I currently work for the Office of the Director of the Southeast Region of the USGS as a Safety and Occupational Health Specialist. I assist Nathan Smiley in serving 14 states and 2 Territories across the North Central and Southeastern United States.

I started my career in 2009 as a Hydrologic Technician in the Woodward Oklahoma Field Office. Upon graduating from College with a Degree in Wildlife Conservation from Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Fall of 2010, I relocated to the Oklahoma City Office. There I assisted on many things as Hydrotech's do ranging from surface water, ground water, water quality, and many studies projects. I particularly liked running levels, building gages, and any new tech I could get my hands on.

In 2017 I became a project chief for the first time and worked on many projects, but mostly bathymetric surveys. We did both rivers and lakes, but the largest project was a 50,000+ surface acre lake in Northeastern Oklahoma. In 2018 I became a drone operator and was carded in several of the USGS aircraft. The highlight was being dispatched to the Kilauea Volcano eruption in Hawaii in the summer of 2018. I spent nearly a month flying missions and documenting the event.

In 2015 I had the opportunity to become the Collateral Duty Safety Program Coordinator for the Oklahoma USGS Offices. This was a new and different type of challenge than I had been exposed to previously with the USGS. The work was very enjoyable and found that there wasn't enough time in the day to complete both my science and safety responsibilities. In 2017 while the then Regional Safety Manager was in Oklahoma doing an external audit, I pitched an idea for a field app to do safety inspections. This idea was very raw, but it became what you see as FAST today.

I continued to enjoy safety very much and in fall 2020 applied for and accepted the position that I am in today as the SER Safety and Occupational Health Specialist. In 2021 I was able to achieve my Associate Safety Professional (ASP). I will be working towards my Certified Safety Professional Certification (CSP) in Fall of 2024. COVID-19 dominated the first 2 years of this new position, but now am finally able to get out and support the region as this job was designed to do. I am customer service helping with all things safety across and enjoy it very much.

I currently live in Oklahoma City with my wife Emelie of 12 years, 3-year-old daughter Charlee, Miniature Australian Shepherd, and two cats. My wife and I are also expecting our second daughter in November of 2024. We have a family farm in NW Oklahoma where we spend as much time as possible. I enjoy home projects, woodworking all things sports most recently playing Golf, and being an outdoorsman. I greatly enjoy hunting the plains of NW Oklahoma and that is where most of my weekends are spent when it turns cold in Oklahoma.

I look forward to meeting you in St. Louis.

Shelby Hunter