Bakersfield ASSP Chapter Meeting – May 2026

Topic: Disruption in Safety – A Critical Dimension to Our Success

Though being disruptive is often considered in a negative light, there is a positive side to being a disruptor, or being disruptive. In fact, thinking in terms of disruption is more essential now than ever for safety professionals. The natural follow-on question is – why?

This presentation will address that question and present the case for positive disruption. As an important dimension in safety leadership, disruption (along with Imagination and Innovation) underpins vision, alignment, articulation and aspiration in our field. A positive disruptor who challenges convention, organizational trends and habits is one who looks to new ways of thinking and helps influence safety behaviors as well as how we manage the business of safety. Focusing on disruption as an approach that feeds our safety vision, we strengthen both alignment and articulation of that vision. In addition, being disruptive helps develop an aspirational spirit for safety and safety leadership in our organizations. Join this presentation to learn about disruption and how you can best leverage it at the personal and organizational level.

Speaker: Dan Hopwood, CSP, SMP, CPCU, ARM, FASSP

Dan is a career-long safety professional who happened on to “safety” while an undergraduate at San Diego State University. Having received his B.S. in Health Sciences with an emphasis in Industrial Safety, he entered the insurance loss control profession and outside a five – year span where he was a corporate director of safety and risk management, that has been his path. Dan also received his MPH in Occupational Health from San Diego State. He earned the CSP, SMP from BCSP and the CPCU and ARM from The Institutes.

Active in ASSP for a “long time”, Dan has held many chapter positions, including President, Program Chair, Local PDC Chair, Honors and Awards Chair and several others. He was the Vice President for Region 1 from 2015-2017 and has held other regional roles and has served on a variety of ASSP Society groups and committees. Though the San Diego Chapter has always been his home, he has spent time in both LA and Orange County working as well as a stint in the San Francisco Bay area.

Dan taught in a couple of different programs at San Diego State for nearly 25 years as well as teaching safety classes at two San Diego Community Colleges, chairing one program for two years. A published author, he has written or co-written two books and has several chapters in others. A contributor to PSJ and other journals, he has peer-reviewed articles and others published over the last few years; having spoken nationally, he is a frequent speaker at Regional PDC’s as well as the Society PDC.

Dan is currently the Senior Vice President of Multiline and Large Casualty Field Services for Sompo North America, a New York-based multiline insurance carrier.

He’s been recognized as a Chapter SPY, received the San Diego President’s Award, the Charles V. Culbertson Award for volunteer service and others from ASSP and has been recognized by other groups. In 2024 Dan was named a Fellow of the American Society of Safety Professionals. For 2026, he was elected President of the Board of Certified Safety Professionals.

Dan is a career-long safety professional who happened on to “safety” while an undergraduate at San Diego State University. Having received his B.S. in Health Sciences with an emphasis in Industrial Safety, he entered the insurance loss control profession and outside of a five-year span where he was a corporate director of safety and risk management, that has been his path. Dan also received his MPH in Occupational Health from San Diego State. He earned the CSP, SMP from BCSP and the CPCU and ARM from The Institutes.

Registration:

RSVP to membership@bakersfield.assp.org.

In Person Breakfast at Hodels from 7:00-8:45am. 

$20 per person – Cash/Check/Credit/Debit (Member or Guest)
$10 ASSP Emeritus
$5 ASSP Student Members

Walk ins Welcome