Wiegmann, Shappell and Associates (WSA) is an Internationally recognized team of experts in system safety and human performance.  As the authors of human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS) and the Human Factors Intervention matrix (HFIX), WSA provides a variety of services to help incorporate these tools in to your organization to improve safety, quality and efficiency.

We're confident you'll find that Wiegmann, Shappell and Associates is not your typical safety consulting company.  Renowned scientists with real world experience in the field, WSA bridges the gap between theory and practice to effectively integrate human performance and system safety principles and tools into your organization.

Dr. Scott A. Shappell
Founding Partner

Dr. Shappell is a tenured professor of Industrial Engineering at Clemson University. He is an internationally renowned expert and a highly sought after consultant and speaker in the fields of human factors, systems safety, error management, and accident investigation. Dr. Shappell is also the co-developer of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS), a method for investigating and analyzing the role of human error in aviation accidents that has been adopted by aviation organizations around the world.

Dr. Shappell formerly served as Human Factors Branch Chief at the U.S. Naval Safety Center and as a human factors accident investigation consultant for the Joint Service Safety Chiefs. Prior to the Naval Safety Center, he served as the Force Aerospace Psychologist for the Commander, Naval Air Forces, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. His work experiences also include serving as the Human Factors Research Branch Manager at the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute of the Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma City, OK. He has published over 50 papers in the fields of human error analysis and accident investigation, workplace injuries, and fatigue.

Dr. Shappell is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association and Past-president of the Aerospace Human Factors Association. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and the Association for Aviation Psychology. In addition, he serves as a consulting/associate editor for the International Journal of Aviation Psychology; Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine and is a regular peer reviewer for Military Psychology; Human Factors; Air Traffic Quarterly.

Education: Dr. Shappell received a B.S. in psychology (1983) from Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio graduating Summa Cum Laude with honors in psychology. He followed with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Texas, Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas in 1990.

Dr. Douglas A. Wiegmann
Founding Partner

Dr. Douglas A. Wiegmann is an associate professor of Human Factors within the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of human factors and system safety and has experience investigating accidents in a variety of industries including aviation, mining, and healthcare.  He recently completed a two-year fellowship at Mayo Clinic working on projects related to human factors and patient safety in cardiovascular surgery. Dr. Wiegmann has formerly served as an aviation psychologist for the U.S. Navy and an accident investigator for the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Prior to his current position at the University of Wisconsin, he was a tenured professor in the Department of Human Factors at the University of Illinois. He was also the official human factors consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy during the investigation of the August 2003 blackout and consultant to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board during their analysis of the causes underlying the crash of the NASA space shuttle. More recently, Dr. Wiegmann served as a member of the “Baker Panel” chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker to evaluate the safety culture at BP’s North American Refineries following the explosion at the Texas City plant that injured and killed several employees.

Dr. Wiegmann has authored numerous articles and conference presentations on topics related to human performance and system safety. He is also the co-developer of HFACS along with Dr. Shappell. Dr. Wiegmann is a board certified human factors professional and a private pilot. He is an active member in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Aerospace Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association. He is past-president of the Aerospace Human Factors Association.

Education: Dr. Wiegmann received his B.S. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse (1988) and his M.S. degree (1990) and Ph.D.(1992) in psychology from Texas Christian University. He recently completed a 2-year NIH fellowship in patient safety and received a post-doctoral M.S. in biomedical science (2007) from the College of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

Dr. Albert J. Boquet
Senior Associate

Dr. Boquet earned his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi where he specialized in Cardiovascular Psychophysiology. He is currently the Department Chair of the Department of Human Factors and Systems at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, in Daytona Beach, Florida.   Prior to joining Embry-Riddle, he was a principal investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration where he conducted research on the effects of stress, shiftwork and fatigue on both the air traffic and flight deck divisions.  He was lead investigator for the FAA examining human error in maintenance-related aviation accidents, and aircrew error in helicopter emergency medical system accidents using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS). Working with Drs. Scott Shappell and Doug Wiegmann, current projects include studies of aircrew error in general aviation, rotorcraft, and commercial aviation accidents in the U.S., and applying aviation human factors principles to the operating room.  Dr. Boquet has presented and published numerous papers on the relationship between stress and the cardiovascular and neuroendocrine systems, performance in high demand environments, sleep/fatigue, and fatigue countermeasures, and human factors associated with aviation accidents.

Education: Dr. Boquet received a B.A. in psychology (1984) from Nicholls State University. He followed with an M.A. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1991. He also completed a NIAAA post doctoral fellowship at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Terry VonThaden
Senior Associate

Dr. von Thaden, is an Assistant Professor at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Human Factors Division, with affiliate appointments in Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, and Information Science. Dr. von Thaden’s research involves the study of information complexity, and measures of the culture of safety in high risk, safety critical sociotechnical systems including aviation, medical, security, and transportation systems. As of August 2008, Dr. von Thaden has measured the culture of safety and group alignment in over 100 aviation and medical organizations. She is the current chair of the University of Illinois’ Aviation Safety Committee. She has served as an expert for the GAO and National Academy of Sciences appointed committees on aviation safety issues. She is a past Fellow of Zonta International, The Transportation Research Board, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and is a member of both the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Beta Phi Mu International Honor Society. In 2005 she received the prestigious Aerospace Human Factors Association's Stanley N. Roscoe Award for the best doctoral dissertation written in research area related to Aerospace Human Factors.

