About JSI

Rob Matuga is the Executive Director of the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI), responsible for overseeing the planning, implementation, and evaluation of JSI’s programs and services, including evaluating and managing external grants and managing the day-to-day operations of the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. He has over 25 years’ experience as a safety and health professional, which includes developing and delivering safety training programs, performing Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance inspections, developing safety and health program plans, and providing technical expertise on a variety of occupational safety and health issues. Prior to joining JSI, he served at Assistant Vice President of Labor, Safety, and Health at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), where he oversaw the associations’ occupational safety and health policy program, including developing safety education and OSHA compliance materials, providing technical assistance on OSHA regulations, and developing comprehensive strategies to address emerging and existing construction safety and health issues. Matuga is a professional member of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) and has served as the National Capital Chapter of ASSP President, Treasurer, and Director. He is a graduate of West Virginia University where he received an M.S. in Safety and Environmental Management and a B.S in Business Administration. Matuga has been part of the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) since 2014 where he served on the JSI Board of Directors until 2022, when he was named JSI Executive Director.

Bill Schaffner has more than 35 years of leadership, risk management and safety experience in the insurance industry. Most recently, he has held multiple positions at Builders Mutual Insurance Company from 2015 until his retirement in 2023 and was responsible for leading Field Operations and Risk Management and served as Executive Advisor and helping grow the insurance company in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. At Builders Mutual, he led two teams of customer facing technical experts that supported underwriting and policyholders, as well leading the risk management organization made up of safety professionals throughout eight states. He began his insurance career with The Hartford Insurance Group dedicating over 20 years as an underwriter, as well as serving in Executive level positions in Sales/Underwriting, Service Operations and leading the Loss Control team of 220 Technical Professionals including a nationally accredited Industrial Hygiene Laboratory, supporting customers/underwriting in all fifty states. Schaffner is a graduate of the University of Florida with a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Risk Management & Insurance. He was presented the Leadership In Construction Safety Award Safety Professional of the Year by the National Association of Home Builders in 2019. Schaffner has been part of the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) since 2015 when he served as Executive Director leading the nonprofit organization, served on the JSI Board of Directors since 2019, and was named JSI President in 2021.

Keith Goad is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Corporate Secretary for Builders Mutual Insurance where he provides strategic leadership for the financial planning, financial reporting, accounting, treasury, actuarial and investment management functions of the company. Recently, Goad served as CFO for the Central Insurance Companies, a property/casualty insurance company founded in 1876 where he had overall accountability for the company’s financial planning and analysis (FP&A), accounting, treasury, actuarial, data science, and risk management functions, as well as the company’s nearly $2 billion investment portfolio. Goad began the insurance portion of his career with Nationwide Insurance where he worked for 12 years serving as an Associate Vice President in the Office of Corporate Strategy where he was the internal strategy consultant for the business unit within Nationwide that contained nearly half of its 33,000 associates. He was a business unit CFO at Nationwide for a portfolio of businesses that generated over $4 billion in annual revenue. Before Nationwide, he spent 8 years in the energy sector with NiSource, leading the analysis of mergers and acquisitions and began his career at Fifth Third Bancorp, in retail operations, the commercial credit area, and as its Compliance Officer. Goad holds an undergraduate degree and an MBA from the Ohio State University where he was recognized with the prestigious PaceSetter award, is a credentialed as a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA), has taught M&A and strategy courses in the Masters degree program of the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State, and is a past board member for the Risk Institute at Ohio State and the Ohio State Honors & Scholars Program.

Erik Anderson is Vice President of AndersonMoore Kitchen and Bath, the premier kitchen and bath remodeling company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Anderson is responsible for coordinating the design and facilitating remodeling projects as they move from design to production. Outside of AndersonMoore, Erik volunteers for many community service organizations and teaches numerous classes for the North Carolina Home Builders Association (NCHBA), as well as serving as President of the NCHBA in 2012. He served as President of the Home Builders Association of Winston Salem (HBAWS) in 2005, where he was instrumental in creating and implementing a mandatory continuing education requirement for all builder members and was recognized as their 2005 Builder of the Year. Anderson’s company was selected as one of the Big 50 Remodeling companies as well as National Remodeler of the Month, Regional Contractor of the Year, North Carolina Remodeler of the Year, and has been listed in the Top 500 Contractors in America. Anderson has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. He also has the NAHB designations of CGR, CGB, GMB, and CAPS and is a member of the Builders Mutual Insurance Company Board of Directors. Erik has served on the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) Board of Directors since 2015.

