All in the Family: How Heath Garrison Transformed Electrical Safety at NREL
Master Electrician and Safety Expert Is Among NREL’s 2024 Distinguished Operations Staff
Most lessons in electrical safety seem like common sense: Use caution when unplugging a cord from an outlet. Do not place electrical cords where someone could trip over them. Do not plug one power strip into another. But, as the saying goes, common sense is not always common.
This is where the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL's) Heath Garrison comes in.
Garrison’s job is to ensure that NREL staff who work with electricity and other potentially hazardous materials do so safely. That is no small task at a national laboratory with more than 3,000 employees, some of whom work on-site at NREL’s three campuses or Washington, D.C., office and some of whom work remotely. However, through efforts like an annual electrical safety training, Garrison has significantly raised the standard of electrical safety across the laboratory—so much so that he was named one of NREL’s 2024 Distinguished Members of Operations Staff.
Electric Roots in the Texas Panhandle
For Garrison, who grew up in Amarillo, Texas, you might say electricity runs in the family. His brother, grandfather, and several uncles were all electricians who earned their certifications through the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union apprenticeships. Yet, while he had relatives who served as professional role models, Garrison had a difficult home life.
“My parents divorced when I was young,” Garrison said. “Afterwards, I moved between my mom and my dad, lived with my grandparents for a bit, and even spent a few years in a state-run children’s home. For a while, it seemed like no family wanted me.”
Despite these challenges, Garrison was determined to make a better life for himself than the one he had grown up with.
“As I grew into my high school years, I was motivated to not end up where I’d been previously,” Garrison said. “And if I decided to start a family, I wanted to make sure they had a better childhood than I did.”
Garrison carried that motivation with him and followed his relatives’ footsteps into an IBEW apprenticeship, graduating at the top of his class. He began his career as an electrician and wired commercial, industrial, and residential buildings for many years. Then, while he was working at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Pantex Plant, an old mentor from his union apprenticeship—now a colleague at Pantex—encouraged him to join the plant’s electrical safety team.
“The electrical trade in Amarillo is a fairly small group,” Garrison explained. “That mentor also knew my whole family, so he and I had remained close. I think he saw that I was sharp and driven, and he recognized that I could do more if I wanted to.”
Time To Up the Voltage
That shift in focus led Garrison to become the Pantex plant’s electrical safety inspector and, eventually, led him to NREL. After a friend who worked on NREL’s Site Operations electrical engineering group encouraged him to apply, Garrison started at NREL as an electrical safety professional in 2013 and stepped into his current role as Environment, Safety, Health, and Quality group manager in 2015. Some of his proudest achievements in that decade-plus are creating an electrical safety training program and establishing a dedicated electrical safety team.
In more than 10 years at NREL, Garrison has transformed NREL’s safety practices and
now leads a top-rated safety team. Photo from Heath Garrison, NREL
“When I started at NREL, there was no electrical safety team,” Garrison said. “Now, we have a staff of seven full-time safety officers, plus assessments that say NREL’s electrical safety program is one of the best in the DOE complex.”
True to his roots, being an NREL employee is a family affair for Garrison. His wife, Lisa, is a business support professional with NREL’s Thermal and Catalytic Process Development and Integrated Carbon Conversion groups. His daughter, Zoe, is a business support professional with the Community Energy Transitions group in NREL’s Accelerated Deployment and Decision Support Center.
“We all work in different centers,” Garrison said, “but Lisa and Zoe look so much alike they often get mistaken for each other.”
Garrison also has a son, Zane, who, though neither an NREL employee nor an electrician, also works in a trade profession.
“He’s a certified welder and doing very well,” Garrison said. “He was studying to be a surgical technician when the pandemic hit. His program shifted to remote learning, which wasn’t for him, so he went to trade school instead.”
Garrison’s wife, Lisa, shown in the first photo, and his daughter, Zoe, shown on the left in the second photo, also work at NREL. Garrison’s son Zane, shown in the middle in the second photo with his wife Kelsey, also pursued a trade career but as a welder. Photos from Heath Garrison, NREL
Reflecting on the career paths Garrison, his son, and so many in their family have taken, Garrison emphasizes the value of trade professions.
“Without people to do welding and electrical work, for example, we don’t have infrastructure,” Garrison said. “Going to college and getting a four-year degree wasn’t my path, but I’ve had a great career. I have a master electrician’s license in multiple states and an international inspector’s certification. I’m an electrical safety instructor and consultant. I serve on expert electrical and fire safety committees. Those achievements helped me get to where I am now.”
In that capacity, Garrison is currently working on a new version of the National Fire Protection Association 70E, which is the workplace electrical safety standard that all workers must follow. Garrison takes great pride in ensuring NREL staff can do their jobs safely.
“NREL is all about renewable energy—it’s right there in our name. The majority of renewable energy is electricity,” Garrison said. “We may not all be electrical workers, but everyone at NREL uses electricity. My team’s job is to make sure NRELians know how to use it safely.”