ANYA TAYLOR, M.A. CPE, CEAS
Certified Professional Ergonomist
Providing Ergonomic Services in Arcata, Eureka, and Humboldt County, CA.
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Since 1991, Anya Taylor, MA, owner of Workplace Ergonomics and Back Safety (formerly Industrial Wellness), specializes in ergonomic program implementation, cumulative trauma disorder and back injury prevention, and ergonomic workstation assessment/task analysis. She received her Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology and a Bachelors of Arts in Musical Performance from Humboldt State University.
She is a Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE), credentialed by the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics. She also is a Certified Ergonomic Assessment Specialist (CEAS) from the Back School of Atlanta, Certified Fitness Professional with American Council on Exercise, and Peace Officers’ Standards and Training (POST) Physical Fitness Instructor graduate. Anya's business, Workplace Ergonomics and Back Safety, is a certified Woman Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Utility Supplier Diversity Program of the California Public Utilities Commission.
She resides in Humboldt County, California and travels throughout California working with a variety of industries.
MY STORY
My business, Workplace Ergonomics and Back Safety (formerly Industrial Wellness) was born in 1990. I graduated with a M.A. in Exercise Physiology in 1987, and worked in a spine rehabilitation clinic for two years before starting my consulting/education business, Industrial Wellness. In 2014, in order to express my focus and specialties, I changed the business moniker to Workplace Ergonomics and Back Safety. I've earned a Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE) title from the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics and am aCEAS (Certified Ergonomic Assessment Specialist) from Back School of Atlanta. In addition to my consulting and training business, I am an avid exerciser, instruct fitness classes, and provide personal training services with an emphasis on functional movement, injury prevention, athletic ability, and senior strength, balance and ADL's (Activity of Daily Living.)
My services include ergonomic workstation assessments/evaluations (both for office and manufacturing), job task safety analysis, employee education seminars on back safety, sprain/strain prevention, upper extremity CTD prevention, training for ergonomic risk factor identification and controls, and industrial ergonomics awareness/components. In addition, I provide task specific stretching/exercise, work warm-up, and work place fitness/wellness.
I have an eclectic background and client base that ranges from office settings (banking, insurance, medical, engineering, etc.) to service and industrial clients (grocery, city municipality, public works, parks service, fish rearing, agricultural nursery). My clients also include manufacturing/natural resource such as construction, timber production, harvest and milling, public utility, pharmaceutical production, marimba engineering, roof racks manufacturer, and newspaper/printing.
Click HERE for detailed client list.
I have always worked as an independent contractor, and have many “long-term” relationships with clients where I provide services for extensive and frequent basis over a series of years. Program development and implementation, task analysis, workstation evaluation/recommendation, and employee training has been my staple.
Click HERE for detailed work history with Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
During 1993 – 1995, I contracted with the California Department of Fish and Game to provide intensive day-long Sprain Strain/Task Analysis Workshops for 19 of their fish hatcheries from the Oregon Boarder to Southern California.
Work within the timber industry of Humboldt and Del Norte Counties has been frequent. In 1992, I provided various management and employee trainings in ergonomic task analysis and CTD/Back Safety. Arcata Redwood, Simpson Timber, Pacific Lumber, Louisiana Pacific, Harwood Forest Products, Boak Logging and smaller local mills have been some of my clients. Several embraced comprehensive efforts to reduce injury, with programs that were two to four years in length with extensive follow-up. In 2000, I was asked by California Lumberman’s Association to kick-off their training year with a day-long workshop on Strain Sprain Reduction and the Aging Worker.
From 1998 – 2001 I worked with Bayer Pharmaceutical Inc., in Berkeley Ca. I became their “traveling” Strain Sprain Prevention Trainer. I provided 2 – 4 days a month of education workshops and task specific body mechanics. Much of the work was conducted in the “clean” facilities to create task specific procedures for physical tasks associated with the production of Kogenate®, a drug used for patients with classical hemophilia. I produced several safety training videos, including a plant-wide stretching video (Bayer Stretch for Health), and created power point training presentations for the Safety Manager. (I enjoyed this job until I took maternity leave with my second child.)
The North Coast Cooperative Grocery Stores in Humboldt County and I have done extensive partnering of ergonomic analysis and task specific employee training and work place stretch programs. From 1993 – 1999, the store made ergonomic interventions, employee education, and early recognition of potential CTDs the number one training priority. During this period they lowered their loss ratio to under 10%, which was the lowest it had been in 5 years. They also received a $61,000.00 dividend from their worker’s comp carrier, and reduced their annual premium by $65,000. I continue to provide training to the two store locations’150 plus employees on Back Safety and CTD awareness. Incidentally, all new hires watch a Safety Orientation Video that I produced in 2000, using employees as actors, and co-written with the employee safety committee.
Many service and unique cottage businesses are located in my home area of Humboldt County. I continue to provide service and education to grocery, manufacturing, health service offices, banking, and timber businesses. I also support home businesses by providing home visits to help entrepreneurs set-up and redesign home office spaces for efficiency, comfort and injury prevention.