CPSC Chairman Hoehn-Saric Invited to Keynote 2024 Professional Certification Program at Virginia Tech

Leader of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Virginia Tech, home of product safety education

Society of Product Safety Professionals – Certification Program Sponsor

Program’s curriculum focuses on product safety knowledge areas, including culture and ethics, risk assessment, product investigations and regulatory compliance

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, USA, March 24, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — The leader of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has a job that requires passion, focus, and resources: Overseeing the federal government’s responsibility to protect consumers from unreasonable risk from consumer products that may cause serious injury or death.

CPSC Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric looks to the product safety community for help in achieving the agency’s goals. “CPSC cannot achieve our safety mission alone,” he recently told the International Consumer Product Health Organization (ICPHSO) annual conference in Orlando, Florida.

Along with colleagues in regulatory roles around the world, Chairman Hoehn-Saric noted the importance of support from product safety advocates, safety experts, product designers, consultants, retailers, importers, testing labs, and manufacturers both large and small…the same community that provides many of the instructors for the Consumer Product Safety Professional Certification Program.

Chairman Hoehn-Saric is the invited speaker to deliver the keynote address for the 2024 Consumer Product Safety Professional Certification Program at the opening session being held at Virginia Tech’s Research Center in Arlington, Virginia on August 29. The program’s 22-member instructor panel for 2024 includes experts covering areas including organization culture and ethics, risk assessment and hazard analysis, test labs, regulatory compliance, data management and artificial intelligence, product investigations, human factors, and product recall management. CPSC professional staff have been among the course instructors explaining their work at the agency since the Certification program was inaugurated in 2019.

Chairman Hoehn-Saric was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden on July 13, 2021, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 7, 2021 for a term that expires on October 27, 2027. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Hoehn-Saric was Chief Counsel for Communications and Consumer Protection with the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy & Commerce. In this role, he served as the chief legal advisor to Chairman Pallone on the Committee on consumer product safety, auto safety, consumer protection, privacy, broadband, and other communications issues.

During his tenure, Mr. Hoehn-Saric was instrumental in oversight of consumer product safety matters and drafting legislation to increase the authority and resources for the CPSC. Before joining government service, Mr. Hoehn-Saric worked for Latham & Watkins as a regulatory attorney and Sullivan & Cromwell as a litigation attorney. He also clerked for the Honorable Benson E. Legg, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Mr. Hoehn-Saric received an A.B. from the University of Chicago and a juris doctor degree from UCLA Law School.

The 10-week certification program has a hybrid structure designed and developed by the Society of Product Safety Professionals (SPSP) in cooperation with ADK Information Services. The Consumer Product Safety Certification Services, an independent SPSP affiliate, oversees the program’s policies and activities. The education section of the program is offered through Virginia Tech, a top 100 university based in Blacksburg, Virginia, with campuses in Arlington, including a new Innovation Campus which will be completed in 2025.

The opening 2-day workshop on August 29 & 30, 2024 is the program’s first segment. The workshop will be held at Virginia Tech’s Research Center in Arlington, Virginia. The program then moves into the second segment which features weekly 60-minute webinars consisting of a range of product safety core knowledge topics.

The third and final program segment features a 2-day assessment workshop that will be held October 29 & 30 at Virginia Tech’s main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. The assessment consists of a multiple-choice examination, an individual essay focused on the candidate’s career development, and a case study designed and written by candidates who will explain to an oral review panel the logic of their case study.

To be eligible, candidates are required to have 10 years of experience as a product safety professional, or 7 years of such experience along with a university or college degree in a related area.

A course overview and guidelines is available at the SPSP website.

Candidates can register for the course by creating an account and providing registration information, including a 300 word essay focused on their motivation for taking the certification program.

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Donald Kornblet
Society of Product Safety Professionals
dkornblet@adksafetyinfo.com