Our History

Since 1947, the Safety Council of Southwestern Ohio has been dedicated to promoting safety in schools, workplaces, and the community. As a non-profit organization, we focus on saving lives and preventing injuries through education and partnerships.

The Safety Council of Southwestern Ohio is committed to addressing the leading causes of injury and accidental deaths through data-driven programs. While motor vehicle crashes and falls among the elderly remain top causes of accidental deaths, accidental poisonings have now surpassed motor vehicle accidents in Ohio.

In response, we launched the Coalition for a Healthy Middletown in 2008 to assess drug and alcohol use in the community. Renamed Middletown Connect in 2022, the focus shifted to connecting resources and increasing community engagement.

Our Occupational Safety Program helps reduce workplace injuries by offering monthly safety meetings and training. While we no longer offer driver’s education since 2009, we continue to prioritize traffic safety through adult and juvenile driver improvement courses. In 2020, we added online classes for teen driving and a 4-hour adult abbreviated course.

As a non-profit, we rely on grants and membership support to fund our programs. Although we stopped receiving United Way funding in 2007, we continue offering critical programs like Safety Town and other initiatives focused on traffic, school, and workplace safety.

Meet Our Staff

Kristy Duritsch

Executive Director; Training Manager
kristy@safetycouncilswohio.org

“Life is liking riding a bicycle. To keep balance, you must keep moving.”

Lisa Haines

Accounting/Office
lisa@safetycouncilswohio.org

“A little progress every day adds up to big results.”

Aubrey Woods

Butler County Safe Communities Coordinator
aubrey@safetycouncilswohio.org

“Energy flows where the intention goes.”

DeAnna Shores

Middletown Connect Coordinator
deanna@safetycouncilswohio.org 

“A single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

Charles Hartman

Remedial Driving Instructor

“They say you can’t change 1 person 100%, but if you can change 100 people 1% you’ve really made a difference!”

Angela Erhart

Administrative Staff

angela@safetycouncilswohio.org

“You can look at your glass and see it as half empty, or half full. Which do you want to choose?”

Meet Our Board of Directors

  • Evan Dobrozsi

    President

  • Eric Sotzing

    Vice President

  • Tim Rudd

    Treasurer

  • Ann Brock

  • Logan Cottingim

  • Jason DeDario

  • Karl Gaston

  • Steve Ludwig

  • Holly Showalter

  • Sylvia Zatari

  • Dave Wilson

  • Tom Brickey