The AI Assistant for Safety Professionals: Turning Knowledge into Action

Safety professionals share a common mission: protect people and ensure they return home safely each day. While that mission remains unchanged, the tools available to support it are evolving rapidly. Today’s safety environments are saturated with regulations, policies, procedures, and data, yet most performance gaps stem not from a lack of knowledge but from friction, delay, and systems that make action harder than discussion. This session explores how artificial intelligence can reduce that friction and help close the Knowing–Doing Gap in modern safety organizations.

Whether you are early in your EHS career or a seasoned leader, participants will explore how artificial intelligence can support the transition from reactive compliance to proactive prevention. Practical applications will be examined across program development, field implementation, and leadership decision support, including generating toolbox talks, conducting gap analyses, validating risk equations, drafting executive summaries, synthesizing regulatory requirements, and evaluating emerging tools such as computer vision and wearables.

A governed AI framework, including the Box Hub model, will be introduced to ensure outputs remain grounded in approved content and traceable sources while reinforcing a human-in-the-loop approach that preserves professional judgment, ethics, and privacy.

Objectives:

1. Identify practical applications of AI that can be used in safety program development and field execution.
2. Analyze how AI can support gap analysis, communication, and risk visualization while maintaining regulatory compliance.
3. Explain how governed knowledge systems, including the Box Hub model, improve consistency, defensibility, and decision quality.
4. Evaluate strategies for integrating AI into safety programs while preserving professional judgment and evidence-based decision-making..

Presenters:

J.D. Horst, CSP, LEAN6σ is the Corporate Occupational Health and Safety Manager at Argonne National Laboratory, where he leads an extended team of twenty-eight safety and industrial hygiene program managers supporting more than 14,000 personnel across national user facilities and research operations. He oversees compliance under 10 CFR 851 and enterprise risk governance within complex, high-hazard research environments, and leads initiatives focused on improving decision quality and operational performance through governed innovation.

With over twenty-two years of leadership experience in occupational safety and health, J.D. has served within the Department of Justice, national consulting roles, and Department of Energy operations. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Safety Sciences from Murray State University, executive leadership education from Cornell University, and professional training from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Steven A. Rupkey, CIH, has over 35 years of experience in safety, health, and environmental program management across various industries. He has a strong background in regulatory compliance, program development, and promoting safety practices that meet organizational and governmental standards. Steven’s expertise includes industrial hygiene, Legionella risk assessments and controls, indoor environmental quality investigations, human research subjects protection, biological safety and security, ISO 45001 certification coordination, and risk assessment strategies. At Argonne National Laboratory, he has managed multidisciplinary teams, developed solutions to improve safety programs, and contributed to multiple ESH initiatives.

Before joining Argonne, Steven worked with several leading ESH consulting firms, where he contributed to projects such as assessing formaldehyde levels in FEMA-supplied trailers, improving indoor air quality, and supporting the Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup and recovery. He has presented on topics like laboratory safety, Legionella risk assessments, and OSHA compliance at national conferences. Steven holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Indiana University and has been a Certified Industrial Hygienist since 1998, reflecting his dedication to occupational health and safety.

Agenda:

11:30 am                               Lunch & Networking

11:55 am                               Chapter Announcements & Introductions

~Noon to ~1:00 pm           Presentation

Meeting Sponsor:

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Register to Attend:

*** $45.00 Charge for Walk-Ins