December 2022 Newsletter
2022 CANDIDATES EARN CPSP™ DESIGNATION
Three product safety professionals will be designated as 2022 Certified Product Safety Professionals™ by the sponsoring organization, the Society of Product Safety Professionals (SPSP), it was announced by Shelia Gottschalk, President of SPSP. “This is the highest credential that a consumer product safety professional can earn. Each of these candidates deserves the recognition and respect that this achievement brings to them,” said Gottschalk.
The three professionals are Erin Bradley, Chris Guldbrandsen, and James Choi.
Erin Bradley is the Supervisor of Product Safety Analysis and Reporting at Costco Wholesale. Erin has spent the last 10 years of her nearly 22-year Costco career developing and leading Costco’s Non-Foods Product Safety Program. Her team is responsible for monitoring Costco’s data sources for potential safety issues. She reflects on her experience with the certification program: “As an ‘accidental’ product safety professional, this program gave me the opportunity to deeply explore and strengthen the skills I have gained on the job over the past ten years. The program boosted my confidence in my skills and challenged me to think about other aspects of product safety outside of my daily role. I am honored to be confirmed as a Certified Product Safety Professional.”
James Choi is the Senior Manager of Product Compliance at 5.11 Inc. He is in charge of product safety and restricted substance testing for the company. 5.11 Inc. is an apparel and footwear supplier for first responders (law enforcement, fire and rescue, military) with retail stores in the U.S. and Europe along with authorized dealers in Asia and Latin America. His reflections on the experience he had with the course included this perspective: “As a longtime product safety professional, the Certified Product Safety Professional certification served my exact needs. Not only were the courses relevant to my profession, the quality of the content in these courses were top notch with instructors who are bona fide professionals, with real world experience in product safety.”
Chris Guldbrandsen is the Director of Compliance and Quality for Jool Products LLC, a juvenile products manufacturer in Lakewood, New Jersey. He is responsible for product compliance, quality and safety, factory compliance, and customer complaints. Asked about his reaction to earning his CPSP™designation, Chris says that “Throughout the course, there were different perspectives and information provided that helped reinforce things I knew and did while introducing other information and tools that were new to me. With this certification, I am proud of the new skills and relationships I created so I have more information to ensure safer products wherever my career takes me.”
The new members of the Certified Product Safety Professional™ group will receive their pins at a special ceremony at the annual 2023 ICPHSO Symposium in Orlando, FL on February 20, 2023 at the SPSP stakeholder meeting.
The Consumer Product Safety Professional Certification Program is entering its 5th year of service to the consumer product safety field. Its graduates cover national and international manufacturers, retailers, and importers. The 2023 certification program will be offered by Virginia Tech, one of the country’s top engineering and business educational institutions in the country, in cooperation with SPSP and its education partner, ADK Information Services, LLC. The 2023 program opens with a 2-day workshop that will take place on March 22-23 at Virginia Tech’s Research Center in Arlington, Virginia, located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. For more information about the 2023 program, see the description below and visit the SPSP website.
SPSP AT ICPHSO
SPSP President Shelia Gottschalk promises that it will be a very busy schedule for SPSP at the 2023 International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization symposium in Orlando Florida, February 20-23:
Exhibiting: With our program partner ADK Information Services, SPSP Board members and other volunteers will help to staff the exhibit booth. We will have a 2023 SPSP brochure specifically published for the ICPHSO symposium. Our booth is normally one that experiences many conversations during the conference with graduates, instructors, and people interested in our programs. Individuals who want to volunteer should contact: info@productsafetyprofessionals.org.
SPSP Annual Stakeholders Meeting: This meeting will take place on the morning of February 20 and last for about 90 minutes. Time and location will be announced soon . The agenda will feature a review of SPSP’s activities for the past year and those planned for the coming year and will celebrate the 2022 candidates who have earned their Certified Product Safety Professional™ designation.
