Meet the Clearinghouse Staff - Omar Lopez, Reaching the Hispanic Workforce
Omar Lopez joined ARTBA and the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse (Clearinghouse) in March 2007. He is an assistant instructor for Spanish language in programs administered through ARTBA’s Transportation Development Foundation and assists in the translation of safety and other training materials into Spanish. He has four years experience in professional translation services for labor negotiations and dispute settlement. He earned an associate law degree in Ecuador and is currently working toward a degree in business administration.
A native of Ecuador, Lopez is fluent in English and Spanish, enabling him to increase the outreach of the Clearinghouse and ARTBA to Hispanic workers which now make up over 30 percent of the transportation construction industry workforce in the United States.
In addition to translation and serving as an instructor, he oversees the distribution of materials to promote work zone safety awareness and he assisted with the successful 2007 National Traffic Management and Work Zone Safety Conference.
According to Omar, “promoting safety awareness through Spanish-language materials and training courses is a very rewarding job because it directly helps people who may not know how to work safely or where to go for help. It is gratifying working with ARTBA and the Clearinghouse because I know there are workers who return home every day to their love ones safe and healthy because of what we do—and that is a very valuable reward.”
“I believe the Clearinghouse is a valuable tool to achieve our safety goals. It has been a great experience to help a group of professionals to develop and create the web page. With world-wide access to the Internet, it is an advantage having many of our materials available in English, Spanish and other languages. Our continuing goal will be to keep up with the ever growing Hispanic work force and its needs.”
Date Posted: 5/15/2008
