My name is Ashley Benes and I am the Director of Safety and Training at Metalworks Inc in Lincoln, NE. We are a metal manufacturing company that employees 150 people. I have been with the company for just over a year although this is my third round of employment with Metalworks. I started running a press brake when I was 16 years old and did that for 2 years. I then became a CNA and worked in healthcare graduating as a Registered Nurse in 2009. I worked in a variety of healthcare settings until being pulled back to Metalworks in 2012 when I came back as the Scheduling and Purchasing Coordinator. After 5 years, my heart pulled me back into the healthcare field where I worked my way up the leadership chain until I achieved my personal goal of working as a Corporate Healthcare Specialist for a company in Omaha.

After being fulling engulfed in the Covid world and working with short staffing challenges, Metalworks again had an opportunity for me to come back which I accepted. I began working as the Director of Safety and Training having very limited knowledge of what a functioning safety program should look like. I relied upon the OSHA Quick Start Program for initial guidance on first steps to take, data collection for the past 3 years and maintaining a partnership with the Nebraska Safety Council to help me build a strong safety culture which I continue to improve on every day.

This has been a perfect fit as it has allowed me to utilize my healthcare background in managing workman’s compensation claims, teaching First Aid/CPR/AED courses, and share personal experiences and stories when training our workforce of all that can go wrong and the risks associated in the workplace.

I am a married mother of 3 children. We live on an acreage outside of Lincoln where we spend our time camping, fishing and attending kids sporting events. I also love cooking for my family and feeding the Metalworks employees with my favorite recipes whenever the opportunity presents itself.