Nancy J. Simcox, MS
About
Nancy Simcox, MS, is director of the Occupational Safety and Health Continuing Education Programs for the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She develops and delivers research-based education programs for practicing professionals, including industrial hygienists, physicians, nurses, safety engineers and others in the environmental, health and safety field. Ms. Simcox has over 25 years of experience as a research industrial hygienist at both the UW Field Research and Consultation Group and the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Connecticut Health, where she conducted workplace site visits; designed exposure assessment protocols for evaluation, intervention and research; and performed data reduction and statistical analysis for health-based research projects. She served as the chair of the Occupational Health and Safety Section of the American Public Health Association in 2020-2021 and serves as governing councilor for that section in 2025.
Education
- MS, University of Washington
- BS, Cornell University
Affiliations
Mentorship
Not accepting new students in autumn 2026. Please follow the instructions on the How To Apply page.
DEOHS Students Mentored
Evaluation of Dioxins, Furans, and Phthalates in Sanitary Pads and Tampons
Robin Matson | MS Applied | 2021 | View
Research
Interests: Occupational health intervention research. Exposure assessment. Indoor air quality. Built environment. Pesticides. Healthy Home Initiative. Green Chemistry.
Projects
As co-director of the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety, Simcox provides Region X with innovative, high-quality continuing education for occupational health and safety practitioners and for their employers and workers. She maintains longstanding partnerships with occupational and environmental professionals and associations in the Pacific Northwest to meet the training needs of the region. With the continuing education team, Simcox also leads the Pacific Northwest OSHA Education Center that serves thousands of safety professionals in Region X to provide engaging standards-based, OSHA-authorized training designed to prevent and reduce workplace injuries and illnesses. Recent programs and activities available on the blog.
With interest and expertise in programs involving emerging chemicals and processes, Simcox received a University of Washington Earthlab Innovation Grant to bring together a multidisciplinary team to work with the food truck industry to promote best cleaning practices and technical assistance. She also served as a co-investigator of Education and Outreach for the Molecular Design Research Network, a multidisciplinary research team led by Yale University that focuses on the rational design of safer chemicals. As a current advisory board member of the Green Chemistry and Chemical Stewardship Certificate Program, she works with faculty and industry experts to develop green chemistry curriculum content and educational assessments. She also served as a co-investigator of a multiyear grant entitled "Green Cleaning: Exposure Characterization and Adoption Process Among Custodians," funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety.
Most recently, Simcox increased student engagement with University of Idaho faculty to integrate a virtual reality training module into curriculum of courses of the Pacific Northwest OSHA Education Center.
Publications
Selected publications
- Identification of processes that mediate the impact of workplace violence on emergency department healthcare workers in the USA: results from a qualitative study.
- Gendered Safety and Health Risks in the Construction Trades.
- Green chemistry & chemical stewardship certificate program: a novel, interdisciplinary approach to green chemistry and environmental health education
- Introducing Toxicology into the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Using Safety Data Sheets and Sunscreen Activities
- The Molecular Design Research Network.
Engagement
Equity, diversity and inclusion
I acknowledge that my position as an educated white woman who grew up in an agricultural community has provided me with many advantages. I started my career working with a multicultural team to develop a bilingual pesticide training program for workers. This experience provided the foundation for me to witness many inequities caused by structural racism and the need for economic justice. It also set the stage for why I pursued community-based participatory research projects with farmworkers, custodians, women in the trades, and food truck operators. At this stage of my career, I realize I have a responsibility to advocate and disrupt a system that continues to oppress working people. I am committed to using my privilege to continue to improve racial equity and diversity awareness in the workplace through a variety of activities within DEOHS and the occupational and environmental health practice community.
I currently serve on the DEOHS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety’s Anti-Racism Committee. I work with faculty, staff and students to design and deliver the UW Worker Memorial Day, an event that often include themes related to EDI. In 2021, I served on the APHA Environment and OHS sections planning committee to promote the 30th anniversary of the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit and coordinated a special virtual event.
Community and research partnerships
My public health practice occurs via my role as the director of Continuing Education programs and outreach. We deliver training to approximately 5,000 safety and health practitioners annually. I am responsible for outreach, training needs assessment, collaborating with course directors on program design, teaching, supervision of NWCOHS CE support staff, evaluation and budget oversight. I direct the creation of new educational programs that can respond to emerging issues identified by the practice community. I will continue to use innovative approaches to assemble a diverse group of experts for delivery of our programs, experiment with new tools and technology, and increase collaborations with new and existing partners.
Activities in 2022:
- Clean SHiFT--the Clean Safety & Health in Food Trucks project--is a multidisciplinary effort to help food truck owners and employees transition to safer chemicals for cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing. This project won the 2022 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
- A webinar and e-learning series in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center to increase community engagement and online learning opportunities for community health workers, agricultural safety professionals, employers, supervisors and farmworker advocates.
- Submission of the Pacific Northwest OSHA Education Center 5-year renewal application in 2022. I will continue to explore innovative adult learning techniques (e.g., virtual reality technology) that meet the educational needs and styles of adult learners.
- Dissemination plan for a reproductive health and work toolkit for employers, health care providers and workers.
Teaching practices
The majority of my teaching activities are associated with the development of curriculum for adult learners in the UW DEOHS Continuing Education programs. I manage a variety of programs across two centers, the NIOSH ERC Northwest Center for Health and Safety and the Pacific Northwest OSHA Education Center. I work with faculty, practitioners and staff to develop new professional development programs to meet occupational and environmental health training needs in the region.
I am working on developing four online programs with the following partners:
- UW Foster School of Business to develop and offer courses for the Transformational Leadership Academy for safety professionals.
- UW Occupational and Environmental Medicine to develop four occupational disease online courses for primary care providers and nurse practitioners.
- Oregon Healthy Workforce Center at OHSU to develop a Total Worker Health certificate program that will include integration of occupational health and total worker health curriculum.
- Occupational health nurses and physicians to deliver an online course titled “Fundamentals of Occupational Health for Nurses.”
I also teach part of the professional development course titled “Sustainability, Toxicology and Human Health” for the green chemistry certificate program—the only program in the country that gives students the tools to design safer chemicals and industrial processes.
Service
Under my direction, the Continuing Education program serves regional professionals and employers by taking an interdisciplinary approach in selecting, designing and delivering occupational health courses to address worker health and safety training needs. I continue to bring together different disciplines (e.g., toxicology, business, chemistry) to help practitioners initiate the process of transitioning to safer chemicals in the workplace. I plan to continue to develop programs that help employers and workers transition to safer chemicals.
Departmental service
- DEOHS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
- DEOHS Auxiliary Review Committee
- DEOHS NWCOHS Anti-Racism Committee
- DEOHS Return to Work Committee
- DEOHS Standing Search Committee
- DEOHS Award Nomination Committee
School of Public Health service
- Member, UW SPH e-learning/distance learning committee, 2019-2021
- Chair, UW DEOHS Worker Memorial Day Event
- SPH Strategic Plan, September 2019-August 2020
Other service
- Past Chair, APHA OHS, 2021-2022
- Member, PNS-AIHA and NOHC Planning Committee, 2021-2022
- Member, NIOSH ERC CE Directors Diversity Committee, 2021-2022
- Advisory Member, WA GISHAB, 2021-2022