We want to welcome Anna Richter to the SafeCare BC team as the Occupational Health and Safety Consultant. Over the last 20 years, Anna has worked in both provincially and federally regulated industries in a safety capacity and has also been teaching health and safety courses at BCIT.

Q: What interested you about working at SafeCare?

I have always had a strong desire to help and be of service to others—particularly in health and safety.  SafeCare BC’s mandate to ensure safe, injury-free and healthy working conditions in the continuing care sector aligns with my own beliefs that every worker has the right to go home safe and healthy at the end of their workday.

Q: What excites you about your role?

Being a part of a dynamic team who all want to make a difference. I am excited to learn about the challenges facing those in the continuing care sector and work towards solutions to improve health and safety with a like-minded team of individuals.

Q: What was your first or most unusual job?

I was a newspaper carrier when I was 12.  Every day after school I’d load up my bike with about 40 papers and deliver them in my neighbourhood.  At the end of every month, I’d have to go to each house to collect money owed for the papers that month. It was a great way to learn about money management and how great customer service earned some good tips (it paid to invest in plastic bags to wrap the papers, so they wouldn’t get wet!).

Q: Who would you be for a day if given a chance?

I don’t think I’d want to be anyone else, but I’d love to meet Jacinda Ardern (the Prime Minister of New Zealand). I see her as a dynamic and charismatic leader who has shown compassion and united a country in some of its darkest moments. She appears to be equally comfortable on the world stage as she would be at a backyard barbeque.

Q: What do you like doing in your spare time when not at work?

I love being outdoors. I feel so fortunate to call the Lower Mainland home and can access hiking trails, lakes and beaches. I also enjoy gardening, cooking and photography.

Q: What book are you currently reading?

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek.

Q: What did you want to be growing up?

Too many things to list them all!  I really did think that I would be a marine biologist at one point, and I have always thought being a food critic would be an interesting job.

Q: What is one thing we don’t know about you?

I was born in New Zealand, and it is one of my favourite places.  If I could manage it, I would live six months of the year in Canada and the other six months in New Zealand.