Terry L. von Thaden, PhD

Founder and CEO

Terry is a Human Factors Scientist who also maintains a position at the University of Illinois’ Fire Service Institute, with faculty appointments in Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, Psychology, and the School of Information Sciences. She is a former professor of Aviation Human Factors. Her research involves safety culture and distributed information practice in safety and time critical environments including aviation and other transportation systems, first response, nuclear, medical, construction, energy, security, and military operations. She has developed tools and methods used to benchmark and longitudinally track over 250 organizations in these industries. She serves on numerous government-industry working groups and editorial boards, and maintains numerous academic society memberships. She serves as an expert for the Government Accountability Office and National Academy of Sciences appointed committees on safety issues. Among many awards, she is a Fellow recipient of Zonta International, The Transportation Research Board, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and is a member of both the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Beta Phi Mu International Honor Society. In 2013 the Secretary of the U.S. Air Force appointed Dr. von Thaden as Vice Chair for the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board’s chartered study on Combating Sexual Assault.

Ph.D.    Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

M.S.      Human Factors/Safety & Health, University of Southern California

B.S.       Flight Operations/Air Traffic Control, Daniel Webster College, cum laude

A.S.       Design, Newbury College

Alyssa M. Gibbons, PhD

Chief Scientist

Alyssa is an Industrial and Occupational Psychologist. She is presently on the faculty of Colorado State University. She has been working to define and measure safety culture in complex industries since 2002, including contributing to research funded by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. She has conducted in-depth safety culture analyses for a number of organizations, including regional and national airlines and participated in the development of a safety-focused leadership training program for the construction industry. Her scholarly work on safety has appeared in the International Journal of Aviation Psychology and Safety Science.  

Ph.D.    Industrial & Organizational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

M.A.      Industrial & Organizational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

B.S.       Psychology, University of Evansville, summa cum laude, Honors Program

B.A.       Theater, University of Evansville

Richard L. Neitzel, PhD

Exposure Scientist

Rick is presently on the faculty at the University of Michigan. His work focuses on the characterization of exposures to noise, heavy metals and other ototoxins, psychosocial stressors, and injury risk factors, as well as a range of adverse health effects associated with these exposures. He works in occupational and community settings globally. He has also worked as a Research Scientist in the University of Washington Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences from 1998-2011. 

Ph.D.    Environmental and Occupational Hygiene, University of Washington
M.S.      Environmental Health, University of Washington
B.S.       Safety (Psychology minor), University of Southern California
Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), Comprehensive Practice, American Board of Industrial Hygiene, 2003