Four safety leaders have formed a new organization to support Black professionals working in occupational, environmental, health, and safety (OEHS).
BOLD (Blacks in OEHS Leading Distinctively) was founded last year by Subena Colligan, CIH, CSP, Principal Coach, S. Colligan Coaching; Laynnea Myles, BS, MSc Occupational Safety and Health, Assistant Vice President of EHS at L’Oreal; Felix Boachie, MS, CIH, CSP, Global Safety Health and Environmental Director at McCormick & Company; and Mwangi Ndonga, Senior Health and Safety Hygienist at Ball Corporation. According to the BOLD website, the group’s “mission is to dismantle obstacles, cultivate inclusivity, champion equity, and grow Blacks in occupational, environmental, health and safety.”
“BOLD is a collective gathering for Black occupational, environmental, health, and safety professionals, and it came together with this group,” says Colligan. “We actually would meet every other Saturday and have been for almost two years now. I feel like it’s been just having the conversations that are tough, but we could do it in such an efficient way because we had such an understanding of one another. And so we really came to the table and said, ‘How can we bring this to more people?’”
Ndonga says the group came together from meeting in professional circles but soon grew to more than that.
“That’s where it kind of starts because we are all in the same profession, every single one of these folks volunteers a lot,” he says. “On LinkedIn, you’ll see them tied to some national organization or initiative or something like that. So I believe it first started with essentially excellence, in my opinion, within our profession. These three people are excellent in my mind. And once we met, let’s say in in a conference and you’re having discussion and then friendship grew from that because let’s be honest, you get to choose your friends, right?”
Once the quartet had all become friends, Colligan then had the idea to meet on Saturday mornings. “There was this hunger for connection and, we just said, ‘OK, so what are we doing here?” Ndonga says. “Is this just a thing for the four of us, or is this something that other people can benefit from? Again professionally, but also informally as Black professionals, too.”
The group’s first official announcement is a big one: the 2025 BOLD Summit, which is scheduled for October 23-24 in Atlanta. The event’s agenda will cover emotional intelligence and leadership, career pathways and mentorship, tech and innovation in OEHS, whole-person wellbeing, and networking and relationships.
“This isn’t something that just happened,” Colligan says. “This has been years’ worth of us discussing and putting our own funds in to make it happen. I just appreciate them all way, way more than they could ever know.”
The conference will feature “a mix of both professional development and the future outlook of EHS,” she adds. “And so we’ll have conversations around artificial intelligence. We’ll talk about DEI and not from a negative place, but really addressing the elephant in the room for the folks that are there and being able to have that conversation in a way that doesn’t have to be filtered.”
An eye on recruitment
In addition to providing career support, BOLD also hopes to recruit more Black safety professionals.
“Because we’ve grown so much professionally from those conversations, the other side of it is that the EHS profession has a recruitment issue,” Colligan says. “So how are you recruiting and retaining personnel? And for us, it’s like, ‘Well, how are you recruiting and retaining personnel that have the problems that we have?’ And so we understand how to navigate within our circle of influence and we’re just growing that circle.”
The idea is to change the look of the profession.
“The terminology that you hear and this has been in fact proven is that the industry right now is male and pale,” Myles says. “There are few of us that are in this field that are Black.”
Networking with other Black professionals has proven challenging, she notes. In her position, when she has had a job position to fill, Myles has had difficulty reaching out to potential Black candidates because she didn’t know that many.
But with BOLD, now there are more opportunities to change that.
“And for it to be so few of us and for us not to even know each other, that is a gap that we’ve seen. So that’s why we felt that this summit would help drive that and facilitate that, and not just to have a summit where we come together and then that’s it. No,” says Myles. “In particular, the theme for this one is gather, grow, and go, and the goal is what are we doing next? What is the next step to cultivate those different connections? And hey, if I have an opening, let me reach out to my black network because it’s not that we’re not qualified, it’s just that we don’t even know.”
New challenges
BOLD has made its debut in a challenging time, when the federal government has begun dismantling and removing all traces of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
“I would say it has made even the summit more difficult, so we’ve had sponsors that have pulled back,” Colligan says. “What’s really sad is that the individuals are really excited about what BOLD is and how it can benefit their workforces even. But the environment is that they’re not allowed because it says Black. So it is definitely impacting not just BOLD itself, but individuals. I know I will speak for myself. I won’t try to speak for the collective experience, but it does open up doors of asking questions because we are already sometimes in those places where we walk into a room and we’re the only [Black] person there. And people have asked me, ‘How did you get here?’ And that’s not a fair question. I’ve done the work, I’ve put in the hours and sleepless nights.”
These experiences are not uncommon for Black safety professionals, she adds.
“I know that if I’m experiencing those things on our Saturday calls, others have experienced that at some point in their professional journey. There are others in other workplaces that are having some of the exact same feelings,” says Colligan. “And so now more than ever, I think BOLD is an incredible space to connect and to pour into one another because the work that we do is so essential and it is representative of some of the worst exposures for safety out there in the field and so having that representation is so important. What we do is just as important and it’s important for us to continue forward in creating that space so that others can create change for not just themselves, but their workplaces as well.”
Ndonga points out that the term “DEI” is now being used as a derogatory term to indicate that minority workers are outsiders, with the implication that “‘You’re not good enough. You don’t belong in this room.’ Things like that. The people that are attending the summit are going to hear from us that that is not the case.”
The goal is to highlight Black excellence, Ndonga says.
“For this atmosphere to be created that when they walk in a room, somehow they don’t belong there, they got there because somebody propped them up is absolutely offensive,” he adds. “So what this summit is going to show that Black excellence is there and has always been there and encourage our attendees to continue doing what they’re doing.”
Positive feedback
Since the BOLD announcement, the group’s founders have been heartened by the response.
“People have been outpouring with love and echoing, saying how this is much needed,” Myles says. “And it’s just not Black professionals. There are other allies that have supported this and do support this. So it lets me know that we are heading in the right direction.”
Colligan says she has heard from people who are global leaders for international companies who are excited about BOLD and have offered their support. The group plans to build community through its LinkedIn page.
Citing similar associations for marketing professionals and lawyers, Colligan says BOLD is following a familiar path.
“This is just a natural evolution that has taken some time. And so what we hope to do is to continue that community,” she says. “The closest statistic that we have is that 4.99% or 5% of EHS managers are Black and so we hope to not only see more Black professionals, but that we get to see that number in leadership and management positions grow as well.”