Lydia Renton, CIH, ROH of WESA Inc., has been elected Chair of the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH). ABIH is the certifying organization for Certified Industrial Hygienists (CIH).

Renton, who has served on the Board since 2009, is a Senior Partner of WESA, Inc., an occupational hygiene and safety, hydrogeological, and engineering consulting firm in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Ottawa and is a Registered Occupational Hygienist/ROH and served on the Board of Directors of CRBOH (Canadian Registration Board of Occupational Hygienists), including a term as President.

Renton said the Board of Directors she'll be chairing plans to update the ABIH's strategy with web-based tools and streamlined certification and stakeholder processes.

"We need to partner with other organizations and embrace opportunities to grow our profession," said Renton. “The world seems smaller as I travel it; but I see how that increases tremendous opportunities ABIH and Certified Industrial Hygienists have to influence the condition of workplaces."

She will lead a slate of ABIH Directors that includes a new Public Member, three new CIH Directors, and six returning CIH Directors. The new Board will be officially installed at the conclusion of the March 2012 Board meeting. Each CIH Director serves a four-year term. The Public Director serves a two-year term.

The new Public Member is Michael Shanklin, CEO of Kidspace Children’s Museum, Pasadena CA, a non-profit corporation that hosts more 220,000 visitors each year. Kidspace encourages a child’s growth and development through explorations of the environment, science, and artistic forms of expression.  

The three new CIH Directors include:
• Bret Clausen, CIH, CSP, CHMM, ARM, is a health and safety director for the Energy & Chemicals Business of CH2M Hill. Clausen has a M.S. in Industrial Science with a concentration in Occupational Safety from Colorado State University. He has over 31 years of experience in industrial hygiene and occupational safety for government and commercial programs.
• Michael D. Larrañaga, CIH, CSP, PE, PhD, is a Professor at the School of Fire Protection and Safety Engineering Technology, Oklahoma State University. Dr. Larrañaga’s PhD is in Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University. He has over 25 years of experience in numerous leadership positions in academia, government and private commercial organizations.
• Susan Ripple, CIH, is Senior Industrial Hygiene Manager for The Dow Chemical Company. She has a M.S. in Biology from the University of Houston at Clear Lake. Ripple has over 25 years of professional, technical and management experience in industrial hygiene, exposure assessment, risk management and regulatory product safety. She has held a variety of leadership roles with Dow and within the occupational hygiene community.
 
The six continuing CIH Directors are:
• Patricia Beach, CIH, Harris & Lee Environmental Sciences, LLC  
• Kimberly Castillon, CIH, OSHA
• Mark Finn, PhD, CIH, ENVIRON International Corporation
• Nicole Greeson, CIH, Duke University
• Janet L. Keyes, CIH, CHESS, Inc.
• Shamini Samuel, CIH, CSP, ROH, Suncor Energy Services Inc.  

ABIH administers the CIH and the Certified Associate Industrial Hygienist (CAIH) programs. Earning the CIH requires that candidates meet rigorous education and experience requirements, pass an examination, and recertify every five years by fulfilling certification maintenance requirements designed to enhance the ongoing knowledge and skills of the CIH. More than 6,500 industrial hygienists currently hold the CIH and CAIH designations.