2013 Technician of the Year
Amelia “Millie” Jensen works at Winslow Indian Health Care Center/Environmental Health Services/Safety & Injury Prevention, as an Environmental Health Technician/Secretary, where she has been employed for 17 years. Jensen, of Dilkon, AZ, became a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician in 2005 but has been working with child passenger safety and education since 1995. She loves working with families and children of all ages. She believes that our No. 1 priority should be keeping families informed, buckled up and safe in motor vehicles. Through her work, Jensen participated on an Injury Prevention Committee. She was encouraged by her supervisor and co-workers to become a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician. Jensen recalls one snowy morning when her family’s truck slid out of control on black ice, hit a dry spot and the vehicle rolled. No one was hurt, but ever since, this experience serves as an inspiration for Jensen to buckle up and use car seats. Through her work with the Winslow Indian Health Care Center, Jensen participates in programs that provide infant car seats to the local hospital’s maternity ward for newborns. The program provides child passenger safety education for prenatal patients prior to delivery and hosts car seat clinics. Every Thursday is “Car Seat Education Day” at the office. Jensen and others conduct car seat checks and host a distribution program for those that have outgrown or do not have a car seat.
Additional details about and her dedication to child passenger safety can be found in the Technician of the Year press release.
The National Child Passenger Safety Board is pleased to honor Bev Kellner, Program Manager of the Texas A&M Passenger Safety Project, as the 2013 Child Passenger Safety Instructor of the Year. Kellner, of College Station, TX, has been a nationally certified CPS Technician since 1999 and a CPS Technician Instructor since 2002. She has worked with the Passenger Safety Project since 1996, where she discovered her passion for child passenger safety. Since 1999, she has worked with a team checking more than 20,000 seats, and 99% have had some element of misuse. Kellner and her team also offer online transportation safety training for child care providers. Courses have been completed by almost 22,000 child care providers since 2009. Kellner has a background in economics and desktop publishing. She began at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in 1996. First, she worked on the Passenger Safety Project and assisted with the design of its website and resources. In 1999, she had “caught the child passenger safety bug” and became a technician. In 2002, she went on to become an instructor.