About

Ponderosa Safety and Risk, LLC provides technical risk and safety consulting grounded in more than a decade of experience supporting high-hazard operations across complex research, industrial, and emergency management environments. The firm is led by Andrew Cullen, MPH, CSP, a safety and emergency planning professional with extensive experience in chemical safety, risk management, industrial hygiene, emergency planning, all-hazards emergency response, and accident investigation.

Andrew has served in senior safety and emergency management roles within large, technically complex organizations, where his work has consistently focused on leading safety and emergency planning initiatives, driving programmatic improvement, and managing change across multidisciplinary teams. His experience includes advancing chemical safety and risk management programs, strengthening all-hazards emergency preparedness, and integrating safety management systems into research and operational activities spanning bioenergy, hydrogen, energy storage, material science, and other high-consequence domains. Across these efforts, he has worked closely with researchers, engineers, operations staff, industrial hygienists, fire protection engineers, emergency responders, and organizational leadership to align technical requirements, operational constraints, and institutional priorities.

A core element of Andrew’s experience includes leading and supporting integrated, all-hazards risk identification, assessment, and planning efforts across complex operational environments. This work has involved systematic identification and characterization of natural, technological, and human-caused hazards; stakeholder engagement across technical, operational, and leadership levels; and synthesis of hazard, exposure, and consequence information to support hazard analysis, industrial hygiene evaluations, emergency planning, incident investigation, and risk management priorities. These efforts directly support activities such as hazard mitigation analyses, hazard mitigation plans, emergency planning hazard assessments, fire protection and preparedness planning, and other risk-informed decision-making processes used by federal, state, and local agencies.

In addition to work in large institutional environments, Andrew has supported non-governmental and local clients through projects focused on hazard mitigation analyses, community risk assessments, emergency response planning, and preparedness for emerging technologies such as energy storage systems. His consulting approach emphasizes clear problem definition, abstraction of complex technical issues, stakeholder engagement, and practical implementation, ensuring that technical analyses translate into actionable improvements and sustained organizational change.

Andrew holds a Master of Public Health and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed the Emergence program at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Security and Defense. He maintains professional certifications including Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM), and serves as a volunteer Firefighter/EMT in Colorado, bringing an operational emergency response perspective that strengthens planning, preparedness, risk assessment, and accident investigation efforts.