My late father used to say that a person should never stop learning. For years I thought my formal education had a finish line: a bachelor's and a master’s in environmental health and sciences, a career as an environmental scientist, a professional life built around sustainability. I believed experience alone would carry me up the ladder. Earning my CRSP taught me otherwise.
I came to Canada more than a decade ago carrying a great deal of hope and leaving my family behind. What I’ve learned in the years since is that commitment, keeping your focus on the right path instead of the noise and negativity around you is what keeps you moving forward and keeps you positive. Over the course of my career I’ve worked with organizations like the UNDP and the World Bank, and across chemical manufacturing, card manufacturing, and logistics. For a long time I believed experience was the only thing keeping me climbing. I have come to understand that learning is one of the strongest things a person can carry. It opens doors that experience alone cannot.
My background has always been rooted in sustainability and the environment, and I wanted to bring that together with health and safety to put my critical thinking to work in the moments that matter most, when a scenario turns serious and the decision carries real weight. The CRSP was the designation that connected those two worlds for me.
I won’t pretend it was easy. Between a highly demanding role and raising two wonderful children, there were days I doubted myself and nights I gave up time with my kids to keep studying, turning scenarios over in my mind, asking what could happen and how I would respond. I have cleared many certifications with flying colours, but passing the CRSP on my first attempt stands apart. It meant more because it cost more.
For me this is not a finish line. The CRSP isn’t a certificate you earn and set aside it’s a commitment. I intend to keep applying what I have learned and to help others working toward the same designation. I have real respect for this profession, and I’m encouraged to see it valued more every year, because safety today reaches beyond physical wellbeing into mental health as well. My goal is to keep working where sustainability and safety meet, protecting people in body and in mind.
This is also where global awareness has to sit at the heart of our profession. In too many parts of the world, people still lose their lives every day, sometimes every hour to unsafe conditions that a few basic protections would have prevented. Safety knowledge cannot stay confined to the countries that already have the systems and resources to protect their workers; it has to travel to where it is needed most. That is where I most want to add value carrying knowledge and care to the workplaces and communities that are failed by simple, avoidable mistakes. Protecting people where they have too often been left unprotected is, more than anything, my intent.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to share this. Earning this designation is one of the proudest achievements of my career, and I don’t take the recognition lightly. I will do my best to honour it: to give back, to stay accountable, and to make sure it never goes to waste.
And to anyone preparing for the CRSP whether you’re studying for the exam or simply looking for support to get across the line my door is open. If I can help even one more person earn this designation and carry it forward, this recognition will have done its work.