Work Environment Grad Joins Two Other Members From UMass Lowell

UMass Lowell Image
Beth Rosenberg ’95 was selected to serve on the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

03/14/2013
By Karen Angelo

With the addition of Beth Rosenberg ’95 to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), all three current CSB members are from UMass Lowell. 

Rosenberg, an assistant professor in the Public Health Program at Tufts University of Medicine, was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a member of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) in January. The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. 

She joins Prof. Emeritus Rafael Moure-Eraso of Work Environment, who has served as chairman of the CSB since 2010, and CSB board member Mark Griffon ’92, a radiological sciences graduate who has worked as a trainer for UMass Lowell’s hazardous waste worker training program. 

Rosenberg has extensive experience in making workplaces safer and more sustainable. She earned a Sc.D. in work environment policy from UMass Lowell in 1995. 

“At UMass Lowell, I learned about the relationships between science, policy, culture and social change, as well as the more technical basics of industrial hygiene, ergonomics and epidemiology,” Rosenberg says. 

She has served on the Science Advisory Board of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute at UMass Lowell for six years. 

“My life would not have been so rich had it not been for the professors and connections from the Work Environment Department at UMass Lowell,” says Rosenberg. 

Graduates of the Work Environment programs are trained in designing systems of production that are inherently safe for workers and the environment while supporting a sustainable economy. 

“The fact that all three current board members of an influential federal agency come from UMass Lowell is powerful evidence of our strength in protecting worker health and the environment,” says David Kriebel, chair of the Department of Work Environment. “Our model of public health science has always stressed the importance of linking research to protect workers. And the CSB is an incredibly powerful place where three of our own are making workplaces safer.”