MS, Industrial Hygiene and Safety, 1995
From her office overlooking Central Park in New York City, Sylvie Adam is responsible for the health and safety of nearly 200 employees of the Central Park Conservatory, a nonprofit whose mission is to restore, manage, and enhance the park. Adam graduated in 1995 with an MS in Industrial Hygiene and Safety, which is now Exposure Sciences. Adam joined the Conservatory as director of environmental health and safety in October 2011. Soon after she began her job, a severe, early snowstorm in the fall of 2011 damaged more than 2,500 trees, and workers with chain saws and chippers had only one week to ready the park for the New York City marathon. Adam was also making sure snow removal operators stayed safe. Adam works to ensure that safety precautions are taken, such as use of eye, ear, and face protection when using equipment to maintain Central Park’s grounds. Horticulturalists, gardeners, and tree care specialists comprise the workforce. “The great thing about this job is that I use my skills and experience, but I also get to know the 180 employees who do such excellent conservation and restoration work in the park,” said Adam. “At the same time, I’m able to discover the history of Central Park. Each day I learn amazing new things about the park.” Adam started out in New York City as an occupational health and safety specialist with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In the post-9/11 environment, she joined its Bureau of Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response. As part of the “All Hazard Team,” her job entailed collaborating across various bureaus and city agencies to build a common plan to prepare for a variety of catastrophes, such as natural disasters and terrorism. She liked the job, but found she missed the direct interaction with workers that previous jobs had offered.
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Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Beth Moorefield; Illustration: Borut Trdina/photos.com
Director of Environmental Health and Safety, Central Park Conservatory, New York City
Before she moved to New York City, Adam worked in Seattle as an industrial hygienist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and as a consultant with Clayton Group Services, where clients included Boeing and other Puget Sound employers. Through the consultancy work, she gained experience in air and noise monitoring, indoor air investigations, and mold remediation work. During graduate school, Adam had a summer internship with Texaco, which she described as “invaluable.” It helped her better understand safety issues in a “high-hazard environment,” and she gained respect for the workers operating an oil refinery. She said she learned the importance of communicating with workers, and “developing the social and psychological skills to be able to do so effectively. It is something you mainly learn on the job.” Convincing someone to wear a pump can be a challenge, she said. “It’s not always welcome, but environmental health and safety is as much about educating the workers about hazards and their controls as it is about evaluating, assessing, and measuring their exposures.”
alumnus profile
Sylvie Adam