Dr. von Thaden is a member of many professional organizations including the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Association of Aviation Psychologists, the Aerospace Medical Association, American Psychological Society, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the American Society of Information Science and Technology, American Society of Safety Engineers, the Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots (which her grandmother Louise Thaden, co-founded), The Society of Air Racing Historians, and Women in Aviation International.

Education: Dr. von Thaden developed her love of all things aviation growing up in a flying family, but began her career as a clothing designer and holds a degree in Fashion Design. She later returned to her love of aviation earning a B.S. cum laude in Air Traffic Control/Aviation Management/Flight Operations. She earned her M.S. in Safety and Health/Human Factors from the University of Southern California’s Institute of Safety and Systems Management, and her Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. von Thaden holds professional certification in Aviation Safety and Accident Investigation, and Safety Management.

 

Daniel M. McCune
Senior Associate/Training Manager

Daniel M. McCune is currently the University Safety Officer for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He is also the Chairman of the Safety committee for the University Aviation Association, and serves on several national Safety advisory committees. Mr. McCune retired from the United States Army after serving 27 years. Mr. McCune's last flying position in the Army was a Citation Jet Captain at Dobbins Air Force Base. He has flown over 6500 accident free hours. He has flown a multitude of aircraft a few are: CE-560, King Air, Queen Air, C-182, UH-1 Helicopter. Mr. McCune was the senior System Safety Engineer/Safety Director for many aviation organizations. He was instrumental in designing the Army's Crew Coordination Program. He was stationed all over the world. Mr. McCune spent three tours in Korea, four years in Japan, three years in Germany. At every location, his one major goal has always been accident prevention through Safety Culture enhancement.

Mr. McCune has a Bachelor of Arts in Business from New York University and a Master of Science in Human Resource Management from Chapman University. Mr. McCune's ratings include U.S Army Command Pilot; ATP Commercial Pilot (Single/Multi-engine, Instrument); and CRM instructor pilot. Mr. McCune is a Registered Safety Officer, from the International Board of System Safety. A registered Air Safety Investigator through the International Society of Air Safety Investigators. He is also a registered Safety Director from the World Safety Organization. His community involvement with the Red Cross and local safety Councils affords him the opportunity to spread the safety message to many organizations. Mr. McCune teaches several safety courses for various organizations. Mr. McCune is married and has two children.

Various memberships include; Committee Chair for the University Aviation Association, System Safety Society, International Society of Air Safety Investigators, National Business Aircraft Association member, American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), SAFE association, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, World Safety Organization, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, member Local Emergency Planning Commission, member Local Community Safety Council Mr. McCune is a graduate of the U.S Army Safety Officer Course, The U.S Army accident investigation course, The Transportation Safety Institute's Aircraft Accident investigation School, The FAA Human Factor Course, over 15 different OSHA courses including the OSHA inspector Course (50 hr), Aircraft Fire Investigator Course. Mr. McCune newest qualification is Graduating from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident investigation course. Mr. McCune has been directly involved in Aviation and Occupational safety for over 27 years.

Jaclyn Baron
Associate

Jaclyn Baron received an M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University and a B.S. degree in Psychology from the University of Central Florida.  She has worked on a number of projects, including: airport baggage security training, fuzzy signal detection theory, quantifying human information processing, and the effect of temporal and spatial demands on performance, workload, and stress.  More recently, she has worked on the following projects: Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems and their effect on their owners, Air Tour accidents involving human error, and the impact of passenger pressure on General Aviation pilot’s decision to enter adverse weather.

Sacha Duff
Associate

Sacha Duff graduated with a B. S. in Human Factors Psychology from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and has remained at Embry-Riddle to earn a Master’s Degree in Human Factors and Systems. She has presented at numerous national and international conferences, including, the Applied Ergonomics, Aerospace Medical Association, European Rotorcraft, and was a session coordinator at the CRM Vectors conference focusing on single pilot CRM. Sacha’s current research includes a safety analysis of Hawaiian rotorcraft air tours, helicopter emergency medical services, and the application of human factors in the operating room.

Rebecca Iden
Associate

Rebecca Iden holds an M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University and a B.A. degree in Psychology from Rutgers University.  She has studied human error in multiple environments, including aviation and automotive industries.  In addition, she has experience with product design and numerous usability techniques.  She has previously worked on projects with Mayo Clinic, the Federal Aviation Agency, and Lucent Technologies.

Jessica Patterson
Associate

Jessica Patterson holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University.  Jessica is currently working with the Clemson University Automotive and Safety Research Institute in partnership with the Richard Petty Driving Experience on analyzing the causes of teenage driving accidents. Besides research, Jessica has also been a teaching assistant for undergraduate courses in Systems Design and Industrial Ergonomics and Automation.  She has previously worked on projects with the Federal Aviation Agency, and Milliken & Company. 

Michael Sawyer
Associate

Michael Sawyer holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University. Michael is focused is on understanding and mitigating the causes of human error related accidents in general aviation.  He was chosen as the 2006-2007 graduate teaching assistant of the year for the Industrial Engineering Department.  Along with his human error studies, he has experience in usability, graphics, web-design, and database development.  He has previously worked on projects with Lockheed Martin, the Federal Aviation Agency, and Milliken & Company.