BOC Pegs Safko as Its New President

Gregory M. Safko Gregory M. Safko, a former government official in Maryland, was introduced as president of The Board for Orthotist/Prosthetist Certification (BOC). He will oversee daily operations of the national. Safko was hired after a nearly year-long search for an executive to succeed Don Fedder, who had served as BOC's executive director for some 20 years until his retirement in 2006, according to a BOC press release.

Before joining the BOC, Safko served as deputy secretary of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR), where he was responsible for the administration of all licensing and related regulatory and enforcement activity for the state, reporting directly to the DLLR secretary and the governor. Safko was commissioner of the DLLR's Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, where he held regulatory authority over more than 220,000 individuals and businesses in 23 professions and occupations.

Safko also has 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector, serving with the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association, first as member-services manager, then education manager, education director, and finally in an executive capacity as senior director for member resources. Notably, Safko led the association's research, development, and introduction of a nationally recognized certification program for sales professionals in this highly technical industry. Safko began his career as a program director and public relations executive for the Somerset County Regional Library System in New Jersey, where he created a series of public outreach initiatives that engaged thousands of individuals in library programs throughout the metropolitan New York City region.

After receiving a bachelor's degree in communication arts from James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, Safko earned a master's degree in association management within the public administration department at George Washington University, Washington DC. Safko also holds the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation awarded by the American Society of Association Executives, a title held by fewer than 25 percent of its national membership.

"Organizations must be dynamic and receptive to change if they expect to survive, grow, and succeed," Safko said in accepting the BOC job. "BOC's Board of Directors has already acknowledged the importance of being positioned to respond to the public's need for more practitioners. I've learned that organizations need 'guide posts' rather than 'hitching posts' if they intend to advance the communities they serve."

As deputy secretary of DLLR, Safko led an intensive legislative and executive branch initiative to migrate licensing programs from "general" funding to establish continuous, non-lapsing "special" funds supported entirely by license origination, renewal, and ancillary fees of regulated professions and occupations. The special funding initiative required lobbying among the respective agency boards and commissions, the professional associations, internal staff, and the Maryland legislature. The initiative was enacted despite budgetary pressures, and Safko then focused on the human relations aspects that would lead to success: adding staffand training programs to handle licensing, continuing education, complaints from the public about licensees, panels and services reviewers, and communications efforts to promote licensing safeguards for the public and services to licensees, according to the BOC press release.

"BOC is very pleased to have engaged Greg's services on behalf of our certificants," said BOC Chairwoman Teresa Alpert Leibman, BOCO, C.Ped., CO, in announcing Safko's appointment. "His nearly 19 years of experience in both the public and the private sectors makes him uniquely qualified to step into a field where increased patient needs call for increased numbers of qualified providers."

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BOC Pegs Safko as Its New President

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Related posts:

Extremity Games Countdown Is On

First Dive Makes Splash in Buffalo

First Dive Makes Splash in Buffalo

O&P JOBS

Certified Prosthetist/Orthotist (CPO)

Now Hiring: Certified Prosthetist Orthotist (CPO)

ABC Certified Orthotic Fitter / Orthotic Assistant

Get unlimited access!

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