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USOLN Founding Members

The Utility Safety & Ops Leadership Network (USOLN) was created in 2009 out of the need for utility safety and operations personnel to network, share ideas and professionally develop in order to build strong safety cultures within their utility work environment.

USOLN Founding Members: Ron Schenk, Jim Vaughn, Pam Tompkins, Mack Turner, Danny Raines and Michael Stremel

The USOLN is a non-profit 501(c)(6) professional association that is overseen by a board and managed by a dedicated association management team at Utility Business Media (UBM).

The Utility Safety & Ops Leadership Network (USOLN) serves as an advocate for a safe, secure and productive utility work environment and as a catalyst for the prevention of incidents. The USOLN provides utility companies and their contractor partners with a reliable certification program, legislative/regulatory updates, and networking resources.

Visit usoln.org to learn more.

A big Thank You to Everyone involved in creating the coveted CUSP Credential & The Utility Safety Ops & Leadership Network

Cintas - Sponsor of iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo

Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP

President and CEO of SET Solutions, LLC. She is a 40+-year veteran in the electric utility industry. Pam is a founding member of the USOLN (Utility Safety and Ops Leadership Network), previous chairperson, and was the recipient of the 2021 USOLN’s Executive Leadership Award.  She is a regular contributor to the iP magazine and other industry safety journals. As a member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) and ASSP (American Society of Safety Professionals), Pam has authored and presented technical papers on electric power safety issues at Electric Safety Workshops, national conferences and Department of Energy EFOCG meetings.

Pam worked in the utility industry for over 20 years and has provided electric power safety consulting for the last 22 years throughout North America, the Caribbean, and Central America. She has supported utilities, contractors and other organizations operating electric power systems in designing and maintaining safety improvement methods and strategies for organizational excellence.  She is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), a Certified Utility Safety Professional (CUSP), and an OSHA authorized instructor.

Cintas - Sponsor of iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo

Danny Raines, CUSP

Danny Raines, CUSP began his career in the electrical utility industry in June, 1967 in Macon, Georgia with Georgia Power Company. Served a short time in the U.S.

Army in 1968-69 and is a Viet Nam era disabled veteran. Returning back to Georgia Power and worked through the steps of progression on the line crews up to First Line Supervisor in 1985, Danny was offered a position in a new unregulated part of Georgia Power as contract coordinator over contract utility crews and line clearing forestry crews in 1995. In late 1996, Danny entered Safety and Health, promoted as Supervisor, Project Manager and Corporate Safety Consultant supporting Distribution and Transmission organizations. Danny assisted in two training projects in the Middle East, in Turkey designing and implementing up an Apprentice Lineman School for Turkish Electric Authority and another design of distribution system in Syria for Al Furat Oil and Petroleum in oil field 200 kilometers in desert outside Damascus, Syria. Danny retired from Georgia Power December 1st,

2007 as the Safety Consultant for Distribution and Transmission organizations after a 40 year career and founded Raines Utility Safety Solutions, LLC.


Danny hosts a podcast on Incident Prevention’s website and article in Incident Prevention Magazine as a resident expert.
Cintas - Sponsor of iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo

Jim Vaughn, CUSP

As Senior Consultant for ISPC Jim serves utilities as a safety specialist in utility industry related OSHA and consensus standards. Jim provides both consult and program development for utilities in OSHA compliant policies and procedures as well as consult on incident investigation and incident related litigation. Jim also develops and delivers ISPC training as well as dedicated client specific training programs.

Jim has over 43 years of experience in utility construction and maintenance, is an EHV bare-hand qualified journeyman lineman and Certified Utility Safety Professional who also holds electrical masters licenses in several states.  Jim has authored numerous procedure and standards documents and technical training programs for educational, contractor and utility industries.  He also authored the original Applied Science degree curriculum for Line Technician training adopted by the Florida Department of Education that is used broadly across Florida and the electric utility industry.  In addition to his expertise in OSHA standards, Jim is highly regarded for his demonstrated skills in safety program development and application of consensus standards to meet OSHA requirements.  As author, his feature articles 101 Train the Trainer and Q&A series appear regularly in Incident Prevention Magazine. In the legal arena, he has served often as a post-incident electrical forensics consultant.  As educator, he has delivered many hours in both the college classroom and adult technical training and is recognized for effective technology transfer skills. Jim sits on the Board of the Utility Safety and Operations Leadership Network, was a founding Board Member of the Certified Utility Safety Professional credential, and is the Senior Member of the Editorial Board for Incident Prevention Magazine. Jim is a sought after technical writer and speaker, regularly consulting in a variety of safety and training issues for contractors, utilities and educational organizations.


