Health Hub: Meet Your Health Issues Team

Kelly Nedrow

Kelly Nedrow has nearly two decades of experience representing workers in various capacities, including work as a staff representative, general counsel, deputy and executive director for healthcare affiliates. In these roles, Kelly has experience working in the area of occupational safety and health.  This includes bargaining and strike campaigns, grievances and arbitration, litigation, public policy, and also OSHA inspection and complaints and a NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation.  Under President Weingarten, Kelly’s work at the AFT has included advocacy around epidemics, pandemics, adverse and unsafe working conditions, activism, and program development.  Kelly believes that advocacy for worker safety and health is a critical underpinning in all union work.  

Amy Bahruth

Amy Bahruth is the Deputy Director for AFT Health Issues with a BA in Labor Studies from Rutgers University and an MS from Hunter College, CUNY in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She’s been working in the field of occupational safety and health for over 35 years and also teaches about occupational safety and health in the Labor Studies Program at Rutgers University. Her strong belief is that every worker has the right to go to work and come home each night to their families safe and sound and without suffering an occupational injury or developing an occupational illness. Her father, Eddie, died relatively young from liver cancer due to occupational exposure to solvents which he was exposed to daily as a master mechanic and owner of his own service station. He is one of so many that died unnecessarily from hazards faced on the job.

Keith Wrightson

Keith is an expert on worker protections amongst the occupational safety and health community and in the media. He has published several significant reports on worker safety, including one highlighting employers’ responsibility to protect health care workers from job related hazards.

He is also a certified CPR/First Aid Instructor and an authorized OSHA General and Construction Industry outreach trainer with 20+ years of experience ensuring safety and health on the job. He has developed and delivered training on topics such as workplace violence prevention, emergency action plans, safe patient handling, trenching and excavation, confined space, infectious disease, hazard communication and disaster response.

Sara Markle

Sara Markle-Elder is an assistant director in the Health Issues Department and has 15 years of experience working in occupational safety and health for nurses and other healthcare workers. She is driven by the conviction that healthcare workers must not be treated as though they are expendable. Sara began working at AFT Nurses and Health Professionals training members on workplace violence prevention under an OSHA Harwood grant in 2014. She works on policy and training, with a particular interest in helping NHP locals to strengthen their health and safety committees. She holds a master’s degree in applied sociology from American University.

Chuck Wilson

Leven ‘Chuck’Wilson is a seasoned licensed professional with experience in the areas of crisis therapy, community engagement, crisis management, service delivery and business development. He combines his background as a social worker to address inequities, inequality and injustice. A recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, Chuck is also a change agent where he founded the Renew Group to provide programs and services that address the unmet needs of the community. Chuck has authored three books “The Truth About the Facts” , “Be U Meet Pierre the Penguin” and Little Girl with a Big Heart Born in D.C. and raised in North Carolina, Chuck relocated to Hawaii for over 20 years to earn his bachelors in sociology and masters degree in social work as well as doctoral studies at Oxford Graduate School and start his journey as a servant leader. Chuck was honored by Virginia University at Lynchburg with Doctorate of Human Letters Chuck served in a faculty position and principle Investigator at the University of Hawaii Manoa school of social work. Recent career highlights include serving as the Executive Director to the president of Pasco Hernando State College where he managed the President's Leadership Institute, cultivated community partnerships, initiated a diversity program and became a partner of the AFT’s teacher diversity program. Chuck joined the American Federation of Teachers AFT as Assistant Director of health issues in the Health and Safety department.

Brian Bisson

Brian is an Assistant Director in the AFT Health Issues Department and has been working with AFT since 2009 to assist with an array of health and safety initiatives, including coordination and facilitation of OSHA and HSI AVIRT and Adult/Pediatric First Aid CPR AED trainer courses, and student classes.

Brian worked for the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System as a Carpentry Instructor and was an active member of the State Vocational Federation of Teachers, Local 4200A for 11 years. Brian served as the SVFT’s Vice-President and Health, Safety, and Security Committee Chairperson conducting health and safety audits for all 18 Connecticut Technical High Schools.

Brian believes work should be enjoyable, serve a purpose, and affect others in a positive way. Most adults in the United States will work an average of 50 hours per week for nearly 50 years. A successful career should not be determined solely by the amount of money earned. Work shouldn’t kill you or diminish your health or longevity. The act of going to work to earn a living claimed the lives of 14,000 Americans on average prior to the OSH Act, and inception of OSHA. Our human advantage is the ability to experience, retain memories, and share dos and don’ts with the next generation through spoken or written communication. Part of Brian’s work life purpose is to give credence to the value of the OSHA Outreach Training Program that exists and continue to support the program along with his union and management colleagues.