BY STEVEN LACEY, AIHA PRESIDENT

In February, 115 volunteers from AIHA local sections and committees attended the annual Leadership Workshop near the AIHA office in Falls Church, Va. This event helps incoming officers of our local sections develop their leadership skills, and every year it draws outstanding reviews from attendees. At the close of this year’s event, AIHA unveiled a new initiative that challenges volunteers—and, by extension, all members—to actively promote awareness of our association, occupational health and safety in general, and the safety of teenage workers in particular. It’s called the #IAMIH Leadership Challenge, and it encourages us to get creative in our outreach on behalf of the profession. All of us have long recognized the need to promote IH/OH to workers and the general public, and AIHA has created several new tools that members can use to explain what we do. These tools are under the umbrella of our member-driven #IAMIH campaign. #IAMIH encompasses several exciting initiatives. One is the planned production of a short documentary film about industrial hygiene that will communicate to the lay public the important work we do. Another is IH Professional Pathway, a program that aligns AIHA resources with the different phases of a career in IH/OH. With , AIHA’s marketing team has created a set of outreach tools to promote the profession to young people. These tools include what have come to be called “IH Heroes”—comic book characters whose interactions demonstrate the significance of IH. We’ve also partnered with NIOSH on “,” a program that teaches young people how to stay safe and healthy at work and introduces them to . These tools are professionally crafted and ready-made for presentation to various audiences, especially to high school students. All that’s needed is for volunteers to communicate the message. It is “micro-volunteering” in its truest form.