Daily CSR
Daily CSR

Daily CSR
Daily news about corporate social responsibility, ethics and sustainability

Ensuring Safety Excellence: Amy Harrell's Leadership at Georgia Pacific Mill in Pennington, Alabama



01/16/2024


Amy Harrell is dedicated to ensuring the safety of over a thousand individuals at the Naheola mill in Pennington, Alabama. Her foremost concern is ensuring that everyone returns home in the same condition they arrived for work.
 
See Her: Amy Harrell - transcript
“Thank you for working safe," said Amy Harrell. “I love working with people I like, keeping people safe. I like making sure they go home the way that they came to work. My name is Amy Harrell. I'm the safety leader at the Georgia Pacific Mill in Pennington, Alabama. I grew up here. The paper mill is a key part of the community. They are very proud of the product we put out. I'm responsible for the safety of all 975 employees, and around 400 to 450 contractors.”
 
“Every day I manage the safety processes. I work daily with my safety team - also the chemical process safety team. I assist with incident investigations, risk assessments. I started in the safety department and then I was on D-shift. I learned so much about how things actually run in a paper bill.
 
“Then, the opportunity presented itself for me to come back to the safety department. When I left, I told the mill guys that you know they would always be special to me. As a safety leader you do have to have a thick skin and you do have to have those tough conversations because your ultimate goal at the end of the day is that everybody goes home the way they came in. I wouldn't be where I am without my team. Without them and without us all having the same goal, I wouldn't be able to be the effective leader that I am. The advice that I would give to any young woman starting out is just be yourself and if you have a dream or a goal it may take you a while to get there but just never give up. I know my dad was very proud of this mill and he was very proud of the work he put in here. So I think he would be very proud that I'm the safety leader.”