Safety in the workplace may not be the kind of thing most people think about, but if you work for a company with more than a handful of employees -- and particularly an industrial or construction company that involves heavy machinery or dangerous chemicals -- safety is paramount to what you do every day and is top of mind of important people in your organization. In fact, it's so important, there are whole categories of employees who do nothing but safety-related stuff and finding them and hiring them has spawned a cottage industry that is proving lucrative for one local entrepreneur.

Safety

John Cambre is president of ResponsAble Safety Staffing, a Baton Rouge Company that provides trained safety staff on a contract, temporary or permanent basis to clients in the oil and gas, construction and general industrial sectors.

The company was founded by John’s father, Darryl Cambre originally as a safety consulting company in 2007. John, then fresh out of college, joined the firm and quickly realized that the greatest need their clients had was to find qualified employees in the safety field so he built out their expertise and changed the company’s brand in 2010.

In the years since, he has grown ResponsAble Safety Solutions into a national company with clients across the country.

Skills

While safety is important in an organization so is performance, especially if you’re talking about a team or competitive organization. But a lot of people get caught up in the pressure of performing, or may not be maximizing their potential, which is where Aaron Pearson came in.

Aaron is the owner of iDeveloped Skills Academy, a training program that that works with athletes to help them identify areas where they can improve and develop their skills and potential. Aaron founded the company in 2010 and has since developed several spinoff ventures -- Elite by ECW, an athletic clothing brand that makes custom-jerseys for local sports teams; and, EazyTicks, a digital ticketing and operating platform for area schools.

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reached alarming levels of spread - more than our health care system was able to handle - so public health officials ordered state and local governments to shut things down. Aand our lives were forever changed.

It's strange now to think back on those weeks; how we adapted and coped, and what we learned about ourselves, our businesses and institutions and our communities. It was difficult and stressful, tragic for many, exciting for others, and creative entrepreneur’s took advantage of the opportunity to rethink the way we do things and find new ways of bringing people together and creating community

Jenn Ocken, a Baton Rouge photographer, business consultant, podcast host and writer, made a name for herself in a big way during the pandemic with her Front Porch Photos—portraits she took of families and couples and people with their pets on their front porches at a time when we were all living on our porches and in our yards.

The Front Porch Photos, shared widely on social media, helped unite the community and reminded us that we were all sharing the moment together.

Outside of photography, Jenn’s career has been thriving with workshops and consulting that helps clients live a more empowered, fulfilled, harmonious life. Her latest tool is called ThrivFOCUS- - an innovative journal that integrates goal setting, self reflection and organization.

Sherin Dawud co-founded and co-owns the Nura Company, a local firm that specializes in consulting, marketing and event-planning with a focus on helping nonprofits and mission-driven clients in healthcare, education, advocacy and entertainment that want to make the community a better place to live, work and play.

Sherin co-founded and co-owns the firm with Raina Vallot. Like Jenn, Raina and Sherin were inspired by the events of the pandemic to create the firm. Companies were looking for new ways to connect with people. They saw it as an opportunity to reimagine impact through marketing. In the years since, they have worked with such clients as the Baton Rouge Youth Voice Initiative, the Baton Rouge Alliance for students, the National Fried Chicken Festival, which is held in New Orleans each fall, and Peace Over Everything.

Sherin originally teamed up with Raina to co-found Power Pump Girls in 2017, a social impact club whose mission is to empower women to connect and serve.

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Much as we love to tout our fun loving lifestyle in south Louisiana, we have some of the worst health outcomes in the country – including the highest rates of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and infant mortality.

On this edition of Out to Lunch, Jim Engster sits in for Stephanie and is joined by two lunch guests who both head up institutions in Baton Rouge’s growing Health District. Beyond providing reactive medical care to these already existing health issues, John Kirwan, Rene Ragas and their respective institutions are focused on what causes these diseases in the first place and how to proactively keep our population healthier long term.

John Kirwan is Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center here in Baton Rouge, which is renowned the world over for its focus on diabetes and obesity.

John himself is internationally renowned as an expert in diabetes and nutrition science with more than 30 years of research and teaching and a specialty in type 2 diabetes and how to potenitally cure it.

John came to the center in 2018 from the famed Cleveland Clinic, and in the years since has generated more than $50M in research funding and spearheaded the opening of Pennington’s obesity treatment center.

John was a guest on Out to Lunch back in the pandemic era, when we were meeting on zoom. A lot has happened since then and it is great to see John in person.

Rene Ragas is President and CEO of Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, the largest birthing hospital in the state. Since opening in 1968, Woman’s has delivered nearly 400,000 babies and is reocngized for its Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit, expertise in mammography and breast and cancer care.

What’s perhaps less well known is the hospital’s research capabilities, especially in cervical cancer, where Woman’s has been a pioneer since the implementation of pap screening test used to detect this type of cancer.

Rene joined the hospital in 2022. He has more than two decades of experience as a healthcare executive, most recently as north shore market president for the FMOL health system.

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. During the recording of this show the power went out in parts of Baton Rouge but the medics and Jim soldiered on! You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.