Improving workers’ safety and health in the South

Dorinda Hughes leads OSHA’s new Birmingham region, focusing on worker safety and health for the growing Southern workforce. We asked her to tell us more about the new region and her priorities.

Share a bit about your background and what led you to this new role. 

I am a Southern girl – Alabama native, graduate of a Mississippi college, and lived in Louisiana for 26 years, where I started my career with OSHA as a compliance officer. I have enjoyed working as the regional administrator in Seattle the last year and half. The Pacific Northwest and the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with are incredible and I will miss them, but I always knew in my heart that at some point I would return to the South. I just didn’t foresee it happening this way! But what a wonderful opportunity this is to go back “home,” if you will, and work with a team that is excited to further worker safety and health and worker protections. 

Why was the decision made to establish the Birmingham region, and what specific needs or opportunities is the agency focused on addressing? 

When OSHA established its regional offices over 50 years ago, the location of industries and workers didn’t quite look the way they do now. We’ve seen work move to the South along with workers, many of whom are underrepresented or disadvantaged. The new region will work to provide safer and healthier work environments for those workers while also ensuring their voice in the workplace is protected. 

What excites you the most about leading this new region? 

The people excite me the most. We are merging portions of three regions into a new region — leaders from three regions, three different ways of doing things— and yet they are approaching this new region as an opportunity that has been entrusted to us. It’s a big responsibility, and they are so confident and so positive that it is infectious.   

Where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth here? 

I believe having a regional office in Birmingham will allow us to build on and hopefully expand on the relationships that the Atlanta and Dallas regions have cultivated. The area is rich with opportunities to collaborate with organizations that have similar interests regarding workplace safety and health.   

What challenges do you expect as you build this new region, and how do you plan to tackle them?

I really thought the most significant challenge would be blending portions of three regions into one. Recently, we held a different kind of managers’ meeting. We had some team-building exercises while also working on projects that they identified as priorities for the new region. We left the meeting with this vision: “The Birmingham Region of OSHA – making workplaces safer and healthier by giving workers a voice and promoting equitable quality service with commitment and respect.”

How will you engage with employers and businesses on workplace safety in the area?

The new region has a team devoted to cooperative services, and they are currently developing an outreach plan for this new fiscal year. I am fortunate to have peers who are arranging meetings with employer and employee groups in the area, and we will springboard from there. Our area offices will continue to conduct outreach and engage in partnerships and alliances. And we will continue to support the network of SHARP and VPP participants that are now in the new region.