As you reflect on the end of 2020, you may ask yourself whether you’ve met your career advancement and professional development goals. If you conclude that you want to do more in the new year, AIHA offers its members many opportunities to contribute to the industrial hygiene or occupational and environmental health and safety fields. Members may discuss IH/OEHS-related topics with their professional peers through Catalyst, AIHA’s members-only online forum, write guidance documents, lead AIHA volunteer groups or local sections, or join an AIHA task force. Both members and nonmembers can submit articles to The Synergist and present on IH/OEHS topics at AIHce EXP, AIHA’s yearly conference. However, AIHA membership and active AIHA participation have granted many IH and OEHS professionals greater visibility—several members have recently been interviewed by news media in connection to their AIHA work.

Recent AIHA member surveys have found that our members consider career advancement one of their top priorities. AIHA can provide you with a platform to advance your career, increase your name recognition in your field of work or study, and contribute meaningfully to the profession.

2020 will go down as a year during which our profession came under a global spotlight. Through their hard work, AIHA members have been identified as experts and leaders in occupational safety and health. Member volunteers have collaborated through AIHA to prepare and publish free, publicly accessible, pandemic-related guidance documents to help employers safely resume operations. They have worked proactively with media outlets to broadcast member expertise in workplace and public health and safety during this crisis. Our members have collectively risen to the occasion by providing valuable health and safety guidance for mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing public awareness of other OEHS issues.

Through our volunteers’ efforts, AIHA also recently launched a new micro-website intended to educate non-OEHS professionals and stakeholders about the business value of OEHS. Public awareness is necessary to create healthier workspaces by increasing website visitors’ general health and safety knowledge and advocating for your value as a source of IH and OEHS knowledge.

AIHA’s brand refresh this year took further steps to support our members’ careers and strengthen the profession—particularly by recruiting the next generation of occupational health and safety professionals. Our organization’s brand evolved to reflect the industry’s recent development and remain relevant to anyone who wishes to protect worker health.

As the profession makes headway, so will your career. In 2021, AIHA’s updated look, public awareness efforts, and ever-expanding inventory of supported resources and opportunities will make membership a worthwhile professional advancement.