2019 William Steiger Memorial Award

2019 William Steiger Memorial Awardee

The William Steiger Memorial Award honors individuals from the social/political sphere whose efforts have contributed to advancements in occupational safety and health. Michael J. Wright is this year’s Steiger Award recipient for making such contributions.

Mr. Wright is the Director of Health, Safety and Environment of the United Steelworkers (USW), the largest manufacturing union in North America.

Mr. Wright trained as an industrial engineer at Cornell, and an industrial hygienist at the Harvard School of Public Health. He joined the USW in 1977 and became department head in 1984. He has also served as the head of the union’s education department, where he directed the training for participants in the joint union-management partnership programs in the steel industry.

Mr. Wright has participated in the fight for numerous Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) standards, including lead, arsenic, asbestos, chromium, hazard communication, process safety management, confined spaces, lockout/tagout, beryllium, and diesel exhaust in underground mines. He has worked extensively on international health, safety and environment issues with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). He has taught safety and health, visited workplaces, and worked with unions in South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Poland, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Russia. Mr. Wright was a member of an international team that investigated the Bhopal disaster. He is a former member of the Program Advisory Committee of the International Program on Chemical Safety (IPCS), set up under the ILO, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN environment). He also served on the international coordinating group overseeing the effort to harmonize chemical classification and labeling systems throughout the world, whose work resulted in the Globally Harmonized System for Chemical Classification and Labeling (GHS). Mr. Wright currently serves on the world’s first global union-management safety and health committee, established in 2009 by ArcelorMittal Steel.

Mr. Wright’s work has made a lasting impact on occupational safety and health and ACGIH® is pleased to honor him as the recipient of this year’s William Steiger Memorial Award.

Previous Award Recipients

  • 1979 — Congressman David R. Obey
  • 1982 — George Taylor (AFL–CIO)
  • 1983 — Edgar L. McGowan, Commissioner of Labor, South Carolina
  • 1984 — Gershon W. Fishbein, Editor, Occupational Health and Safety Letter
  • 1985 — Congressman Joseph M. Gaydos of Pennsylvania
  • 1986 — William G. Philips
  • 1987 — Sheldon Samuels, Director, Health, Safety and Environment, Industrial Union Department, AFL–CIO
  • 1988 — Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia
  • 1989 — Richard F. Boggs, Vice President of Organization Resources Counselors, Inc.
  • 1990 — Joseph A. Kinney, Executive Director of The National Safe Workplace Institute
  • 1991 — David P. Rall, MD, PhD, Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (1971–1990) and Director of the National Toxicology Program (1978–1990)
  • 1992 — Molly J. Coye, MD, Director of the Department of Health Services of the State of California
  • 1993 — J. Donald Millar, MD, DTPH (Lond.), the Assistant Surgeon General and Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
  • 1994 — Eula Bingham, PhD, Professor of Environmental Health; past Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
  • 1995 — Margaret Seminario, Director of Occupational Safety and Health for the AFL–CIO
  • 1996 — James Merchant, MD of the University of Iowa, College of Medicine and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa
  • 1997 — J. Davitt McAteer, Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and Andrea M. Hricko, Deputy Assistant Secretary for MSHA
  • 1998 — Linda Rae Murray, MD, MPH, Winfield Moody Health Center
  • 1999 — Gerald F. Scannell, Director, National Safety Council; previously Director of the Office of Standards in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA
  • 2000 — Phil Landrigan, MD, Mount Sinai Medical Center
  • 2001 — James Melius, MD, DrPH
  • 2002 — Congressman George Miller (D-CA) and Congressman Major R. Owens (D-NY)
  • 2003 — Brian Davies, CIH
  • 2004 — John Howard, MD, MPH, JD, LLM
  • 2005 — Ernest Mastromatteo, CD, MD, DPH, DIH, FABPM (Occ Med), CCBOM, MFOM (London)
  • 2006 — Charles E. Adkins, CIH
  • 2007 — Earl Dotter, Photojournalist
  • 2008 — John L. Henshaw, CIH, MPH
  • 2009 — Rosemary Sokas, MD, MSc, MOH
  • 2010 — Scott Schneider, CIH
  • 2011 — Roger Alesbury, MS, FFOH, CFIOSH
  • 2012 — Richard Fairfax, CIH
  • 2013 — David Michaels, PhD, MPH
  • 2014 — Tom O’Connor, MPH
  • 2015 — Garrett D. Brown, MPH, CIH
  • 2016 — Vickie L. Wells, MS, CIH, CSP
  • 2017 — U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown
  • 2018 — Bennet I. Omalu, MD, MBA, MPH, CPE, DABP-AP, CP, FP, NP