Murphy earned a B.S. in Safety Engineering Technology from Fairmont State and an M.S. in Occupational Health and Safety Engineering from West Virginia University. She joined the faculty at FS in August of 1991. She has taught Safety and Environmental classes focusing on Industrial Hygiene, Fire Prevention, Ergonomics, Compliance and Construction Safety. She has served as the program coordinator since 2000.
In each class, I try to incorporate real-world applications and exposures. Field trips are popular and enhance the theoretical concepts covered in the courses. Certain activities are common in the curriculum. When I teach the Fire Prevention course, I either arrange fire fighting training or a mine fire safety tour for the students. When I teach Industrial Hygiene, the class tours NIOSH. When I teach Compliance, the class visits power generating facilities to observe the lockout/tagout practices of the facility. These activities enable students to see what they are learning.
