry. These plans should include clear reporting protocols.
PRESENTER
Dr. Frederick White
Industrial Hygienist/CX Advisor
Department of Veterans Affairs
Dr. Frederick G. White Jr. is an Industrial Hygienist currently serving as a Supervisory Management Analyst within VA. Dr. White served as a Compliance Officer & Environmental Manager where he managed the environmental and compliance programs for VA Portland and helped the facility achieve the VA Environmental Excellence Award & recognition as the first VA EPA designated Performance Track member.
Innovative Strategies for Engaging Laboratory Safety Training Through Interactive Models
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Laboratory safety training can be difficult to engage learners in, especially when procedures are complex or delivered in traditional lecture formats. This presentation explores two interactive models developed at Florida Gulf Coast University that use gamified, scenario‑driven learning to strengthen engagement and support clearer understanding of laboratory safety expectations. The first workshop uses a narrative investigation format to guide participants through spill‑response challenges, encouraging collaborative decision-making and reinforcing key concepts through themed scenarios. The second workshop applies an escape‑room style structure to help learners practice hazard recognition and reporting pathways through a series of progressively linked tasks. Both approaches blend teamwork, hands‑on problem‑solving, and real-time discussions that help participants connect required procedures to realistic laboratory situations. Attendees will gain insight into how these models were developed, how they support participant learning and confidence, and how similar strategies can be adapted to a wide range of safety programs. Practical design considerations, facilitation techniques, and implementation tips will be shared for institutions interested in bringing interactive methods to their own laboratory safety training efforts.
PRESENTER
Jennifer Marsico
Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator
Florida Gulf Coast University
Jennifer Marsico is an Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator II at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she supports laboratory safety, hazardous materials management, and EH&S training for instructional and research laboratories. Her background includes public health, industrial hygiene, and science education, and her work focuses on practical implementation and clear communication to support safe laboratory operations. Jennifer holds a B.S. in Environmental Health and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction.
The Hunt for Picric Acid
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Legacy Chemicals pose a significant challenge at universities. Professors are notorious for stockpiling chemicals in the off chance that one day they might need them. Sometimes, the chemical left sitting at the back of the cabinet could become an explosive nuisance. “The Hunt for Picric Acid” will detail the University of Miami’s efforts to identify and remove this potentially explosive legacy chemical before any dire consequences occur. The presentation is an exciting case study about the actions taken by the Hazmat and Chemical Hygiene team at the University of Miami.
PRESENTER
Brian Cumbie
Hazmat and Environmental Protection Manager
University of Miami
Brian Cumbie is the Hazard Material and Environmental Manager at the University of Miami. Brian has over 10 years of experience working with regulatory agencies and higher education institutions.
Keep Your Cool with the New HFC Management Rule
SESSION DESCRIPTION
40 CFR 84 Subpart C, the HFC Refrigerant Management Rule, was recently finalized with requirements for appliances containing HFCs. Potentially applicable sites include any entities that own, operate, service, repair, recycle, dispose, or install equipment containing HFCs or their substitutes. This presentation will provide a background on HFC regulations, applicability provisions for 40 CFR 84 Subpart C, and a summary of requirements under the rule. Compliance dates and best practices for HFC management will also be discussed.
PRESENTER
Jena DeRung
Senior Consultant
Trinity Consultants
Jena DeRung is a Senior Consultant with Trinity Consultants. She has 5 years of experience in the environmental consulting field, with a focus on Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin state air permitting. She also specializes in refrigerant management regulations and synthetic organic chemical manufacturing industry regulations.
Lessons Learned and Tools Developed from a Decade of Lab Cleanouts at Vanderbilt University
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Vanderbilt University is a dynamic and rapidly changing environment. This is especially true in the area of laboratory moves and changeovers. These can happen from retirements, investigators leaving the University, renovations, deaths, and often new investigators coming in with special research needs. The chemical safety/waste management end of this is very involved. Typically there has been some amount of chemical hoarding. Depending on the age, composition, and labeling status of these items, there are often special problems. This talk would mainly explore the typical movements of wastes/unwanted items, how to process these items efficiently such that any one lab move/changeover can be handled without undue interruption to normal activities in waste management. Special attention would be given to a decision tree and use of a waste database and should serve as a decent model for comparison given the universal nature of these types of events at colleges and universities.
PRESENTER
Stephen Trundy
Hazardous Waste Program Manager
Vanderbilt University
32 years in waste management, 10 years with Vanderbilt, BS Biology/Chemistry University of Arkansas-Monticello 1990. CHMM since 2005. Some experience in Industry and Radioactive waste transportation contracting, but mostly worked in Education (24 years experience).
Preparing for Your Replacement or What Happens if You Get Hit by the Bus?
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Throughout the years, Virginia Tech’s Environmental Health and Safety has encountered both planned and unplanned turnover of experienced program managers. The office, especially the Hazardous Materials Group, has an entirely new group of technicians. Training them and preparing a succession plan has historically been a challenge. This presentation will examine lessons learned based on Virginia Tech’s experiences as well as facilitate a discussion about both successful and unsuccessful succession strategies based on audience members’ experiences. Most importantly, this presentation will provide the audience (and mostly the presenter) ideas on how to improve your university’s onboarding and succession planning processes.