SPSP/ADK Annual Reception: Don’t miss one of the best networking events of the ICPHSO conference. Graduates, current class participants, and instructors mingle with program staff and other interested visitors to this ‘must-not-miss’ event. The time and location will be announced in a special invitation to all SPSP stakeholders.
NATIONAL FACULTY FOR 2023 CERTIFICATION PROGRAM ANNOUNCED
We proudly present the first group of professional faculty under the new Virginia Tech/SPSP program banner for the Certified Product Safety Professional™ designation. Faculty for 2023 Certification Program areas and their topics (in italics):
Opening Workshop – March 22-23:
Patricia Adair, Virginia Tech graduate and member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission professional staff, Class welcome
Robert S. Adler, former Commissioner and Acting Chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (2009-2021), Product Safety and Ethics
Deborah Dickerson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Human Factors Engineering and Management Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Organizational Culture
Don Moffett, International Trainer, and Director of Social Compliance at Carhartt, Risk Assessment and Hazard Identification and Reduction
Michelle Gillice, Partner, and Michael Gentine, counsel, at Arnold & Porter, Compliance Communications
Alan Abrahams, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Business Technology, Virginia Tech;
David Goldberg, Ph.D. Association Professor, Management Information Systems, San Diego State University; and Richard Gruss, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Radford University, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Steve Epner, Adjunct Faculty, Chaifetz School of Business, Saint Louis University, Team Exercise Crisis Management and Communications
Webinar Phase of program (60-minute individual webinars)-March 28 – May 1
Risk Assessment and Product Assurance Section
Rohat Khanna, Fire and Combustion Program areas Risk Manager, Consumer Product Safety Commission, How CPSC manages Risk Assessment
Tim Sullivan, Senior Vice President Global Quality/Compliance/Sustainability, Spin Master, Case Studies in risk and defective products
Rick Rosati, Vice President, Governmental Affairs and Industry Standards, Bureau Veritas, Client/Test Lab Culture
Jacqueline Campbell, Voluntary Standards Coordinator, Consumer Product Safety Commission,
Voluntary Standards Impact on Regulators and Business
Regulatory Compliance and Regulations
Cheryl Possenti, Founding Partner, Goldberg Segalla, CPSC’s Regulatory Authority
Will Troutman, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright, Chemical Restrictions: State, Regional, and Local Governments
Rod Freeman, Partner, International Products Lawyer, Cooley (UK), International Product Regulation
Erika Z. Jones, Partner, Mayer Brown, Section 15(b) Reporting and Penalties
Product Investigations and Human Factors
Brandan Mueller, Partner, Manufacturing, Conducting Product Investigations
Jonathan Judge, Partner, ArentFox Schiff, The Other Human Factor: Effective CPSC Compliance inside your Company.
Steve Hall, Senior Consultant, Director of Hazard Communication Consultations and Director of Research and Development; and Jared Frantz, Managing Consultant, Applied Safety & Ergonomics, Human Factors
Product Recall Design and Implementation
Chris Harvey, Vice President, Sedgwick, Planning and Implementing Product Recalls and Removals
Rebeca Sharpe, Director, Product Compliance and Safety, Best Buy: Case Study of a Retailer’s Product Recall.
UPCOMING SPSP WEBINAR
On January 18, 2023, SPSP will kick off its 2023 series of webinars with a discussion of current and future developments at the CPSC with two experienced product safety and regulatory compliance attorneys, Matthew Cohen and Jenifer Keenan. They will respond to some of the information provided by the CPSC at our October webinar and will cover some of these other topics.
• New commissioners
• Enforcement activities for civil and criminal matters
• Trends in reporting
• Trends in recalls and corrective actions
• New legislation and rulemaking
To register, go this this link.
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SPSP IS WORKING HARD TO CREATE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY PROFESSIONALS. SUPPORT THESE EFFORTS BY JOINING SPSP AS A PAID MEMBER.
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