Heather Kahle M. Sc., CRSP

Heather helps organizations learn from work; both when things go wrong and when things go well - and uses that learning build safer, stronger systems, change conversations, inform decisions, and improve all aspects of the safety management system. She brings a practical systems perspective to investigations, operational learning and safety improvement, helping organizations understand how work really happens and translate those insights into meaningful change.

With more than 30 years of experience, including three decades with WorkSafeBC, Heather has worked across utilities, construction, transportation, marine, manufacturing, mining, forestry and healthcare. Her work brings together incident investigation, Human Factors and System Safety, Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), regulatory knowledge, risk analysis, ergonomics, worker participation and organizational learning. She now leads Ascent Systems Innovation Group and serves as President of the Association of Canadian Ergonomists.

Heather has led and supported complex investigations, conducted Learning Teams, coached and mentored investigators, strengthened investigation methods and developed practical tools and training. She helps organizations move beyond “5S” answers - simple, surface, single, seeable and superficial - to understand the workplace system and conditions that shaped people’s decisions and actions. She is skilled in building investigation capability that leads to meaningful and practical corrective actions, stronger decision-making and learning that lasts.

Whether she’s on a ship deck, construction site, warehouse floor or in a boardroom, Heather brings curiosity, practical experience and a systems lens. She enjoys working alongside frontline workers, technical experts, supervisors and leaders to make sense of complex work, challenge assumptions and turn learning into improvements that make a difference.