Tony Schrick has accepted a new position as the  Safety Officer for the UCD Office of Research.

In his new role, Schrick is expected to lead efforts to improve safety practices in the Research Core Facilities Program and other units within the Office of Research.  

Schrick has worked with Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) as a Lab Safety Specialist for ten years, and previously worked in safety professions at UC Santa Barbara, Meissner Filtration Products, and the US Navy.

The Research Core Facilities Program Director, Isabelle Girard extended a warm welcome to Schrick, praising him for bringing a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to his new role.

 "Tony is enthusiastic about the challenges ahead in bringing a stronger safety practice to the research cores, ORUs and other units in OR. We are looking forward to working with our new colleague," Girard said.

In Shrick’s words his strategy for working with laboratory staff is “to promote a culture of safety, which includes making safety easy, helping out when possible, leading by example, and providing prompt responses.” 

When asked about the biggest challenges facing lab safety professionals today, and how he hopes to address them in his new role, Schrick said that the difficulty of convincing people to prioritize safety remained a concern even today.

“The need to communicate that injuries do happen and to create an environment where people feel comfortable reporting incidents, we need to win people over to safety” Shrick said. 

Schrick's  supervisor at EH&S, Veronica Thron, praised him for supporting his teammates and expressed her excitement for his new role as Safety Officer. 

"Tony is a valued member of this team. We will truly miss him and his willingness to support his teammates. We love Tony and are so excited for him," Thron said.