Tim Minton is the Executive Vice President of North Carolina Home Builders Association (NCHBA), the largest state home builders association in the country with over 14,000 members, where he is responsible for overseeing all legislative programs and lobbying of the association and developing business partners for sponsorships and political advocacy. Previously, Minton served as the Executive Vice President of the HBA of Raleigh-Wake County where he received numerous awards including National Executive Officer of the Year, the North Carolina Executive Officer of the Year, and the National Rookie Executive Officer of the Year. He also served as the National Home Builder Executive Officer President in 2013. Tim was a founding member and past president of Operation Coming Home, a nonprofit that builds custom homes for injured combat veterans. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolia at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Elon University. Minton serves on the board for NC Free Enterprise, is President of N.C. Home Builders Educational and Charitable Foundation, serves on the Be Pro Be Proud Advisory Council, and has served on the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) Board of Directors since 2018.

Christine M. Branche, Ph.D., has over 40 years’ experience as an internationally recognized senior scientist and federal program director with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Dr. Branche has conducted extensive research and program development in injury prevention including water recreation, fire-related injury prevention, falls among construction workers, motor vehicle-related injury prevention, spinal cord injuries, and sports and recreation. Dr. Branche’s passion for Epidemiology started when she earned her B.A. in biology from the University of Rochester in New York. She later received her M.S.P.H. and Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her career at the CDC began as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer in the Division of Injury Epidemiology and Control. From 1996 to July 2007, she was the Director of the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention (DUIP) in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. After joining NIOSH in 2007, Dr. Branche first served as the delegated federal official for the White House-appointed Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health. From July 2008 through August 2009, she was the Acting Director of NIOSH. She was the Director of NIOSH’s Office of Construction Safety and Health from its inception in December 2009 through her retirement in 2020. Dr. Branche has served on the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) Board of Directors since 2020.

J. Gary Hill is President of J. Gary Hill, LLC, a homebuilder, land development and acquisitions consultant and a REALTOR. Hill has over 52 years of construction experience in design and construction of numerous residential and commercial projects throughout North and South Carolina. He holds a general contractors license with the North Carolina General Contractors Board and a real estate brokers license in North Carolina. Hill is a two-term, past president of the North Carolina Home Builders Association (NCHBA) and has served on and chaired numerous committees of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the Greensboro Housing Authority. He is a Senior Life Director for NAHB and Past Chair of the NAHB Construction, Safety and Health Committee. Hill also served on the Board of Directors for Builders Mutual Insurance Company and was a charter board member of the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI), served as JSI’s Executive Director from April 2019 to September 2022, and has served his second time on the JSI Board of Directors since 2022.

Andrew H. Hilliard is President and owner of Houston, TX based Safety Maker, Inc. a safety business specializing in manufacturing reusable temporary guardrail and stair rail systems. Established in 1994, Safety Maker, Inc. has been serving the construction safety industry for over 30 years in the prevention of falls. Hilliard has been dedicated to the advancement of simple, reliable, and affordable safety protection throughout the construction industry, with the creation and development of the Safety Boot®, VersiShield® and StringerShield® designed to fill the need for easy-to-use, inexpensive methods for building OSHA compliant, uniform guardrail systems. Today, the Safety Boot Guardrail System is the leading guardrail base system in the world with manufacturers in the United States, Canada, and Australia. He attended Southwest Texas State University for B.S. Industrial Technology, Design and Visual Communications. Hilliard has served on the Board of Directors of the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) since 2021.

