PERC restructures safety team, hires four staff members

The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) added four new staff members to guide its restructured safety, education, and compliance team.

Kuster

This team will develop and deploy educational and compliance materials to meet the challenges that employers face while addressing the educational needs of a changing workforce. The goal is for education, training and compliance materials to be available in shorter programs, with a variety of easy-to-use delivery and documentation options.

PERC will also have the capability to produce materials in-house, providing a faster turnaround time so that code and regulatory changes can be addressed, and customization of educational and training materials is available to states and companies.

“Safety and training are a key focus and top priority for PERC,” says PERC President and CEO Tucker Perkins. “This team of experts is going to build on that foundation and create new innovative training and safety materials and new innovative ways to deploy the material and access the training. Our goal is to continue and improve on the world-class safety and training, providing the very best to the industry.”

Rickards

Eric Kuster, a longtime propane industry veteran, will head the team as vice president of safety, education and compliance. A member of the PERC Advisory Committee since 2003 and the former chairman of its Safety and Technical Training Working Group, Kuster will help guide the creation of innovative safety programs and direct the team’s ongoing work to transform workforce safety training materials.

Kuster most recently served as director of safety and certification for the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA), where he oversaw the CETP certification program. Kuster is a former member of NPGA’s Education, Safety & Training Committee, where he received the NPGA chairman’s award, and is a past contributor to the NFPA 58 handbook.

Lyndon Rickards comes to PERC after 23 years with Eastern Propane & Oil in Rochester, New Hampshire. In his new role as director of safety and compliance, he will be responsible for incorporating industry regulations, codes, standards and best practices into PERC education and safety resources. He also will provide subject matter expertise in his engagement with companies, industry organizations and committees.

Wood

At Eastern, Rickards most recently served as assistant vice president of risk management, developing safety, regulatory compliance and technical training programs. He also developed training curriculum for 150 service technicians, drivers, and field service and sales personnel. Rickards holds certifications in the entire CETP suite. He is a member of NPGA’s Technical Standards & Safety Committee and PERC’s Advisory Committee.

As educational content development coordinator, Emily Wood is responsible for creating all course content for PERC’s safety education, training and compliance programs. She will be responsible for optimizing learner engagement, performance support and measurement. Her duties will include creation of instructor and participant guides and the design of various forms of learning used on PERC’s learning management system.

Hanson

Wood most recently worked as an e-learning developer for the Oregon Child Development Coalition, where she provided instructional design for classroom-based courses and created graphics, videos and assessments for the courses.

Christopher Hanson, Learning Management System (LMS) administrator, is responsible for the overall management, maintenance and administration of the LMS platform. His primary role is to optimize the user training experience with the online system.

Hanson spent the past 10 years as training information manager for the Washington State Department of Corrections, responsible for the development, implementation and maintenance of its training programs. He previously operated his own property preservation consulting business. He also worked for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service as an accounting technician.