Jim is a co-host a  Incident Prevention Institutes monthly iPi Forum as a resident expert and writes an article column in Incident Prevention Magazine.
Cintas - Sponsor of iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo

Carla Housh

Soon after Carla started the Incident Prevention publication she met with a group of utility safety professionals and discussed the importance of growing safety knowledge within the utility community through a new safety certification program. The National Safety Council had recently discontinued the Certified Utility Safety Administrator certification and Carla felt the industry needed to continue the certification work. Several meetings were held to discuss how the industry could be supported effectively and through these meetings and collaborations, the Certified Safety Professional designation was born. The CUSP was based on providing a strong baseline within the utility industry within these disciplines, Leadership, Incident Prevention, Hazard ID, Regulatory, Human Performance and Operations. Two groups were formed with Carla’s guidance and support; Testing and Review. Founding members of the CUSP developed these areas and they collaborated throughout the industry to ensure content was aligned with safety advances that would be considered industry best practices. Mack Turner was selected as the first Chairperson and he served multiple terms to ensure unity in the early growth periods of the CUSP.

Carla felt that the CUSP should be supported within a not-for-profit membership organization so she worked with the founding members to launch a 501c(6) organization known as the Utility Safety and Ops Leadership Network (USOLN). 

Cintas - Sponsor of iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo

Mack Turner, CUSP

Mack was the first USOLN Chairperson for the association.

Executive Director, ISPC – Responsible for client projects involving safety consulting relative to T&D Operations and Generation Operations, including training on a broad range of technical and supervisory related topics for lineworkers, crew leaders and other operations level personnel.

Background:

Safety and Training Manager: 2011 to 2014 ESCI, Bellingham, WA Consulted with electric utility clients to assist with compliance training, safety policies, procedures relative to lineworkers and plant workers and conducted incident investigations.

Safety / Training Superintendent: 2003 to 2011 Tucson Electric Power/SES Responsible for and managed all Safety, Training and Standards operations for the T & D group, managed Operations and Safety at power plant coal and ash operations

Safety Manager: 2002 to 2003 Irby Construction, Jackson, MS Responsible for and managed all safety and training functions for a 500kv and a 265kv transmission construction project in Nevada. Also managed government interface operations.

Corporate Safety and Training Manager:1993 to 2001 GSL Electric, Las Vegas Responsible for and managed safety and training operations for both OSHA and MSHA projects in multiple states.

Cintas - Sponsor of iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo

Michael Stremel, CUSP

Michael Stremel, CUSP, worked in the electrical industry for over 46 years, spending the last 14 years as training manager at Midwest Energy. He served as a member of four advisory boards for electrical vocational technical schools in Kansas and was a member of the Midwest Energy Association.

Michael was a member of the USOLN Executive Board for several years. He served as a member of the CUSP application review committee. In addition, he is an active member of the International Lineman’s Rodeo Association and cofounder of the Flick /Stremel Lineman Scholarship Foundation 

Cintas - Sponsor of iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo

Ron Schenk, CUSP

Ron Schenk’s career in the Utility Industry spans 27 years and includes 14 years on staff with a large powerline contractor, serving as Director of Training for 1,800 lineworkers. Through ISPC, Ron has helped dozens of contractors and smaller utilities develop and implement internal lineworker apprenticeship programs, helping many to also Certify their programs through the U.S. Department of Labor. Ron’s expertise includes supervisory development training for field supervisors and safety training for powerline crews. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in business, Ron is a Certified Utility Safety Professional (CUSP) and he is an Executive Board Member of USOLN, the founding organization for the CUSP Credential. In 2004 Ron created and is President of the Institute for Safety in Powerline Construction (ISPC), based in Alexandria, LA. ISPC is an Electric Utility Industry Association focusing on safety and training for lineworkers throughout North America and the Caribbean.

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