Dr. Welch is Medical Director for the Center for Construction Research and Training, a research and development institute affiliated with the Building and Construction Trades of the AFL-CIO, and professorial lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at George Washington University. She previously held full time faculty positions at the Albert Einstein, Yale and George Washington University Schools of Medicine.
She is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications, abstracts and technical reports and has served as a consultant to many federal agencies, including OSHA, NIOSH, CDC and the NIH as well as serving in leadership roles for APHA and AOEC. She has worked with several union-management committees on health and safety issues, including United Auto Workers-Boeing, the American Association of Railroads-United Transportation Union and SMOHIT, the labor-management trust of the sheet metal industry. She frequently provides occupational medicine expertise to the AFL-CIO.
As CPWR’s Medical Director she manages two nationwide medical screening programs for construction workers and coordinates research portfolios on research to practice and on ergonomics. She helped create a return on investment calculator as part of the CPWR Solutions database, which showcases the financial benefits of using safer work practices, equipment and materials. She directs a research project evaluating the effectiveness of participatory ergonomics in the construction industry, and another analyzing the causes of early retirement among construction workers.
