Tori Hudson’s interest in science and her passion for helping people led her to a career in industrial hygiene at the FAA. She and her team ensure that the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center (MMAC) provides a safe and healthy workplace for all 6,300 federal and contract employees at the Center. As a graduate student, Hudson got her first professional experience in industrial hygiene as an intern at the MMAC. Years later, she serves as a program manager and supervises others.
"It was so great to return to the FAA and even reconnect with some of the people who were working there while I was an intern," Hudson reflected. An Oklahoma native, Hudson was working toward her master’s degree in industrial hygiene during her internship. Hudson’s first full-time job as an industrial hygienist was for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. She went on to work for the Veterans Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Tinker Air Force Base before returning to the FAA and MMAC. She has 27 years of federal service.
Hudson and her team survey about 35 FAA shops that employ painters, mechanics, technicians, engineers, and other aviation professionals. These environments can present various health hazards to workers.
The team conducts air sampling and personal exposure monitoring as a way of measuring a worker’s exposure to a containment or hazard. Then, the team coordinates a scientific analysis with an external lab and works with the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute and the shop management to correct any hazards.
"We are trying to protect employees from health hazards now, so they are free from occupational illnesses later in life," Hudson explained. "Many workers here at MMAC have been very receptive and thankful for our work."
After high school, Hudson moved from Oklahoma to Atlanta to attend Clark Atlanta University. She had extended family living there. Clark Atlanta is a historically Black college/university near Morehouse College, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. studied. Hudson majored in biology and minored in chemistry in her undergrad program. She focused on the distribution of diseases, hoping to become an epidemiologist. She also absorbed the deep history of the birthplace of the civil rights movement. Her cousin worked nearby at The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, (the King Center for short). He recruited Hudson to volunteer at the center and help prepare for King Week, during which the first Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday was observed on Jan. 20, 1986.
Hudson was among other students — many from Clark Atlanta, Morehouse, Morris Brown, and Spelman colleges — who helped raise awareness in the local community on how the holiday would be celebrated in a way worthy of Dr. King’s legacy. At the time, Hudson felt like her role was small, but she soon realized that her community service was quite influential. "It was amazing to be a part of that, and I didn’t realize the impact of our work at first."
"I saw it all come to life a couple of years later, in 1986," she said. "That day, everything stopped. There were parades and community service events. It was all happening, and it was really rewarding to see that."
Hudson’s years at Clark Atlanta were rich and formative. She returned home to Oklahoma and wanted to continue to pursue a career in health science but soon discovered that – unlike Atlanta, where the CDC is based – jobs in epidemiology were not plentiful, so she decided to refocus. Hudson launched her graduate studies and career in industrial hygiene and environmental management at the University of Oklahoma, and her work has earned many accolades.
Hudson was a member of two Designated Agency Safety and Health Official (DASHO) teams that won awards in 2022. Her industrial hygiene team won an award for improving soldering procedures at the Logistics Center, and the Hazard Communication Subcommittee on which she served improved the FAA Hazard Communication Program. Last year, her team also won a DASHO award for collaborative projects that make MMAC hangars safer workplaces.
Her work protects employees who maintain FAA aircraft; repair flight communications and navigation equipment – both onsite and in the field – and perform other work critical to keeping the national airspace system operating safely and efficiently. The team’s careful scientific approach helps protect these workers from harmful chemicals, damaging noise, radiation, and other factors that could lead to short- and long-term health problems.
In this role, Hudson is doing what she loves most – directly bettering the lives of others right at the MMAC.
"The MMAC is a great place to work," Hudson said. "It’s really a hidden treasure where people are doing amazing things behind the scenes to support our aviation system – and the United States."
