A self-proclaimed Air Force brat, Cindy lived in Oklahoma, California, Japan, Florida, Spain, and California again before she semi-settled in Las Vegas, Nevada at the ripe old age of 13.

Cindy’s path to a Bachelors of Sociology took her through the University of Nevada – Las Vegas, an American College in Malaysia, and the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Armed with a degree, Cindy returned to Las Vegas to work for the State of Nevada as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor in the Workers Compensation Program. Her role was to help workers find a new job path post-injury.

Next, Cindy managed Workers Compensation claims for a handful of casinos in Las Vegas for a company that is now called the Mandalay Resort Group. She got involved in each casino’s safety committee and determined that she would prefer to work on the preventative side of worker safety, rather than on the workers compensation side. She became the sole Safety Specialist for Associated Pathologies Laboratories, the largest medical lab in Las Vegas at the time, and within two weeks of her first safety job, OSHA showed up for an inspection regarding formaldehyde exposure. At this point, she became “Safety Cindy” and has maintained that nickname throughout her career.

After that crash course in safety, Cindy felt confident in the field and wanted to join friends that lived in beautiful San Diego. She saw a job posting in the newspaper for a Safety Administrator at the North County Transit District that literally included the words “walk to the beach for lunch,” so she took the job and has been in San Diego (and has been recognized on busses) ever since.

Five years later, Cindy was recruited by Cardinal Health to be their EHS Manager and then two years after that was recruited by 24Hour Fitness to be their Safety Manager. She spent ten years at 24Hour Fitness overseeing safety policy, crisis management and emergency response for employees, clients and even children in the “Kids Club.” At its height, 24Hour Fitness had 400+ clubs in 18 states. After 24 Hour Fitness Cindy experimented with some other opportunities, including LEGOLAND Theme Park, but she eventually landed back in the fitness industry as a Director of Risk and Compliance for Chuze Fitness, headquartered in Mission Valley.

Cindy has been at Chuze now for five years, managing a team and focusing on security, safety, crisis management and commercial insurance. Chuze had 24 locations when she started and is growing quickly, currently at 57 locations in 7 states. She just finished up insurance renewals and had to speed-bind some property coverage before Hurricane Idalia came through. She loves the atmosphere and dedication to customer service at Chuze and hopes to stick with them until she retires.

When her job evolved from Safety to Risk, Cindy joined San Diego RIMS and really enjoys the people, networking and knowledge that comes along with her membership and service on the Board. Prior to RIMS, she was president of ASSE for 2 years (2008-09) and co-founded the North County ASSE chapter.

Cindy is married and has two sons in college; Conrad is a senior studying English and Race is a freshman studying Computer Science. Cindy has been practicing Kempo* for 15 years and she and her sons are currently black belts. She also scuba dives. She loves the challenge diving presents and appreciates that the sport has transitioned her from someone who was afraid of the ocean to someone who is not. Her ultimate goal from the beginning has been to not drown and that remains the same today. That makes a lot of sense for Safety Cindy.

*Hawaiian Kempo is an eclectic martial arts system that integrates the realistic aspects of karate, judo, jiu-jitsu, grappling, and the boxing arts, creating a comprehensive and effective system for self-defense.