Yale Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) celebrates the careers of Linda Mouning (37 years at Yale), Cathy King (24 years), and Pete Reinhardt (15 years) years as they move on to retirement. The EHS staff thanks them for all of their hard work and dedication to the department and university over the years and wishes them the best of luck in retirement.
Linda Mouning began her career at Yale in the Kline Biology Tower stockroom in 1985. After five years, she moved on to work as a medical assistant at Yale University Health Services (now Yale Health). In 1992, Mouning joined EHS as an administrative assistant and continued in the role for five years. She transitioned to a technician assistant at EHS in 1997 where she became responsible for the Clean Air Device program, which maintained 2,000 units around campus.
In 2002, Mouning became the research support coordinator at EHS, a position she has held for the last 20 years. In the role, she provided research support to university laboratories and coordinated processes with principal investigators. Mouning created the controlled substance program and has served as the main point of contact for 250 research labs, acted as a liaison between the labs and the Connecticut State Drug Control Division and Drug Enforcement Administration, and helped ensure compliance with university, federal, and state guidelines, rules, and regulations. She has also helped labs prepare for controlled substance inspections, provided training, maintained inventories, and performed audits.
“I’m proud that I worked for Yale University,” Mouning said. “It’s such a well-known institution around the world and sometimes, when you’re here, you don’t realize what Yale means to people outside of campus. We sometimes don’t take it all in. Yale has treated me well and I’ve had a great time here.”
Cathy King has been a member of EHS since her arrival at Yale in 1998 as the senior industrial hygienist. During her time in this position, King helped build the university’s chemical and occupational safety programs. As a former inspector for the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), King’s initial focus was on evaluating existing programs for compliance with OSHA requirements, conducting job hazard analyses and exposure monitoring, and recommending engineering, administrative, and PPE controls to reduce exposures to hazardous chemicals. She also served as the chemical hygiene officer for the university, holding overall responsibility for chemical safety in the research laboratories on campus. She has been a primary responder and leader on the University Hazmat Emergency Response Team throughout her years at Yale.
In 2015, King was named manager of the Occupational Health and Safety section of EHS and finished her career with seven direct reports. She has helped facilitate the university’s Laboratory Safety Committee and was a member of the Shop Safety Committee. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, King was instrumental in leading the charge on mask guidance, FIT testing for respirators, and building ventilation. She has had the opportunity to coordinate with other university departments on projects involving ventilation and lab sustainability throughout the years and has been published in several journals.
“I have loved our department and watching it grow over these years,” King said. “I truly enjoy working at Yale, and my co-workers in EHS are some of the best people I know. Yale is a great place to work and has provided me the opportunity and honor of working with so many interesting, intelligent, and dedicated people throughout campus. I feel like I have made a difference here and I am proud of that.”
Pete Reinhardt has served as Yale Environmental Health and Safety’s director since 2007 and helped build EHS into a nationally recognized program. Reinhardt was recognized by his peers in 2010 when he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the Campus Safety, Health and Environmental Management Association. He was part of a group that received the Linda Lorimer Award for Distinguished Service for developing and implementing critical safety infrastructures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A few of his many appointments include: the National Academies’ Committee on Prudent Practices in the Laboratory, where he co-authored an update of that authoritative reference; the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Chemical Safety; and the Board of the Campus Safety, Health and Environmental Management Association.
Among many significant initiatives over time, Reinhardt led the expansion of the Safety Advisor Program to provide responsive and personalized safety services to faculty, staff, and students, the implementation of a comprehensive shop safety program, the development of an integrated information system that streamlined requirements and now allows scientific research faculty to efficiently access critical information, and the refinement of Yale’s extensive environmental compliance program.
“Before I came to Yale, someone told me that the best thing about the university is its people,” Reinhardt said. “It’s so true. It’s been wonderful and rewarding to work with so many dedicated, thoughtful, smart, and caring colleagues. I’ll miss them most of all, and especially everyone at EHS.”