Buddy Hughes is a Lexington, N.C.-based home builder and developer with more than 45 years of experience in the home building industry. Hughes, a third-generation builder, opened Hughes Construction, a general contracting business specializing in home building and light commercial construction in 1984 and since the 1990s, Hughes has trained hundreds of builders to install poured insulated concrete walls for all types of construction. Today, he continues to serve as a product specialist and consultant to the residential and commercial construction industry for both large and small projects. Hughes has been an active participant in the home builders’ associations leadership structure at the local, state, and national levels. Since 1993, he has been an active member of the Davidson County Home Builders Association, serving as its president in 1998 and named Builder of the Year in 1997 and 1998, as well as serving as president of the North Carolina Home Builders Association in 2005. Hughes currently serves as a life delegate of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Leadership Council, has been a member of the NAHB Board of Directors for more than 20 years and has served on several NAHB committees and councils, including the Executive Committee, the State and Local Government Affairs Committee, the Budget and Finance Committee, the Education Committee, the Building Systems Council and the NAHB Leading Suppliers Council. Hughes currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Builders Mutual Insurance Company and will become chairman of NAHB’s Board of Directors in 2025. Hughes has served on the Board of Directors of the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) since 2015.

Brian Pace is a President of Charlotte, NC based Pace Development Group, Inc. and has over twenty years’ experience in the construction and development industry. After earning his BS in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1992, Pace went on to pursue a career in construction in Washington, DC with Centex Construction as a project engineer. In 1994, he became a NC licensed general contractor and joined the family business Pace Development Group, which develops both commercial and residential projects, and serves individual property owners with construction management and custom home building services. Aside from helping lead the business, he has served tirelessly in a variety of industry leadership capacities, including serving as the President of the Charlotte Home Builders Association (CHBA), 2016 President of the North Carolina Home Builders Association (NCHBA), Chair of the North Carolina Builder Institute, member of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Executive Board, North Carolina state representative to NAHB, and served on NAHB committees including the Land Development and Environmental Issues Committees. Pace was the recipient of the CHBA’s "Distinguished Builder of the Year" award and named one of the Charlotte Business Journal's "40 under 40."  Pace currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Builders Mutual Insurance Company and has served on the Board of Directors of the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) since 2018.

Lonnie Platt is the Director of Risk Management at Builders Mutual Insurance Company. Platt has spent over 20 years working to improve safety for workers in the construction industry and in his current role he is responsible for planning, organizing, managing, and directing all of Builders Mutual’s daily risk management operations, as well as leading the implementation and execution of policies and procedures designed to improve overall loss results. He has also served as Risk Management Regional Manager at Builders Mutual which as responsible for directing daily field operations of Risk Management Consultants, developing, and supporting strategic initiatives and implementing policies and procedures designed to provide stellar customer service to all internal and external stakeholders, and improve overall loss results. Prior to joining Builders Mutual, he worked in risk management and loss control for Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance, Amerisure Insurance, and Federated Insurance where he provided management and oversight of safety and risk services operations, delivered professional loss prevention consulting services to clients to positively impact their loss ratio, conducted hazard assessments and surveys of property and evaluate operations to identify risks & liability exposures. and performed safety surveys to identify risks. Platt holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Spalding University and the designations of Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Associate in Insurance Service (AIS). Platt has served on the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) Board of Directors since 2023.

Tom Trauger has over 25 years of experience in construction safety as a bilingual (English/Spanish) occupational safety and health professional. Currently, Trauger is a Loss Control Specialist at Nationwide Insurance where he completes loss control surveys and provides ongoing consulting service to a portfolio of accounts in construction. Prior to joining Nationwide, he was a project safety manager at Gilbane Building Company, supporting all safety efforts, including ensuring all contractors follow Gilbane and OSHA safety requirements. Trauger also served as Safety Manager for Winchester Homes, where he managed full program development and implementation of safety program for the large home building company, which included implementing comprehensive safety program for employees and contractors including subcontractor safety. He has a B.S. Electrical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, an M.S. in Industrial Hygiene from the University of Southern California, an MBA from the University of Mississippi, and holds the designations of Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), and was named Safety Professional of the Year by the National Association of Home Builders in 2006. Trauger has served on the Board of Directors of the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) since 2016.