Nuala Reilly has spent her career helping people, including those dealing with job loss and financial issues. Her drive to help people intensified in 2016 when she received a call that a family member had been involved in a workplace accident. 

She sat down with her husband, who had been working in the safety industry for years, and decided she wanted a better idea of what a career in safety looked like. She signed up for a few courses and quickly decided to go back to school and work towards her Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety from the University of New Brunswick. 

At the time, she was working for JDI Logistics as a Carrier Management Coordinator where she was responsible for recruiting new driving companies. Her manager knew that her heart was in safety and, after completion of her certificate, was quick to help her find an opening within JDI in a safety role. She joined Harbour Development as their Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Specialist and she's been with the organization ever since. 

As she learned the business, she was offered support in earning her Diploma through a two-year self-guided program. She was quick to accept and continued balancing work and school for a year and a half as she completed the program.

"My job is essentially in the field - I get to go out on the vessels regularly. And at the end of the day, it's fun. I'm on the water, on the vessels, with the team," says Nuala.

Coming from a family that is highly creative - her mother and sister are both artists, and she also paints - she finds the safety industry oddly creative. It's a very regulated space, but her creativity allows her to take highly technical information and apply it to her industry and field. 

"It's about how you explain it to employees, because some understand the technical, but some do not. You genuinely have to care about your people and find ways to share how important their safety is," Nuala said.

In 2023, Nuala was short-listed for Canada's Safest Employer Minerva Rising Star Award. Now, fresh off completing her Diploma, she continues to look forward. She's working towards taking her Canadian Registered Safety Technician designation and hoping to share what she's learned at Harbour Development with other JDI businesses in the future.