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Public Service

For Kim Haley, it’s always safety first

The industrial hygienist makes Carolina safer and used that expertise to help another university recover from Hurricane Helene.

Portrait of Kim Haley outside of a building, posing next to a sign on a door that reads
A career change led Kim Haley to UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health as a student. She later returned to the University to work in the Environment, Health and Safety department. (Submitted photo)

Kim Haley was standing on top of a towering silo in the pouring rain, waiting for a conveyor belt to be repaired, when she decided it was time for a career change.

“I was a production supervisor at a large soybean oil processing plant at the time,” she said. “But by then I realized what I loved most about the role was working with the safety inspectors who would come to the facility. I was much more interested in the safety aspect than the production side of things.”

Haley followed her intuition and, ready to move back to North Carolina after three years out of state, the Wallace native began researching careers in the health and safety field.

She didn’t find a job, but she did find her way to Carolina, discovering an industrial hygiene concentration in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

“Both my mom and sister chose a career in education, but I always wanted to go the science route,” Haley said. “I earned my master’s degree in environmental engineering with a concentration in industrial hygiene.”

After an internship in Raleigh, Haley returned to her alma mater as an industrial hygienist in the Environment, Health and Safety department, where she is currently a manager. She celebrated her 19th year as a University employee earlier this fall.

“In industrial hygiene, our job is to keep people safe. We do our best to make sure employees are safe at work and students can stay healthy where they live and learn,” she said. “For me, this job provides purpose. It’s our responsibility to help keep them safe so they can return home to their families.”

Haley and her team in occupational and environmental hygiene regularly assess potential hazards at Carolina like noise and chemical exposure, hazardous materials and construction projects. They also ensure workers adhere to specific regulations.

Indoor air quality is always a top priority as well, something that came into even sharper focus during the recent pandemic. The team worked with Facilities Services to address ventilation concerns and place portable air filtration units in buildings across campus.

The team’s expertise in these areas proved invaluable when Appalachian State University reached out for assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in September. Haley and her colleague Dave Catalano, who specializes in indoor air quality and water restoration, arrived in Boone just days after the hurricane devastated the area. They helped review App State’s restoration plans for flooded buildings, including one that had lost power and heating, ventilation and air conditioning capabilities. They shared their findings and suggestions with App State’s Environmental Health, Safety and Emergency Management team.

“That trip is exactly why I got into this profession,” Haley said. “To help people.”

Visit UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hurricane Helene page to learn how the University has and will continue to respond to the storm.

This year the Environment, Health and Safety department is celebrating 50 years since its founding at Carolina. While Haley says some of the most obvious changes in her field over the past five decades are advancements in the technologies they use, it’s the increase in awareness that’s been most impactful.

“We used to be the department in the background no one really knew about,” she said. “But thanks to social media and more public awareness about health hazards, we are starting to come to the forefront. There’s more awareness in general about health and safety issues, and that’s a good thing for everyone.”