PRESENTER
Kenny Osborne
Hazardous Materials Manager
Virginia Tech
Kenny is bald, throws darts, supervises all the wastes and serves as the therapist for VT's Chemical Hygiene Officer.
Trash Talk: Fast and Furious (Tokyo) Drift Happens
Good Programs Plan for It
SESSION DESCRIPTION
We have all quietly enforced some rules and not others while maintaining the illusion of total enforcement. This talk is permission to stop pretending—and start designing around that reality. Every hazardous waste program starts the same way: big plans, fresh SOPs, and the optimistic belief that everyone will read them. Then reality kicks in. Research priorities shift. Budgets tighten. A veteran retires and takes thirty years of institutional knowledge with them. EHS then finds itself walking a fine line: protect compliance and safety without becoming the barrier that slows business, interrupts care, or alienates stakeholders. That tension creates drift—not just in the labs, but inside EHS programs too. Sometimes drift looks like shortcuts at the point of generation. Sometimes it looks like selective enforcement shaped by institutional politics: which areas get coached, which get corrected, which get “handled later,” and which get held to the letter because the visibility is higher or the relationships are more fragile. Drift is not a failure. It is the predictable result of running real programs with real people under real constraints. This presentation takes an honest (and occasionally entertaining) look at the gap between the hazardous waste program you plan for and the one you end up with. That gap is not due to laziness or incompetence, but because programs are designed for conditions that have never and will never exist. The mythical lab where everyone follows every SOP and never panic orders chemicals at the end of the fiscal year, is not real, and your program shouldn’t pretend that it is. We’ll share real examples, including some of our less glamorous moments, and talk about what happens when SOPs collect dust, enforcement ability is lackluster, institutional politics force you to play nice while still getting the job done, and when the metrics you’re collecting don’t actually tell you anything useful. The gap between fantasy and reality isn’t the problem. Ignoring it is. We will talk about designing programs around the expectation of error instead of the expectation of perfection. Prioritizing harm reduction over total compliance. Building trust and a culture instead of over relying on endless rules. And collecting data that can actually help drive decisions instead of just gathering it because you can and it looks good graphed out on a board. Accidents happen. Programs drift. The professionals who manage them adapt, reprioritize, and rebuild.
PRESENTERS
Meagan Thibodaux
EHS Supervisor
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Meagan Thibodaux is the EHS Supervisor at UTMB, leading environmental compliance across multiple programs. She manages hazardous and pharmaceutical waste, pollution prevention, stormwater/MS4 coordination, inspections, and regulatory reporting. Known for practical training and strong customer service, she partners with teams to turn requirements into clear, workable processes.
Travis Chrisman
Sr. EHS Specialist
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
And Travis is here too.
Zero Tolerance: Strategies for No Compliance Violations
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Ensuring that a facility operates without any compliance violations is a critical goal for administrators aiming to maintain regulatory standards, safeguard the environment, and promote worker and public safety. This presentation, titled ""Zero Tolerance: Strategies for No Compliance Violations,"" offers a structured approach in three fundamental steps: evaluating the baseline, training staff and creating an audit schedule, and building robust relationships with environmental auditors. By following these steps, facilities can significantly reduce the risk of compliance problems and foster a culture of continuous improvement and accountability. 1. Evaluate Baseline - The first step towards achieving zero compliance violations is to comprehensively evaluate the facility's current baseline. This involves a thorough audit of all existing processes, procedures, and records to identify any gaps or areas of non-compliance. A detailed baseline assessment provides a clear understanding of the current state of the facility's operations and compliance status. This includes reviewing past inspection reports, noting areas of previous violations, and conducting a risk assessment to pinpoint potential vulnerabilities. By establishing a well-documented baseline, facility managers can prioritize areas that need immediate attention and create a roadmap for addressing these issues systematically. 2. Train Staff and Create Audit Schedule - Once the baseline has been established, the next critical step is to train staff and design a comprehensive audit schedule. Training should focus on educating employees about regulatory requirements, organizational policies, and the specific compliance areas relevant to their roles. Regular training updates and refresher courses should be implemented to keep staff informed about any changes in regulations or internal policies. Concurrently, an audit schedule should be created to ensure continuous monitoring and compliance checks. This schedule should include regular internal audits, periodic third-party assessments, and spot-checks to verify adherence to compliance protocols. The audit process should be meticulous, well-documented, and designed to detect even minor infractions before they escalate into significant violations. By combining thorough training with a robust auditing system, facilities can create a proactive compliance culture that mitigates risks effectively. 3. Build Relationship with Environmental Auditors - The final step involves building a collaborative relationship with environmental auditors. Transparency and open communication with external auditors can lead to valuable insights and recommendations for improving compliance. Facilities should engage auditors as partners rather than adversaries, fostering an atmosphere of cooperation and shared goals. Regular dialogue with auditors can help facilities stay updated on regulatory changes, best practices, and industry trends.
PRESENTER
Dr. Frederick White
Industrial Hygienist/CX Advisor
Department of Veterans Affairs
Dr. Frederick G. White Jr. is an Industrial Hygienist currently serving as a Supervisory Management Analyst within VA. Dr. White served as a Compliance Officer & Environmental Manager where he managed the environmental and compliance programs for VA Portland and helped the facility achieve the VA Environmental Excellence Award & recognition as the first VA EPA designated Performance Track member.