That was Sarah Anderson’s original plan. Then everything changed.
Why Real-World Experience Shapes Better Safety Leaders
A catastrophe. An industrial disaster in India—one of the deadliest in history—made her rethink everything. Instead of staying outside the gates protesting, she decided to go inside.
“I figured I’d be more effective from within,” she says. She gave up her scholarship at the University of Illinois and transferred to Purdue to study industrial hygiene. She hadn’t even heard of the field before, but she knew it was the right move.
That decision led her deep into heavy industry. She’s spent her career making work safer, challenging perceptions. Anderson – now with Brystol Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals — is pushing companies to take risk more seriously. From aluminum smelters to oil refineries, Anderson built her career on asking hard questions. She’s making workplaces safer—one difficult conversation at a time.
Trial by Fire: Entering a Male-Dominated Industry
Anderson’s first real exposure to industrial safety came at an aluminum smelter. It was a rough introduction. “I was young, inexperienced, and working in a unionized facility that had no mercy,” she says. “They didn’t care if I was new or that I was an intern. No one was going to take it easy on me.”
She quickly realized she wasn’t seen as an ally. “Workers didn’t think I was there to help them,” she says. “They saw me as part of corporate, another outsider who didn’t understand their world.”
That early experience shaped her approach to safety. “I thought people would automatically see I was there to protect them,” she says. “That’s not how it works. You have to build trust first.”
She learned to listen before speaking, to spend time in the field instead of the office. “You can’t just walk in and tell people what to do,” she says. “You have to show them you understand, that you respect what they do. Otherwise, they’ll tune you out.”
She also realized that building relationships with workers was about being present. It couldn’t just be speeches. “I made it a point to be on-site, not only in meetings,” she says. “People trust you more when they see you walking the same ground, wearing the same PPE. They trust you understand the challenges they face firsthand.”
The Moment That Changed Everything
Anderson’s commitment to safety was solidified during a tragic incident at an oil refinery. She and her husband, both working in the industry at the time, were driving back to work when they saw it: a black mushroom cloud rising into the sky.
“I turned to my husband and said, ‘That’s Texas City. There’s no way people didn’t die,’” she recalls.
She was right. A massive explosion had ripped through the BP Texas City refinery. She felt the shockwave in her car. “We saw it, then we heard it, then we felt it,” she says.
In the aftermath, she helped with investigations, root cause analyses, and compliance audits. The lessons were brutal but necessary. “That disaster changed everything,” she says. “It forced new safety regulations, better controls, and tighter oversight. But it came at a terrible cost.”
She believes the most dangerous companies aren’t the ones that experience accidents—it’s the ones that think they’re too good to fail. “If a company cuts back on maintenance, that’s a bad sign. If they cut internal audits, ignore engineering recommendations, that’s a red flag,” she says. “That’s where disasters happen.”
She also stresses that complacency is one of the biggest threats to safety. “When leadership believes they’re above failure, they stop looking for risks. And when you stop looking, you stop preventing.”
Building Trust with Workers: A Safety Lesson in the Field
One of Anderson’s key lessons came from an everyday job-site encounter. She spotted a worker straddling a 14-foot gap between a rooftop and a steel beam, completely untied.
“I didn’t want to startle him, so I motioned for him to step back onto the roof,” she says. “Then I met him on the ground.”
She sat with him in the break room, away from the site, and laid it out plainly. “I told him, ‘You’re close to retirement. You don’t need to go home in a box.’”
He admitted he hadn’t even thought about it. He was just trying to get the job done quickly. “I reminded him that it only takes a second for everything to go wrong,” she says. “And that split-second decision could cost him everything.”
Later, when she reported the incident to his managers, they weren’t surprised. “They already knew he worked like that,” she says. “And no one had done anything.”
That moment cemented one of her core beliefs: ignoring unsafe behavior is the same as endorsing it. “If leadership knows a problem exists and doesn’t act, they’re just as responsible,” she says.
She also emphasizes that accountability isn’t about punishment—it’s about prevention.
“You don’t want to catch someone after they’ve already made a mistake. You want to set up a culture where they don’t make that mistake in the first place“
Sarah Anderson – Global Director
AI and the Future of Safety
Anderson sees artificial intelligence as the next frontier in workplace safety. “We already have gas detection systems that warn workers about unsafe air quality,” she says. “Imagine if AI could do the same for every kind of hazard.”
She envisions AI systems that predict risks in real time, alerting workers to hazards. Black ice, unstable structures, or dangerous weather patterns noted before they become a problem. “Think about how lifeguards use drones to detect sharks,” she says. “Why can’t we do the same for job sites?”
She acknowledges the privacy concerns. “There’s a fine line between protecting workers and making them feel like they’re under surveillance,” she says. “We need to use AI as a tool for prevention, not punishment.”
More than anything, she wants AI to be used for recognition—not just rule enforcement. “We should be tracking good decisions, not just bad ones,” she says. “AI should help reward proactive safety behaviors, not just flag violations.”
She also believes AI can make safety training more effective. “Right now, most training is one-size-fits-all. AI can tailor learning to individuals, reinforcing what they struggle with and cutting down on wasted time.”
The Biggest Challenge in Safety Today
According to Anderson, the biggest issue in workplace safety isn’t technology, training, or even compliance—it’s perception.
“Risk tolerance varies from person to person,” she says. “Some people will take every precaution. Others think, ‘I’ve done this a hundred times, nothing’s happened.’ That mindset is dangerous.”
The people with the most influence in an organization—those controlling budgets, making decisions—set the tone. “If leadership doesn’t see safety as a priority, it won’t be,” she says. “They decide where resources go. They decide what’s worth fixing. If they ignore risk, it trickles down to every level.”
Anderson believes that at its core, safety is about influence. “We don’t control the company. We don’t control the budget. What we control is how we communicate, how we frame risk, how we get buy-in.”
Her approach? Always bring solutions. “I never just present a problem,” she says. “I bring three solutions—budget, mid-range, and premium. That way, leadership isn’t deciding whether to fix something, they’re deciding how.”
Final Thoughts: Leading Through Influence
Disasters shaped Anderson’s career. She’s relentless in her belief that safety should never be an afterthought. She knows that leadership, trust, and communication are what make the difference. A workplace that values safety and one that just checks the boxes are a world apart.
“We influence. That’s our job,” she says. “We don’t own the company. We don’t control the money. But we control how we communicate risk. We control how we get people to care.”
That, she believes, is the key to real change. Not policies. Not punishments. But people.
Work smart. Stay strong. Speak up.
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