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 Davitt McAteer Interim President Wheeling Jesuit University Davitt McAteer, a native of West Virginia, 1966 graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University, and a 1970 graduate of the West Virginia University College of Law, has devoted much of his professional efforts to mine health and safety issues. He worked with consumer and environmental advocate Ralph Nader on efforts to enact the landmark 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Acts. During the 1970s, Davitt led the safety and health programs of the United Mine Workers and founded the Occupational Safety and Health Law Center. In 1984, he visited South Africa at the request of the National Union of Mine Workers to study health and safety issues, and during the Clinton administration served as Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health at the United States Department of Labor. He also served nearly two years as the Acting Solicitor for the Department of Labor, the second largest law firm in the federal government at that time. Shortly after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, he was called on to act as an advisor to the recovery efforts at Ground Zero, consulting with the International Union of Operating Engineers - the heavy equipment operators and building engineers, as well as the New York City Subway Workers Union - Transport Workers Union Local 100. Today, he is currently serving as Interim President of Wheeling Jesuit University and also serves as Vice President of Sponsored Programs, leads several national centers that impact economic development, education, and mine safety, including the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center and the Erma Ora Byrd Center for Educational Technologies, which houses the NASA Sponsored Classroom of the Future. Davitt is director of the University's Coal Impoundment Project, which identifies and develops methods of stabilizing or removing coal impoundments throughout Appalachia, and is a consultant to the University's Clifford M. Lewis, S.J., Appalachian Institute. In January of 2006, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin asked Mr. McAteer to serve as personal advisor and conduct an independent investigation into the cause or causes of the Sago Mine Disaster and the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine Fire, both of which occurred in January, 2006. Mr. McAteer and his team produced two reports in July and November including recommendations to improve mine safety in West Virginia and across the nation. He is admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court, in the State of West Virginia, the District of Columbia, the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. In December, 2007, West Virginia University Press published Monongah: The Tragic Story of the 1907 Monongah Mine Disaster, The Worst Industrial Accident in U.S. History, authored by Mr. McAteer. Monongah is the history of the largest mine disaster in United States history and tells the story of the immigrants who, in 1900, came to this country to work in the mines and their struggle for a better life. Monongah was awarded the 2008 Bronze Prize for history in the Independent Publishers Book Awards. Mr. McAteer is the recipient of 2008 David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health, bestowed upon him by the American Public Health Association. |
