	Tel: 540.239.4039

SPS Personnel

Safety Performance Solutions is led by E. Scott Geller, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Virginia Tech.
Other team members include professionals from the field of industrial/organizational psychology, industrial engineering, human factors engineering/ergonomics, organizational design and development, occupational safety and health, communications, and education/training. SPS team members have significant experience in the design delivery, and implementation of safety improvement initiatives using person-based and behavior- based psychology.

These efforts include conducting site safety assessments, educating site managers and line employees, designing customized training and implementation processes, and helping establish performance measures for the new/desired safety culture. SPS team members travel extensively to address professional organizations, senior management teams, union leadership, and hourly work teams.

Safety Performance Solutions' key team members are:

Scott Geller

In addition to being a founding partner and co-owner of Safety Performance Solutions, Dr. E. Scott Geller is a faculty member of Virginia Tech's Department of Psychology where he has taught and conducted applied/experimental research for more than three decades. In this capacity, he has authored more than 350 research articles and over 75 books or chapters addressing the development and evaluation of behavior-change interventions to improve quality of life.

His recent books in occupational health and safety include: The Psychology of Safety; Working Safe; Understanding Behavior Based Safety; Building Successful Safety Teams; Beyond Safety Accountability: How to Increase Personal Responsibility; The Psychology of Safety Handbook; Keys to Behavior Based Safety from Safety Performance Solutions; The Participation Factor; People-Based Safety: The Source; Leading People-Based Safety, and People-Based Patient Safety: Enriching your culture to prevent medical error; coauthored by Dave Johnson, The Courage Factor, and When No One Is Watching: Living and Leading Self-Motivation, both coauthored with Bob Veazie, and Actively Caring for People: Cultivating a Culture of Compassion.

Dr. Geller has been honored with all three university-wide teaching awards at Virginia Tech, and is a widely sought-after speaker at safety and industrial conferences, such as ASSE, NSC, and VPPPA. He has addressed audiences throughout the world including Africa, Asia, Australia. He also frequently keynotes at corporate-sponsored events. Recent examples include presentations for American Electric Power, ExxonMobil Chemicals, Infineum, and Monsanto. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the World Academy of Productivity and Quality.

Scott gives keynote presentations and conducts workshops for private companies and professional organizations. For fees and availability please call Susan at (540) 951-7233.

For a peek into Scott's leisure time as the drummer in an Oldies Band, click here: Magic Moments

Joanne Dean

Joanne Dean Joanne joined Safety Performance Solutions (SPS) as a Senior Consultant in 2008 after eight years as the Safety Director for The Gale Construction Company- A Subsidiary of Mack-Cali Realty Corporation based in New Jersey. As Safety Director she dedicated herself to developing and supporting a leading edge safety culture for Gale Construction and promoting safety within the construction industry in general. Her participation in professional organizations has aided her career endeavors. She is a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers, the editorial staff of Industrial Safety & Hygiene New (ISHN), teaches OSHA Outreach training programs and is a founding member of Build Safe New Jersey, a consortium of top builders in New Jersey who promote safety in construction. She continues to speak at area construction companies, remains an active member of Build Safe New Jersey, writes articles for ISHN and teaches fitness programs at New Tech Fitness Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Joanne earned her B.A. from Elon University with a major in Health and Physical Education and has more than 36 years of teaching experience. She has had leadership positions in pharmaceutical sales, public relations with the New Orleans Saints, operational support with the Dodgers organization, 17 years of service as a safety professional and continues to add to her 35 years as a health and fitness instructor

Mike Gilmore

Mike Gilmore Under Dr. E. Scott Geller, Mike earned his Masters degree in Experimental Psychology from Virginia Tech specializing in the application of behavioral principles to community safety. Before forming Safety Performance Solutions in 1995, Mike spent five years as a consultant with Make-A-Difference, Inc., where he and partners Scott Geller and Steve Roberts assisted clients to design and implement Behavior Based Safety initiatives. Mike routinely works on projects that go beyond the 'standard' observation and feedback implementations, focusing on the application of Behavioral Safety (BBS) principles to improving other safety management systems, such as incentive programs and disciplinary procedures.

