Program Manager
Clay A. Bednarz, MS, RPIH
Founder/Owner
Professional Experience
Clay Bednarz, MS, RPIH is the Founder/Owner of OSHACode® and serves as the Program Manager for development of all environmental, health and safety (EHS) courses. He also serves as the company liaison for discussions with state and federal regulators including the U.S. OSHA Directorate of Enforcement Programs (DEP) in Washington, D.C. He has decades of leadership experience in developing and branding commercial e-learning websites from their inception to execution. He is also the founder and former owner of National Environmental Trainers®, Inc., (NET) which in 1998 published the first commercially available online training course for the health and safety industry.
He is widely recognized in the EHS industry as the early pioneer of online HAZWOPER training. In 1996, while working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and pursuing graduate studies through Southern Methodist University, Bednarz envisioned using emerging internet technologies to deliver OSHA and hazardous waste operations training remotely. That vision led to the development and publication of what was to become the first commercially available online HAZWOPER training program – 8 Hour HAZWOPER Refresher.
Over time, the training platform and related technology were licensed to other organizations, including General Physics (GP Strategies Corporation), Columbia Maryland and Compliance Solutions in Denver, Colorado. As the online safety training market expanded, multiple providers began promoting themselves as early innovators in the space. His original 1998 launch represented the first true commercial deployment of online HAZWOPER training and helped establish the foundation for the modern online OSHA and environmental compliance training industry. Here is a look at how the website looked in 1999 from the wayback machine – an internet archive.
Previously during his 34 years of health and safety experience, he served as a Project Manager in the Environmental Restoration Division at ORNL in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He was responsible for planning, organizing, developing and staffing teams for clean-up and restoration of complex chemical and nuclear HAZMAT waste sites leftover from the Manhattan Project. These projects were typically multi-million dollar efforts. His project teams consisted of entry level to Ph.D team members. In 1994, he received the prestigious Department of Energy (DOE) National Pollution Prevention Award.
Prior to this, he was an Environmental Engineer in the Environmental Compliance Department for Lockheed Martin® at the DOE Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP). His primary responsibilities involved compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). He was tasked with being the primary liaison between PGDP and regulators (state and federal) for RCRA compliance issues.
While employed for Booz Allen and Hamilton® he served as a regulatory compliance consultant to the EPA. His duties included providing regulatory compliance to officials and writing a closure plan for the National Analytical Radiation Environmental Laboratory in Montgomery, Alabama.
Certifications
Registered Professional Industrial Hygienist (RPIH) – Retired
Education
M.S., Environmental Science, (Hazardous and Waste Materials Management) – School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Southern Methodist University
B.S., Biology/Chemistry, Auburn University at Montgomery
Continuing Education: Principles of Radiation Safety, Harvard University
“Never doubt that a small dedicated group can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
“The way to build aircraft or anything else worthwhile is to think out quietly every detail, analyze every situation that may possibly occur, and, when you have it all worked out in practical sequence in your mind, raise heaven and earth and never stop until you have produced the thing you have started to make.”
