Bill Cavness
Director
Bill Cavness has been Director of The Asbestos Institute since its founding in 1988. In that position, he has developed course material and coordinated courses issuing over 100,000 certificates, mainly for U.S. EPA accreditation and OSHA compliance. Bill is former national chairman of Environmental Information Association’s Asbestos Operation and Maintenance Committee and the Lead Committee, currently chairing the national asbestos committee, a founding Director of the Arizona Chapter of EIA, past president of the Arizona Chapter of EIA, past national Board of Directors member of EIA and past national Vice President of The Environmental Information Association. Bill also serves on National Institute of Building Sciences asbestos and lead committees, and is a member of ASTM. He has participated as speaker in numerous national conferences and has authored a number of published articles, papers and guidance documents dealing with asbestos in buildings. Bill currently serves on the Advisory Committee to the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Arizona OSHA).
Dale Becker
Vice President
Dale J. Becker is the Vice President of The Asbestos Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Dale has been with The Institute since early 1989. He has developed and presented many training programs on different safety (OSHA) and environmental (EPA) issues such as Asbestos, Lead Paint, Hazardous Materials and general safety and health. Dale is a past national EIA Board of Director’s member, past chairman of national EIA’s Operations and Maintenance Committee and Past President of the Arizona Chapter. Dale has a post-secondary education teaching certificate from Wayne State Teachers College. He was a technical college instructor for over 6 years, and the safety committee chairman of the 1,500 student campus. He has held commercial licenses in both electrical and mechanical contracting for many years.
Chris Gates
Associate Director
Chris Gates is a primary instructor with The Asbestos Institute responsible for providing both initial and refresher training in the disciplines of AHERA Asbestos Building Inspector, AHERA Management Planner and AHERA Contractor Supervisor. Chris formerly served as the Asbestos NESHAP Coordinator for the Maricopa County Air Quality Department which is the largest NESHAP jurisdiction in the State of Arizona. While at Maricopa County, Chris conducted and oversaw numerous compliance inspections of NESHAP facilities. Most recently Chris was an Environmental Quality Specialist for the City of Phoenix’s Engineering and Architectural Services Department and was responsible for the City’s asbestos, lead based paint and demolition contracts. Chris managed hundreds of asbestos and lead based paint projects ensuring that the City was in compliance with all Federal and local regulations as well as City specifications. Chris is on the Executive Board of the Arizona Chapter of the Environmental Information Association and is a past president. Chris graduated from Northern Arizona University with a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Science.
Erica Palomino
Office Manager
Erica Palomino is the Office Manager of The Asbestos Institute, Inc. and has been working with the business for two years. Erica takes care of all your general questions regarding class schedule, dates, costs, invoices and scheduling classes. Erica graduated from Northern Arizona University with a Bachelors Degree in Construction Management. She was born and raised in Yuma, AZ and moved to the Phoenix area in 2009. She speaks, reads, and writes English and Spanish fluently. During her free time she enjoys taking long bike rides with her husband and going to the park with her two children.
John Cavness
Instructor
John has owned and operated both general construction companies and asbestos abatement companies for many years. He has about 50 years experience in general construction, and about 20 years in asbestos abatement. He is responsible for refining much of the state-of-the-art procedure we know today in the abatement industry, both asbestos and lead. John’s specialty as a trainer is Contract Specifications for the Contractor/Supervisor training and Building Systems for the Building Inspector classes. His lectures are a highlight in both of those EPA accredited training classes. John has also served as National President of The Environmental Information Association (EIA), and as President of the Arizona Chapter of EIA.
