Obituary
Leslie (Les) Anne Nickels, MEd., PhD, 64, peacefully passed away on Nov 27, 2017, in her Evanston IL home embraced by her loving family, following a nine-year illness with breast cancer.
Born in Tomah WI, raised in Evanston, IL, she also lived in New England and Chicago IL, before settling back in Evanston in 2003. Leslie traveled extensively for work and with family and friends to over 40 countries around the world.
During her forty-year work career Leslie has been an activist, organizer, educator, mentor, historian, and researcher in a range of occupational and environmental activities that supported social justice and worker rights, especially touching the lives of disenfranchised groups of workers throughout the world. Her involvement has spanned the local (Chicago Department of Public Health), state (University of Illinois School of Public Health), national (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), and international levels (World Health Organization).
Although Leslie began her career as an audiologist, following her BS from Boston University, and Masters of Education in Audiology from Northeastern University, she soon found her way to public health studying industrial hygiene at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) through the Illinois Education and Research Center (ERC).
The seeds of her career were sown in the early 1970’s when she saw a film about the building of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. She was horrified when the film's narrator indicated the project's budget anticipated nine workers would die during building. Although none did, the expectation of worker deaths associated with a monument construction was inconceivable to her and pivotal to her career path.
Throughout her graduate studies, first in industrial hygiene training at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, and then a PhD in Curricular Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Leslie was exposed to the vital role of government in worker protection, the need to empower workers, and the essentials of working with the practice community.
She first became Director of the Safety Inspection and Education Northern Illinois Division at the Illinois Department of Labor, and then Program Director for Occupational and Environmental Health at the City of Chicago. Returning to UIC, after working at the
University of Illinois, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, Chicago, IL, she became a clinical assistant professor and the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, which included the Illinois Education and Research Center. She also served as Program Director for hazardous waste, agriculture, continuing education and outreach.
Leslie joined the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Office of Communications in 2010, and in 2014, she became Director of the Office to Research to Practice. She also served as co-manager of the Global Collaborations Program, supporting NIOSH’s work with the World Health Organization (WHO), and served as chair of the International Commission of Occupational Health Scientific Committee on the History of Prevention of Occupational and Environmental Diseases.
In her work with WHO, Leslie was the heart of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Occupational Health. She applied her love and enthusiasm for making connections, encouraging innovations, and participatory learning to both protect and promote the health of working people and for the primary prevention of occupational diseases and injuries. She coordinated WHO work with the collaborating centres on strengthening health systems for workers' health, and was working on developing training materials on occupational health for primary care providers.
Leslie was also an active member of the American Public Health Association, serving on its governing council and as the Occupational Health Section Secretary.
Her career highlights include:
- As an educator, responsible for training programs for thousands of workers with the philosophy that communication and engagement reduces injuries and illnesses to workers; hundreds of health care professionals, industrial hygienists, and occupational safety and health professionals; and with students by advancing teaching methods that engage students in understanding how their personal experiences are ultimately connected to workplace conditions.
- As a community-based participatory researcher who believes in strong community partnerships, she has worked with underserved populations (e.g., agricultural workers, artists, day laborers, home care workers), and the organizations that employ or represent at risk workers (unions and workers' centers) with a focus on translational research, action research, the lived experience as curriculum, community and workplace health asset and gap assessments, and program evaluation;
- As a project implementer and manager, her practice-based capacity building has spanned her local work at HMPRG (work history project, QDY Equity Project) and CACOSH to worldwide in countries such as South Africa, India, Turkey, Ukraine (which includes the establishment of the GeoLibrary -- a free Global Electronic Library of Education, Training and Technical Materials in Occupational and Environmental Health in six languages).
Leslie received numerous awards for her work, including the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Worker Safety, Health, and Justice, and the National Institute on Occupational Safety & Health Alice Hamilton award.
As an active volunteer, Leslie dedicated her time to Chicago Area Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (CACOSH) projects, the Board and programs of the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, the Board of the Chicago Area Women’s History Council Board, and being elected to the Alexander Bell Elementary School Local School Council.
In addition, Leslie was a political advocate, including marching in multiple city, state, and national demonstrations and rallies, being a poll watcher and election judge, and supporting progressive candidates.
Lastly, Leslie was an avid crafter, most recently focusing on knitting and basketmaking, and especially enjoying classes at the fiber arts center, Sievers, near her summer cottage on Washington Island, Door County, WI. Leslie greater enjoyed and was enriched by participation in two book groups, including an on-going women’s book group for the past 30+ years.
A memorial service to remember and celebrate Leslie’s life will be conducted on Sunday, January 7, 2018 from 2-5 p.m. at a location in Chicago that is still to be identified.
Donations in lieu of flowers in Leslie’s memory may be made to the Latino Union of Chicago (www.latinounion.org, 312-491-9044, 4811 N. Central Park Ave 60625), or the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group (www.hmprg.org, , 312-372-4292, 29 E. Madison St, Chicago IL 60602).
Leslie is survived by her beloved husband, Lon, devoted daughters, Emily Berkeley (Brian Mahoney) and Elizabeth Berkeley (fiancé Stan Swat), adoring brother, Doug Nickels (Judy), loving mother, Barbara (the late Ray) Nickels, caring sister-in-law, Jill Berkeley (Larry), and dear brother-in-law, Eliezer Ben Baruch (Raphaella). She is also cherished not only by her six nieces and nephews, and numerous cousins throughout the US and United Kingdom, but by warriors for worker health, safety, and justice across the globe.
Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals. www.chicagojewishfunerals.com