Dr. Sandra Dorman, Full Professor in the Faculty of Health and Education at Laurentian University and Director of the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH), has earned a Top Women in Canadian Occupational Safety award. A longstanding advocate of health promotion and disease prevention in occupational settings, Dorman was hired by Laurentian in 2003. She has been involved with CROSH since its launch in 2008 and became its Director in 2015.
"This award means a great deal to me, especially because some of my mentors nominated me," said Dorman.
Under her leadership, CROSH co-launched the innovative multidisciplinary mobile research lab, which travels to workplaces throughout Northern Ontario, providing, among other services, group training and private health consultations for workers. In recent years, Dorman has studied vaccine hesitancy in Northern Ontario workplaces and heat stress mitigation among mine workers. Dorman has also worked with wildland firefighters since 2007 to assess the impact of smoke inhalation, fatigue and fitness interventions, psychological risk factors and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, most recently, heat stress.
"Heat strain is an occupational illness and has become a priority issue," said Dorman, who received funding from the Ministry of Labour, in collaboration with Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW), to build an educational program to help health and safety specialists manage the dangers workers face when exposed to acute or chronic heat stress. "I'm proud of our Heat Stress Prevention Toolkit. Since its launch in May of 2024, it has been widely accessed, which is important because with climate change, in addition to preventing heat stroke events, we need to prevent long-term health illnesses such as kidney disease."
OHCOW reported that when the Heat Stress Prevention Toolkit was launched last May, more people downloaded it in 3 months than they had estimated for the entire year; people including employers, managers, supervisors, workers, Joint Health & Safety Committee members, health and safety representatives, and workplace union representatives.
"Dorman has substantially contributed to the Occupational Health and Safety industry through her leadership with the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health and through her research, which Laurentian University has recognized with a Faculty of Health Excellence in Research Award (2018) and a Top 10 - Research Innovation Award (2020)," said Dr. Tammy Eger, Vice President of Research, Laurentian University. "We are fortunate to have world-class researchers like Dr. Dorman amongst our faculty, whose research directly benefits members of our communities."
Dorman remains as dedicated as ever to advancing the field of occupational health and safety; an interdisciplinary domain that she explains enables collaboration among researchers.
"We all work or know someone who works, so workplace health and safety is a huge component of everyone's life. Work intersects with every discipline . We all have something to bring to the table." For Dorman, this includes people not only with varied research backgrounds but also with different identities. "We've seen a shift with more women entering jobs in health and safety, and I think that's great! There's so much potential in the field [of OHS]. It's rewarding . My work with CROSH keeps me happy, working and focused - I love what I do."
With Dorman at the helm, CROSH has awarded $350,000 in student scholarships, placed 106 students in paid workplace internships and raised over $10 million dollars in Centre funding.
