Course Descriptions: 2026 Dig Safe Leadership Forum

Foundations of Safety Leadership

AJ Gajdosik, Manager of Risk Control, Acuity
The FSL program puts safety leadership where it belongs—in the field, with the crew, getting the job done right. Learn how to lead by example, have better safety conversations, recognize good work, address problems before they become incidents, and turn worker concerns into practical solutions. Whether you’re a supervisor, foreman, lead, or experienced crew member, this session delivers simple, hands-on leadership tools you can use on the very next jobsite.

The Three-Legged Stool: Safety, Quality, and Production

Ty Farmer, Senior Director of Corporate Safety, Dycom Industries, Inc. (BIO PDF)
Safety, quality, and production are not competing priorities—they are the three legs holding your operation up, and when one leg gets weak, the whole stool starts to wobble. This session shows construction supervisors, foremen, and leaders how imbalance between safety, quality, and production can drive incidents and near-misses, increase rework and waste, and slowly erode the culture that keeps crews performing at their best. Supervisors will leave with a simple, practical framework for making better field decisions, setting clear expectations, spotting imbalance early, and keeping safety, quality, and production working together—every crew, every task, every day.

Supervisors: The Ultimate Safety Strategy

Brian Smith, Director of Training, JE Dunn (BIO PDF)
Want to change the culture? Stop looking at the top—and start looking at the middle. Mid-level managers, supervisors, and foremen are the critical link between executive expectations and what happens in the field, and when they are properly aligned, trained, and coached, they can drive improvements in safety, quality, production, maintenance, and efficiency. Walk away with a practical game plan for identifying, training, coaching, and holding your mid-level leaders accountable—so they can turn your organization’s goals into everyday actions and lasting results.

Safe to Speak: The Psychology of Better Safety

Dan Lester, Vice President of Field Culture and Inclusion, Clayco
Burnea Lester, Director of Communications and Community Relations, SITE Improvement Association
What happens when your crew is afraid to speak up? Problems stay hidden, mistakes get repeated, and trust starts to break down. This session gives construction supervisors and managers a practical understanding of psychological safety—and how creating an open, honest, and respectful workplace can improve safety, quality, communication, productivity, and performance. Leave with practical ways to make it easier for employees to report hazards, admit mistakes, challenge unsafe decisions, and speak the truth before small problems become big ones—building a culture where people speak up because they know they will be heard, not punished.

Human Organizational Performance

Rob Miller, Vice President, Safety, Keely Construction Group
Construction is unpredictable. Changing conditions, tight schedules, competing crew priorities, and decisions made in the field can all influence how work gets done. This construction-focused session introduces supervisors and mid-level managers to Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) and shows how field conditions, planning, communication, leadership, and work processes shape crew performance and safety. Leave with practical tools you can use on the next jobsite to understand why work succeeds or fails, strengthen the conditions that help crews perform, and move beyond simply blaming workers when something goes wrong.

Hire, Motivate, RETAIN

Scott Honer, Risk Control Manager, One Digital Insurance (BIO PDF)
Hiring people is hard—keeping great people is even harder. This session explores how turnover affects safety incidents, complaints, productivity, customer satisfaction, and the bottom line, while digging into the workplace factors that create negativity and drive employees out the door—including management practices, communication, recognition, culture, and whether pay is really the whole story. Walk away with practical strategies to hire smarter, motivate your people, strengthen your culture, and retain the employees your organization cannot afford to lose.

From Incident to Impact: Taking Control of Risk

Sheila Schmidt, Field Manager, MEM (BIO PDF)
Flint Walton, Technical Services and Training Specialist, MEM (BIO PDF)
Every injury tells a story—and every claim can leave a mark on your business. This fast-paced session, led by safety and workers’ compensation experts, connects what happens in the field—safety rules, communication, inspections, safety meetings, corrective action, and supervisor involvement—to what happens on the business side, including claims costs and your workers’ compensation experience rating. Leave with a supervisor-focused action plan: know what your supervisors should look for, what they should say, what they should correct, and what they should follow up on every day— turning frontline leadership into fewer incidents, better claims outcomes, and a stronger safety culture.

Expert Guests:

• Randy Norden, Executive Director, Missouri 811
• Tim Bean, Damage Prevention Specialist, Missouri 811
• Travis Taylor, Owner, Alpha Hydrovac
• Clay Lasiter, Patmos Patmos Physical Security, Risk Mitigation & Critical Infrastructure Protection
• Roy Crouch, President, Missouri Common Ground Alliance
• Mark Woodward, Executive Director, Missouri Common Ground Alliance