Our instructors are members of the standards and practices committees for safely automating chemical processes. We are active participants in safety system standards, such as IEC 61511, ISA 18.2, and ISA 84, and application standards, such as API 2350, API 556, NFPA 85, NFPA 86, and NFPA 87. No one had to teach us about these standards. We have chaired, edited, contributed, and peer reviewed more than 30 books, standards and recommended practices for organizations, such as API, ASME, CCPS, IEC, ISA, ISO, and NFPA. We can explain the underlying intent of the requirements in these industry practices, share war stories and shed light on a practical path to compliance.
We have been teaching the course on SIS for the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center for more than 15 years. We developed the first certificate program in the United States on SIS more than 10 years ago, which we called PRISM-certified – Protective Instrumented System Management. Now, we teach a comprehensive set of courses related to process hazards analysis, alarm management, and SIS. Regardless of your role in safe automation, we have a class that can expand your knowledge and skills.
The following are our highly qualified team of trainers.
Angela E. Summers, PhD., P.E.
Dr. Angela Summers has nearly 30 years of experience in instrumentation and controls, process design, and environmental pollution controls. Dr. Summers received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama, Master of Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Clemson University and Bachelor of Science, Chemical Engineering, Mississippi State University. She is a licensed professional engineer in Texas and a TÜV Rheinland Functional Safety Expert.
Known as Dr. SIS, she has published over 60 papers, technical reports and chapters for engineering handbooks, including Perry’s Handbook of Chemical Engineering, Lees’ Loss Prevention in the Process Industry, and the Instrument Engineers Handbook. Her academic contributions have included serving on dissertation committees for students in the US, Norway, and South Africa. She recently completed the editing of the 2nd edition of the CCPS book, “Guidelines for Safe Automation of Chemical Processes,” while leading and participating in other IEC, API, ISO, ISA, and AIChE efforts.
Dr. Summers was named to the Process Automation Hall of Fame by Control magazine. This award honors excellence, diligence and influence in the application of process automation. She was specifically recognized for her work on the ISA 84 and IEC 61511 safety standards.
In 2014, Dr. Summers became the first person in history to receive Fellow distinction from International Society of Automation, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Center for Chemical Process Safety. Dr. Summers received these honors for her contribution to the development of standards and practices for process safety management, especially in the use of automation to prevent loss events in the process industry.
William (Bill) Hearn – Fellow
Bill Hearn is a TÜV Rheinland Functional Safety Expert with more than 30 years of engineering and project management experience focused on instrumentation, process measurement, and safety systems. After service in the US Army, Bill’s career spanned DuPont, Westinghouse and Washington Group while providing project management and instrumentation engineering expertise at the Department of Energy Savannah River facility. His experience ranges from managing major project installations to performing risk assessments and drill down compliance audits. Bill teaches the Layer of Protection Analysis, Safety Integrity Level Verification, and Safety Instrumented System Implementation for the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center of Texas A&M University.
In 2015, Bill received a Standards and Practices Department Award from the International Society for Automation (ISA) recognizing his work developing guidelines for establishing setpoints for Safety Instrumented Functions. He supported the API Task Group on Tank Overfill Prevention in the development of API 2350, Overfill Protection for Storage Tanks in Petroleum Facilities, Fourth Edition and the ISA 18 Instrument Signals and Alarms Committee during development of ANSI/ ISA-18.2-2009 Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries. Bill teaches and consults on layer of protection analysis, safety integrity level verification, safety instrumented system implementation, and establishing setpoints for SIS.
Eloise Roche
Eloise Roche is a Senior SCAI Consultant with expertise in and passion for sustainable process safety lifecycle management, effective assessment of instrumented protection systems, and related curriculum development and delivery. Competencies include PHA and LOPA facilitation, SCAI specification and verification, and functional safety assessment and auditing.
Eloise developed skills in instrumented protection system identification, functional specification, application program implementation, and the development of related automation management systems during her twenty-four years of experience in the chemical industry. Since 2011 she has been sharing these skills with the process industry through her contributions to the Guidelines for Safe Automation of Chemical Processes 2nd Edition book committee, as an active member of multiple ISA-84 working groups, a US expert on the IEC-61511 committee, and as a presenter at industry symposia such as the AIChE Global Congress on Process Safety, the ISA Process Control and Safety Symposia, and the Texas Chemical Council Environmental, Health and Safety Seminar.