Dr. Sandra Dorman is at the top of her field, with a recent award making it official.
Dorman has earned a Top Women in Canadian Occupational Safety award.
The recognition is handed to 70 female leaders in occupational safety across Canada.
The local recipient is a Laurentian University professor in the Faculty of Health and Education and a director of the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH).
A longstanding advocate of health promotion and disease prevention in occupational settings, Dorman was hired by Laurentian in 2003 and has been involved with CROSH since its launch in 2008. She became its director in 2015.
“This award means a great deal to me, especially because some of my mentors nominated me,” Dorman said in a media release.
Under her leadership, CROSH co-launched the innovative multidisciplinary mobile research lab, which travels to workplaces throughout Northern Ontario, providing, among other services, group training and private health consultations for workers.
Dorman has studied vaccine hesitancy in Northern Ontario workplaces and heat stress mitigation among mine workers.
She has also worked with wildland firefighters since 2007 to assess the impact of smoke inhalation, fatigue and fitness interventions, psychological risk factors and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, most recently, heat stress.
“Heat strain is an occupational illness and has become a priority issue,” said Dorman, who received funding to build an educational program to help health and safety specialists manage the dangers workers face when exposed to acute or chronic heat stress.
“I’m proud of our Heat Stress Prevention Toolkit,” she said. “Since its launch in May of 2024, it has been widely accessed, which is important because with climate change, in addition to preventing heat stroke events, we need to prevent long-term health illnesses such as kidney disease.”
“Dorman has substantially contributed to the Occupational Health and Safety industry through her leadership with the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health and through her research, which Laurentian University has recognized with a Faculty of Health Excellence in Research Award (2018) and a Top 10 –Research Innovation Award (2020),” Laurentian University vice-president of research Dr. Tammy Eger said in a media release.
“We are fortunate to have world-class researchers like Dr. Dorman amongst our faculty, whose research directly benefits members of our communities.”
With Dorman at the helm, CROSH has awarded $350,000 in student scholarships, placed 106 students in paid workplace internships and raised over $10 million in centre funding.
