becky grunewald smiling at camera

Becky Grunewald Moving to UC Davis Health

After over a decade of hard work and dedication to Safety Services, Becky Grunewald, Lab, Field, Radiation & General Safety Program Manager, is moving on to a new role as Associate Director for Environmental Health and Safety at UC Davis Health.

Becky’s last day at UC Davis will be May 31st.

Over the past 10 years, Becky has made significant contributions to Safety Services’ mission of promoting a culture of safety across UC Davis.

Becky's journey with Safety Services started in 2013 when she left her lab manager position in Dr. Leah Krubitzer’s neuroscience lab to become the first embedded Lab Safety Professional in the College of Biological Sciences. In this role, she worked to ensure that researchers had access to the resources and support they needed to conduct their work safely. 

Quickly, Becky was promoted to continue developing and managing a campus-wide Lab Safety Review  program to share best practices with our entire research community.

Each time Becky took on a new challenge, such as managing the Radiation Safety Team or the General and Occupational Safety Teams, she learned from the expertise of each of her team members, used that knowledge to advocate for their needs, and cleared obstacles out of their way – just like a good safety manager should.

Becky is an invaluable ambassador for safety culture and tenacious about finding a way to safely get to ‘yes’ for our customers. I am sad to see her go but so very proud of her accomplishments." -- Eric Kvigne, Associate Vice Chancellor for Safety Services

Becky greatly raised the visibility of Safety Services' work and resources across campus by carefully editing and curating the DSC Update newsletter, launching the Lab Safety Awards to recognize people for elevating safety culture at UC Davis, as well as co-creating the Look At Me In My PPE Campaign to promote personal protective equipment in lab spaces. 

As a leader, Becky reshaped Safety Services’ industrial safety program during a period of staff turnover and enacted significant modernization in our radiation safety program, all while guiding Safety Services’ internal initiatives to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

In her new role as Associate Director, Becky will be assisting the EH&S Director, Kaila Benton-Vitz, with steering the UCD Health Environment of Care Committee. She will also be supervising a team of subject matter experts in occupational safety, industrial hygiene, lab safety, and exposure control.

A recruitment for Becky’s replacement will begin in the near future. 

We wish Becky all the best in her future endeavors and know that she will continue to make a positive impact wherever she goes.