Central Washington University Associate Professor Jennifer Serne said on April 1 that she is surprised by the attention she receives as a keynote speaker and thought leader in occupational safety and health management. “I was surprised when people really thought I was an expert in this,” Serne said. “I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I kind of ended up here by accident.”
Serne’s journey into workplace safety began with her initial interest in film studies, which shifted to chemistry during college. After graduating from The Evergreen State College, she worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where a connection with a safety professional led her toward human performance research—a field that examines how human behavior can inform workplace safety policies.
“Let’s look at the human performance aspect of it,” Serne said about her approach to accident investigations. “Let’s find out where we can better support people as opposed to ‘you’re an idiot, you screwed up, and you’re fired.’” Her career included roles in biotech and the Washington State Department of Health overseeing radiation protection for workers.
After ten years at the Department of Health, Serne earned a master’s degree in Safety Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She later joined Washington State University as assistant director in the Office of Research Assurances before joining Central Washington University (CWU) faculty as a lecturer in 2018.
Despite numerous speaking invitations and awards—including CWU’s Outstanding Teaching Award—Serne said she still experiences impostor syndrome: “I get asked to speak at a lot of conferences, and it does feel odd to think of myself as someone who is considered an expert, because to me, I’m still learning more every day.” She emphasized teaching students new ways to analyze accidents without bias or blame: “My methods help organizations move away from the assumption that accidents are caused by workers doing dumb things, and towards a systems-oriented way of looking at it.”
Now serving full-time on CWU’s faculty after earning her PhD from Grand Canyon University in 2024, Serne values working with non-traditional students for their diverse viewpoints. Looking ahead, she will coordinate CWU’s revamped Safety and Health Management master’s program launching this fall. Reflecting on her growth alongside other leaders in her field, Serne concluded: “It does always shock me when I see my name on the list next to people who were big mentors for me…maybe the coolest thing about them is the humility they have, and that they’re constantly learning too.”