John Butler
Instructor
John R. Butler, CIH, CSP, is a Senior Industrial Hygienist with Central Arizona Project. He has worked in the safety and health field since the mid-1960’s as a U.S. Navy Corpsman, Licensed Vocational Nurse, and as an Industrial Hygienist (IH) with the Trident Submarine Base, Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH), State of Arizona Risk Management, Salt River Project, Ahearn & Associates, Western Technologies, and SA&B Environmental Consultants. John collected his first bulk sample of asbestos in 1978 and has been active in asbestos inspection and abatement activities ever since. He has taught IH classes at Gateway Community College. Within industrial hygiene, John specializes in noise assessments and development of air sampling strategies to document the presence or absence of air contaminants. John serves on the Advisory Board of the AZ Chapter of the American Indoor Air Quality Council. He is past Director of tht Chapter and was Editor of the newsletter for the AZ Chapter of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) for 14 years. In his free time John likes backpacking with the Boy Scouts, having served as an adult leader since 1983. He is the proud father of an Eagle Scout and is Vice President of the Arizona Scouting Museum. John has 2 children and 7 grandchildren.
G. Alfonso Ochoa
English-Spanish Instructor
G. Alfonso Ochoa has worked in the environmental industry for more than 28 years. Alfonso has been providing instruction for The Asbestos Institute since 1991 and is responsible for English and all Spanish initial and refresher courses for AHERA Asbestos Worker, O&M, OSHA Asbestos and Lead Awareness. Alfonso currently works for Latigo and Associates as a Real Estate Tax and Environmental Consultant, dealing with real estate and vacant land, residential housing and apartment complexes, demolition of unsafe structures, review of appraisals and Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments. Alfonso has also worked for the Maricopa County Assessors Office as an appraiser and litigation appraiser for 18 years, 13 of which was dedicated to property values cases that were affected by hazardous materials such as asbestos, lead, mold and underground storage tanks. In this capacity, he has assisted other counties on environmental issues, assisted the Arizona Department of Revenue with their draft of guidelines on contaminated properties, he is qualified as an expert witness for administrative hearings before the County Board of Equalization, the Arizona State Board of Tax Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court. Additionally, Alfonso has served as an Assessor Liaison for the Hispanic media, Telemundo, Prensa Hispania, Monitor Hispano and KASA Radio. Alfonso is a graduate of Nogales High School (class of 1976), Glendale Community College with AAS degree in Construction Technology (1989), Phoenix Community College with and AAS degree in Architectural Drafting Technology (1989) and Arizona Auto/Drafting Institute with a diploma in Architectural Drafting and Design (1978). Alfonso is an active member of professional and community organizations such as The Arizona chapter of the Environmental Information Association, Red Cross South Arizona Chapter, Community Emergency Response Team, Santa Cruz County Volunteer Reserve Corps, Rio Rico Rotary and Nogales Elk’s Lodge #1397, as Exhaulted Ruler.
J Cavness
Instructor
J has worked in and around the asbestos control industry in the Southwest for about 15 years, with a 4 year period in the U.S. Army during that time, serving in South Korea and various other bases. He has also worked as a construction superintendent for Logos Builders, a general construction company, and as a Supervisor / Worker for Vac Services, an asbestos abatement contractor during much of the period from 1992 until the present. He has been EPA AHERA certified as Contractor/Supervisor, Building Inspector, Management Planner and Project Designer since 1992. He also has 2 years of experience as an outside sales representative for Abatix, a major supplier to the abatement industry. With this extensive experience, J conducts training for AHERA Worker and OSHA Class 3 and 4 classes, as well as assisting in other asbestos training classes.
Corey Rowley
Instructor
Corey Rowley has worked in the environmental industry for 23 years with emphasis on environmental assessments, asbestos inspection, asbestos project management, and industrial hygiene sampling. His career started as an industrial hygiene technician in the United States Air Force and then transitioned into environmental and asbestos consulting in the private sector where he performed these services for the next 16 years with various Arizona based environmental consulting firms. Corey worked for 2 years as an environmental quality specialist for the City of Phoenix overseeing contracts and asbestos and lead based paint projects for the City of Phoenix airports including Sky Harbor International Airport. He currently is working as an estimator for Native Environmental, LLC a Phoenix based asbestos, microbial and lead abatement company.