With the upcoming assumption of Barack Obama of the highest office in the nation, many improvements are expected of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Recently, news circulated in the safety industry that a new leader will be heading the agency.

After Mr. Edwin Foulke Jr.’s resignation in early November as OSHA’s chief, Thomas M. Stohler was named as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for the agency. Foulke was appointed by President George W. Bush as OSHA head on September 15, 2005.

Thomas M. Stohler has been heading OSHA for a month now. With a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Policy and Economics, he is a graduate of Indiana University. Since May 2008, Stohler had been Deputy Assistant Secretary for OSHA at the U.S. Department of Labor. Among his accomplishments were the development and implementation of the policy goals and objectives of the Administration, in cooperation with the Department of Labor and Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA.

Before he began working for the agency, Stohler was a Senior Legislative Officer for the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Labor. He also became the principle House and Senate liaison for OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). In the student lending industry, he spent 10 years serving high tech and construction trade associations.

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