Mike has worked with clients in the U.S. and abroad including ExxonMobil Chemical, Hewlett-Packard, LL Bean, Union Pacific Railroad, Nucor Steel, Pfizer, Marathon Petroleum, Monsanto, Husky Energy, Entergy, and Los Alamos National Labs. Mike has given keynotes, invited addresses, and workshops at a variety of regional and national conferences throughout North America. In his spare time, Mike struggles to keep up with his two young sons.

Miguel Jover

Miguel Jover For 13 years, Miguel worked as an engineer and regional manager for a utility power company where he started to implement safety systems. For seven years afterwards, Miguel was the Brazilian Quality coordinator and consultant for Westinghouse where he implemented Quality systems. During this time, Miguel was able to clearly understand the importance of management systems and their critical relevance to improved safety. This experience was fundamental for his 12 years as a Principal Consultant in the area of safety for Det Norske Veritas (DNV). During this time he was able to work with numerous industries including mining, oil, pharmaceutical, general industries, utilities, and automotive.

Among other positions, Miguel served as the Latin America manager for DNV. This experience and his fluency in four languages (Portuguese, Spanish, French and English), has given Miguel critical insights into a wide variety of cultures and behaviors around the world.

Miguel has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Mackenzie University, and has completed Safety postgraduate work at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation in Brazil.

Tim Ludwig

Tim Ludwig Tim earned his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech and has over 15 years safety consulting and research experience. In addition to being a project manager with SPS, Dr. Ludwig is a full professor at Appalachian State University. Tim also has over 10 years of strategic planning and human resources development expertise to numerous private and government organizations. Clients include the US Navy-Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), US Department of Energy, National Grocers of Canada, the Deaconess Hospital System, Boyles Furniture, and Alex Lee Inc. of North Carolina.

Dr. Ludwig serves on the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies’ Behavioral Safety Accreditation Board that reviews best-in-industry safety practices and offers independent, objective feedback on safety programs. With Safety Performance Solutions, Tim has promoted safety programs at Eastman Chemicals, Domino’s Pizza, and Watauga Medical Centers.

At Appalachian State University, he is a University Deans Distinguished Graduate Faculty in the nationally recognized Industrial/Organizational Psychology-Human Resources Management Masters program. Tim's teaching has been recognized with the North Carolina University Board of Governors’ Excellence in Teaching award and he has been inducted into Appalachian State University's Academy of Outstanding Teachers.

Dr. Ludwig is currently serving as the President of the Organizational Behavior Management Network and is an associate editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management . He is the author of the book Intervening to Improve the Safety of Occupational Driving and has written numerous articles on safety in the workplace.

Molly McClintock

Molly earned a B.S. in Communication from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She was one of the original cofounders and Senior Partners of Safety Performance Solutions.

Before retiring to become a part-time External Associate, Molly managed multiple culture change projects with an emphasis on organizational safety and employee empowerment. She assessed organizational safety culture, communicated findings, and recommended culture change initiatives. She regularly designed, developed, and delivered education and training programs for varied audiences from senior corporate managers to hourly employees. Training topics included: observation and coaching skills, teambuilding, and behavior-based incident investigation.

Molly consulted with managers, safety professionals, union officials, and employee leaders to assess and advance observation and feedback processes and other safety improvement efforts. For large-scale implementation efforts, Molly coached and evaluated in-house trainers. She also delivered presentations for professional conferences and corporate meetings.

She worked with a diverse range of organizations including Lockheed, Florida Power & Light, Hercules, American Standard, and the U.S. Department of Energy. As a research faculty member of Virginia Tech's Center for Organizational Performance Improvement, Molly managed the development and delivery of training workshops and professional meetings for government and industry. She conducted training on Behavior Based Safety, teambuilding, mentoring, and communication. Additionally, she gained experience in the evaluation of technical and non-technical training.

