Learn more about the SHES team! We will us this page to frequently spotlight a safety & health team member so that our clients can get to know the people that help our industry stay safe.
Ritchie Lafaille
Ritchie has been a dedicated member of SHES since March 2022, bringing nearly three years of expertise in safety consultation. With a focus on machine guarding, electrical hazards, fall hazards, lockout/tagout, and program reviews such as emergency action plans and fire prevention plans. Ritchie is committed to ensuring the physical well-being of employees.
Professionally, colleagues Paige and Terrell stand out as heroes for their unwavering support and encouragement. Paige’s understanding and flexibility as a manager, along with Terrell’s constant cheerleading, have been instrumental in Ritchie’s success at SHES.
Guided by the motto, “I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”
Ritchie strives to make a positive impact every day. Outside of work, he enjoys quality time with family, watching movies and TV shows, and playing basketball. Since becoming a father, every day has been a learning opportunity, adding a new dimension to his life and career.
Vicki Ainslie
Vicki has worked for Georgia Tech for 38 years and has extensive experience in environmental and occupational safety and health. She started in the Asbestos Programs group and worked on EPA model course curricula in asbestos and lead-based paint and conducted training classes in the U.S. and internationally. After several professional “pivots,” she joined the Safety, Health, and Environmental team in 2003.
Vicki’s most memorable “client” was the first president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel. Just after he was elected, at the request of EPA headquarters, she conducted some analyses of building materials from his residence to see if they contained asbestos before renovations began. She said, “I felt like I contributed to his health and safety!”
Vicki loves teaching in a class where the students are engaged and participate by contributing real world examples (good or bad) of the health or safety topics that are being covered. This generates discussion among the class and that is how real learning occurs. She teaches and helped develop the Managing Environmental Compliance course over 20 years ago, which ties into the Georgia Environmental Compliance Assistance Program (GECAP).
After a successful career at Georgia Tech Vicki will retire in May of this year. We know she will enjoy her hobbies of walking, hiking, traveling, gardening, reading, needlework, and watching British police procedurals and mysteries.
Her advice for health and safety professionals: don’t lose sight of who your client is: the worker. They may not pay your invoice, but they are the one who just might pay the highest price.
Congrats Vicki! We will miss you!
Trey Sawyers
Trey serves as a safety and health consultant for the OSHA 21(d) Consultation Program and has been with the team since 2022. He is a graduate of Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering, and also has a Master of Science from Auburn University with a focus on ergonomics. Trey’s professor encouraged him to apply for his job as he held a similar position 30 years prior!
Trey was drawn to ergonomics in undergrad when he took a required course. “I enjoyed learning about how as engineers we could and should design products, tools, and systems to make work easier for people. The thing I like the most about ergonomics are the random facts about the capabilities and limitations of the human body and mind.”
Trey’s parents are big on education, and he is too. He has always been curious and believes you can never learn much. In fact, he has been learning more about heat stress and teaching trainings on this topic. Recently he discovered an interesting fact – it can take our bodies as much as 4 days to become acclimatized to working in the heat. If we stop working in hot environments after about a week we start to lose acclimatization. After about a month of not working in hot conditions, our bodies return to baseline.
When Trey isn’t working, he absolutely loves playing basketball. He plays 4-5 times a week. He also enjoys drawing portraits.
If you would like more information on the OSHA 21(d) Consultation Program or need help with ergonomics issues, contact Trey here.
Jenny Houlroyd
Jenny Houlroyd successfully defended her dissertation in March of 2024 and will graduate in May of 2024 with a doctorate in public health (DrPH) from the University of Georgia. Congrats!
Jenny serves as the Occupational Health group manager for the Safety, Health, and Environmental Services (SHES) Program and has been with the team since 2005. She is a graduate of Emory University with a dual Master of Science in public health (MSPH) focusing on epidemiology and environmental and occupational health.
Jenny was drawn to her specialty of industrial hygiene (IH) after her father was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2000. He worked as a carpenter and in agriculture and had several exposures that could have led to his diagnosis. She also had a professor who encouraged her to study IH, and she thought, “Wow, wouldn’t this be great if we could prevent this from happening to other people and families?”
Since then, Jenny has worked tirelessly to assist small businesses throughout Georgia to ensure that their workplaces are as free from hazards as possible and that workers are protected from potential health threats.
Her most memorable experience was in 2019 when she flew to California to interview a man who had developed Silicosis due to work exposure in a manufacturing plant. She heard first-hand about the dangers of working with engineered stone and produced the emotional video, Stop Silicosis For Ever to spread awareness.
Jenny says her parents are her heroes. “They taught me what it means to take care of your fellow worker, family member, or friend. My mom took care of my dad for the 21 years of his illness (he sadly passed away in 2021), and during that time they always were able to find a way to work together, overcome adversity, keep a positive outlook, and keep moving forward. My dad used to always say, try to look at the donut, not the hole. So, I try to remind myself of that lesson whenever things get hard, and I only see what is going wrong, instead of all that I have accomplished.”
When Jenny isn’t working, she enjoys trail running with her dogs, planting native species to reestablish the native ecosystem, and raising quail.
If you would like more information on the OSHA 21(d) Consultation Program or Occupational Health and Safety services contact Jenny at jenny@gatech.edu.