Bernadette Mondy was named interim assistant vice president Environmental Health and SafetyVirginia Tech
Through regulatory compliance oversight and promotion, environmental health and safety at Virginia Tech supports and advances teaching, learning and research activities.
Mondy, a Virginia Tech alumna, has been serving the university for more than 30 years. Most recently, Mondy was assistant director of laboratory safety. She strengthened compliance and programming around laboratory safety, hazardous material management, and environmental oversight.
Mondy’s appointment comes after Lance Franklin, who was previously in the same role, resigned. In the future, plans for a permanent job search will be announced.
Bernadette is a Hokie by blood. Her unwavering commitment to safety and service and extensive experience make her well-suited as the head of the Environmental Health and Safety team. Bernadette agrees with Lynsay Belshe (vice president for enterprise administrative services and business services), that a high-quality university safety culture is only possible with strong participation from the Virginia Tech Community and strong collaboration with our federal partners.
Environmental Health and Safetys’ mission is all about engagement. To foster a safety culture, we use a variety touchpoints such as training and education and service delivery. Inspections are also included. This allows us to engage the university community and other stakeholders throughout the commonwealth. Mondy stated that it is crucial to ensure safety compliance is as integrated and as burdensome as possible.
Environmental Health and Safety collaborate closely with designated safety officials within Virginia Tech’s academic and administration enterprises. The Office of Research and InnovationStudents Affairs, and other units. The department supervises the university’s Environmental Health and Safety, Chemical Safety, and Occupational Safety and Health Committees. They also participate in the Institutional Biosafety Committee, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Institutional Review Board, and Radiation Safety Committee.
Another critical engagement platform is the Environmental Health and Safetys robust Training Program. Nearly 55,000 training registrations were processed in 2020. Researchers, lab staff, farmers, students, facilities and trade workers were all included in the participants. The training curriculum covers many safety topics. There are many types of safety training available, including general lab safety, electrical safety during research, first aid, CPR, and specialized farm safety training to wineries, breweries and cideries.
Many stakeholders have access to Environmental Health and Safety via the department web-based Safety Management System. This facilitates environmental compliance and health for principal investigators and other research leaders. The portal allows users to perform a variety of compliance functions. They include training management, chemical register, requesting hazardous waste disposal service, document management, and scheduling personal protection equipment fittings. Nearly 20,000 university constituents and 1,700 laboratories use the safety management system.
Environmental Health and Safety also leads other initiatives like regulatory audits, fire inspections of special events, fire drills and laboratory inspections.
Environmental Health and Safety Resources