Dennis Neale

Dennis Neale Dennis received a B.S. in psychology from the University of California, San Diego and an M.S. in industrial and systems engineering from Virginia Tech with a specialization in human factors engineering. Dennis has over 20 years' experience delivering worker safety and ergonomic solutions in a variety of settings. He is an expert in the effects of technology and interface design on human performance and has regularly led focus groups to determine employee perceptions on a variety of human performance issues.

In addition to a background in applied ergonomics and safety management, he has developed software to assess work-related musculoskeletal injuries and developed research methods for evaluating worker injuries. Receiving several research awards, Dennis' scholarly work includes over 30 technical papers published in books, peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings.

While at SPS as a Senior Consultant, Dennis has worked on People-Based Safety projects with NRG, CertainTeed, and The Utah Department of Transportation. Prior to working at SPS, Dennis was a Research Evaluation Coordinator at Virginia Tech for over 10 years and has worked for a range of organizations, including the Salk Institute, The Aerospace Corporation, Xerox, Qualcomm and General Motors.

Sherry Perdue

Sherry Perdue Dr. Perdue earned her Ph.D. and M.S. from Virginia Tech in industrial and systems engineering with a concentration in human factors engineering and ergonomics. In addition to her nearly 10 years of experience in behavioral safety, she also leads other safety-related projects such as the modification of work environments to reduce CTDs, the redesign of incident investigation procedures to better uncover the root causes of human performance issues, and the design of behavior-based incentive programs. Before forming SPS, she served as a project manager, instructor, and researcher for Virginia Tech's Department of Industrial Engineering, and worked as an industrial engineer at a large ammunitions manufacturing facility operated by Hercules, Inc.

Some of Sherry's clients include, Estee Lauder, ExxonMobil Chemical, Lucent Technologies, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, General Dynamics, and Weyerheauser. Sherry is a frequent speaker at national safety conferences including ASSE, Behavioral Safety NOW, and VPPPA. Other speaking engagements have included keynote addresses at professional society meetings (e.g., WV Safety Council) and corporate safety conferences (e.g., ARCO Chemical, Kohler, Masco) as well as public seminars in Australia and Singapore.

Steve Roberts

Steve Roberts Steve is co-founder and senior partner at Safety Performance Solutions, Inc. He earned an M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from West Chester University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Applied/Experimental Psychology with a focus in Organizational Behavior Management from Virginia Tech.

His specific areas of expertise include the design, implementation, and evaluation of behavior and people-based safety processes, the assessment of organizational culture to guide safety interventions, increasing employee involvement in safety activities, organizational management systems design, organizational leadership development, and understanding and reducing human error in the workplace.

Before co-founding Safety Performance Solutions in 1995, Dr. Roberts was a research associate with Management Systems Laboratories (MSL) and the Center for Organizational Performance Improvement of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department of Virginia Tech and safety consultant with Make-A-Difference, Inc.

Steve has published articles in a number of peer reviewed academic journals including American Journal of Health Promotion, Applied and Preventive Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, and Journal of Safety Research, as well as Safety + Health and Security Management Magazines. Steve authored the book chapter Actively Caring for Occupational Safety: Preventing Injuries with People Based Safety, in Dr. E. Scott Geller's 2013 book Actively Caring for People: Cultivating a Culture of Compassion. Steve is also lead author for the book chapter Principles of Behavior-Based Safety in the Handbook of Safety Principles, edited by Niklas Möller of Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology, published in 2018 by John Wiley & Sons.

Steve was named among the "50 Top Safety Leaders" by Industrial Safety & Hygiene News (ISHN) in 2017, is a regular speaker at both public and corporate sponsored events, and consults with clients across all industry types. Some of Steve's consulting clients include ExxonMobil, Newmont Mining, Alpha Natural Resources, Owens Corning, Specialty Granules, JSR Micro, Boart Longyear, Pratt & Whitney, Marathon petroleum, and the U.S. Navy. Steve has taught the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Seminarfest course People-Based Safety each year since 2006.