After more than 10 years at UC Berkeley, including two years as the director of the Labor Occupational Health Program’ (LOHP), Michael Wilson is leaving his post to accept the position of chief scientist in the Office of the Director in the State of California’s Department of Industrial Relations. Wilson will provide support to DIR director Christine Baker in all areas of DIR’s operations, beginning with the Governor’s Interagency Refinery Safety Task Force, where he will join Gina Solomon, deputy secretary for science and health at Cal/EPA, in leading the Safety and Prevention workgroup.
LOHP benefitted tremendously from Wilson’s leadership and practical experience in occupational and environmental health. His work regularly placed LOHP in the news over the last two years, including in the LA Times, the SF Chronicle, KQED’s Forum, and several Bay Area television news outlets. Mike worked closely with the Governor’s Interagency Refinery Safety Working Group, and in 2013, together with LOHP coordinators Charlotte Chang and Dinorah Barton-Antonio, he organized the Refinery Action Collaborative in response to the Richmond, Chevron refinery fire of August 2012. The collaborative is a working coalition of the United Steelworkers International Union (USW), USW Locals 5 and 326, the BlueGreen Alliance, the environmental justice groups Communities for a Better Environment and Asian Pacific Environmental Network, and the national environmental organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council.