My name is Mary Beth Mulcahy, and the first chemical safety job I ever applied for at the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) ended in a rejection letter that read, “Dear Mr. Stewart: Thank you for applying for the position noted above. This is to inform you that you were not selected because of the following reason…“ I realize now that the CSB was looking for a chemical engineer who had worked in a chemical plant or refinery and had more knowledge about safety than a Ph.D. inherently affords you, or at least afforded me. Soon after, the CSB advertised internships and I secured one of the positions almost a full year after I originally applied to the job that neither I nor Mr. Stewart got. So, there I was at 34 years-old, with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, starting an internship with young 20-something year olds, in what has been a fulfilling career that chemical safety has played a critical role in. My opportunity started pursuing two methods I repeatedly read would not work—I cold called companies and answered Craigslist job posts. Nine years after working at he CSB, I applied to a job at Sandia National Laboratories that I saw posted on the Division of Chemical Health and Safety’s listserv where I continue to use the knowledge and skills I obtained at the CSB to work with international partners to raise chemical security risk awareness, identify emerging chemical security risks and the controls intended to manage them. Concurrently, I serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the American Chemical Society’s ACS Chemical Health & Safety (CHAS) journal which focuses on publishing high-quality articles of interest to scientists, EH&S professionals, and non-research personnel who manage or work in areas where chemicals are used or hazardous waste is generated. In this presentation I will talk about my career journey and both the safety research being published in CHAS and what audiences read, giving insight to what others might want to consider as potential chemical safety career paths.

Craigslist got me into chemical safety, satisfaction has kept me there

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