The New World of Safety

Don’t run with scissors….safety first! Remember that childhood imperative that was repeated to us so we’d make better choices? Or avoid unnecessary risks when taking action?

The issue of safety is a very complex one, impacting our physical and mental health and well-being in our workplaces, homes, and communities. And safety has always been an issue for women.

We are pleased to share this recap and recording from our April 2022 Women’s Forum program: New World of Safety. We are so grateful to Lorraine Martin, CEO and President of the National Safety Council for addressing the many aspects of safety – in the workplace, at home, in our communities – and uncovering ways to create safer environments for ourselves and others, including physically and psychologically.

The New World of Safety

We all navigate risks in our lives, and we must assume that humans will make mistakes. The key is to have safety nets, both physical and social, to learn along the way, to grow in our experience and knowledge, and to pay it forward so that those who come behind us have the benefit of what we’ve learned. Though we all have unique safety journeys, it’s important to understand we are not alone in our personal safety. Your safety depends on the contribution of others—and vice versa. There’s an interconnectedness that dampens risk. And with some tradeoff of personal freedoms, such as not being able to drive however fast you want wherever you want, we benefit the collective good.

Safety Moments, or short breaks used to discuss a safety topic, mechanize mindfulness. They help get us in the right headspace and find a psychologically and physically safe place where we can be our best selves. When collectively we achieve this, impressive things can be accomplished. The data tells us safety risks are not evenly experienced by all. The reality is that a person’s safety is influenced by factors they do not have control over, like where they were born, the color of their skin, the community they live in, their gender…etc. We need to use the data to find and focus our attention and resources on the highest risk groups.

The pandemic brought many important truths to the forefront. An important one is that your full self is only released when you experience safety. And safety depends on you being able to be your full self. In other words: One cannot be safe unless one feels safe.

My call to action for all is threefold:

1. Work to bring mindfulness into your safety journey,
2. Use your voice to advocate for the safety and the policies that will benefit the collective good, and finally,
3. Mom was right—eat dirt throughout your life, and never run with scissors.

Additional Resources on Safety

Read: How ‘Safety Moments’ Can Help Us Reset in Just 60 Seconds

About Our Speaker

Lorraine Martin is the President and CEO of the National Safety Council (NSC), America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate with a century-long legacy of eliminating preventable deaths and injuries, from the workplace to anyplace. Lorraine also chairs Road to Zero — the nation’s largest coalition of traffic safety organizations — focused on eliminating roadway fatalities by 2050.

Safety has been a guiding value throughout Lorraine’s 35-year career, beginning as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. From there, Lorraine deepened her aerospace expertise as an executive at Lockheed Martin, where she led the largest defense aircraft program in history: the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter.

Lorraine is the co-founder and president of the Pegasus Springs Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing opportunities for educators, students, and community members to collaborate on learning models. As a proud champion for advancing women and girls in STEM, she was named among STEMConnector’s 100 Corporate Women Leaders.

A proud veteran, Lorraine served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where she held various leadership positions for software-intensive technology and development programs. She earned an M.S. in Computer Science from Boston University and a B.A. in Computational Mathematics from DePauw University.