Claudia H. Thurber

Claudia H. Thurber, a veteran of over twenty-two years of Federal government service, was the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Counsel for Health Standards until her retirement in February 2006. She is an expert on the regulatory process. 

Ms. Thurber has spoken at numerous government and professional meetings, including the Eastern Management Development Center for Government Executives, the American League of Lobbyists, and at the National Safety Council. She was the keynote speaker at the first meeting of the Ecuador chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers. She has spoken on current issues in regulation to academics, government managers and graduate students at several venues in China, including Fudan University, at a graduate university in Milan, Italy, and to Canadian administrators in Ottawa. She spoke on Film and Politics and Women in Politics at the American University of Sharjah and at the Dubai Cinema in the UAE, and then again at the American University of Sharjah on regulation. She is a frequent speaker at educational programs on the US Government in and around Washington, DC. Ms Thurber also has made an audiotape series on Regulation for The Capitol Net. She has taught a training course for OSHA on Evidence Base Thinking and Writing and Research.

She is currently working as a consultant to OSHA on Global Harmonization of Chemical Labels and Safety Data Sheets for Hazardous Chemicals and Walking and Working Surfaces and Fall Protection Systems. Her previous responsibilities included working closely with OSHA management and the Office of the Solicitor of Labor in the development and promulgation of health and safety standards, serving as liaison to the Office of Management and

Budget and other government agencies on regulatory issues. She was project attorney for some of OSHA’s most important and far reaching standards that protect workers from the hazards of Bloodborne Pathogens, petrochemicals Benzene and 1,3 Butadiene, Electric Power Generation, Fire in Shipyards, and other health and safety hazards.

Her recent publication is “The Politics of Regulation in the Obama Administration,” a chapter in Obama in Office, Paradigm Publishers, 2011.

She has also taught Political Science courses at The American University.

Ms. Thurber holds a JD from The Washington College of Law at The American University, an MA in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, and a BA in History from Washington State University.