Deborah E. Dickerson
- CIH, CSP
Deborah Dickerson
(MC 0118)
1185 Perry Street
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Personal website Google Scholar
Short Bio
Deb is an associate professor in both Human Factors Engineering and Management Systems Engineering. She is the Director of the Healthy Work Design Laboratory at Virginia Tech. The Healthy Work Design Lab investigates ways to improve the health of workers through design of work, management systems, and the physical and psycho-social work environment. Research projects have included: innovation acceptance in construction, risk perception in high-hazard occupations, trust in automation in manufacturing, work stress in public school teaching, and working conditions for gig delivery workers. Research has been sponsored by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Deb has served on several advisory committees of NIOSH. Her prior work has been cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environment Canada in their regulations.
Research Areas
Main Area: Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics
- Worker Health and Safety
- Process Safety
- Healthy Work Design
- Health Behaviors
- Health Promotion
- Innovation Acceptance
- Training System Design
- Work Organization
- Prevention through Design
- User Experiences and User-centered Design
- Ph.D., Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2007
- M.S., Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2006
- M.S., Ecology, North Carolina State University, 1999
- B.S., Biology, Virginia Tech, 1996
- Associate Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2018-present
- Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering (School of Construction), Virginia Tech, 2015-2018
- Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering (School of Construction), Virginia Tech, 2007-2015
- Co-Director, Environmental, Health, and Safety Services at Virginia Tech, 2001-2006
- Manager of Industrial Hygiene, Environmental, Health, and Safety Services at Virginia Tech, 1999-2001
- Principles of Industrial Hygiene
- Occupational Safety
- Prevention through Design
- Construction Safety, Health, and Environment
- Construction Management
- Building System Design
- Indoor Environmental Quality
- Introduction to Human Factors
- Forsyth, J.B., Martin, T.L., Young-Corbett, D.E., Dorsa, E. (2012). Feasibility of Intelligent Monitoring of Construction Workers for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. Journal of IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. 9(3): 505-515.
- Weidman, J., Dickerson, D. E., & Koebel, C. T. (2015). Intervention to improve purchasing decision-maker perceptions of ventilated tools. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 141(6), 04015007.
- Weidman, J., Dickerson, D., & Koebel, C. T. (2015). Prevention through Design: A Macroergonomic Conceptual Approach to Risk Reduction. IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors, 3(1), 24-36.
- Dickerson, D. E., & Ackerman, P. J. (2016). Risk-based maintenance management of US public school facilities. Green Building, 145, 685-692.
- Young-Corbett. (2014). Prevention through Design (PtD): Health Hazards in Asphalt Roofing. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 140(9): September 2014.
- Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)
- American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA)
- Academy of Industrial Hygiene
- American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH)
- Best Paper Award: IEEE Transactions Best Paper of 2012: Forsyth, J.B., Martin, T.L.,Young-Corbett, D.E., Dorsa, E. (2012). Feasibility of Intelligent Monitoring of Construction Workers for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. Journal of IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. 9(3): 505-515
- Doctoral Fellow: Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; 2005-2006
- Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH)
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP)
- Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM)