Michelle Robertson

Dr. Robertson has been conducting field and applied research projects in ergonomics and management for over 20 years, specifically focusing on office ergonomics interventions, work organization design, participatory approaches to designing and implementing integrated workplace solutions, training design and evaluation, teamwork, and aviation maintenance environments. Her field research projects involve working with a variety of companies, such as airlines, telecommunications, aerospace, automobile, trucking, utility, healthcare and computer manufacturing industries.

Before joining the Research Institute for Safety & Health, Dr. Robertson was on the faculty in Human Factors and Management at the Institute of Safety and Systems Management at the University of Southern California for 12 years. At the University, she taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Human Factors, Training, Safety and Management. Dr. Robertson conducted research in the areas of team training, designing and evaluating ergonomics intervention programs, performance and worker’s health and safety. Her team training research was funded by the Office Aviation Medicine of the FAA and her office ergonomics research by the Office of Ergonomics Research Committee.

Dr. Robertson is a board Certified Professional Ergonomist and holds a Ph.D. in Instructional Technology, MS in Systems Management, from the University of Southern California and a BA in Human Factors from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She was a member of the executive council of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society for two terms, and executive council representative for the International Ergonomics Association. She was the Conference chair for the 8th, 10th and 11th International Symposium on Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management and co-editor. She serves as the International Ergonomics Association Committee Chair for the Organizational Design and Management technical committee and is past chair of the Macroergonomics Technical Group for the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. She serves on the External Advisory Board for Sandia National Laboratories for establishing best safety and health program practices Dr. Robertson has published over 85 articles in Human Factors, Safety and Ergonomics and has presented her work nationally and internationally at business forums, professional ergonomic and management conferences and symposiums. She was a recipient of the 2008 NORA/NIOSH innovative research award for worker health and safety for her work on designing a macroergonomics training program for optimizing supervisor response to workplace injury. he is a Fellow of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society and the International Ergonomics Association.