Introduction

ILPI's business focuses on three main areas. You can read more about each on our home page or through the menubar at the top of this page. Be sure to visit our retail site, Safety Emporium.

Our Corporate Officers

Dr. Robert Toreki, President

Robert Toreki graduated magna cum laude in chemistry with distinction in all subjects from Cornell University. He then earned his Ph.D. degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he developed new olefin metathesis catalysts (among other notable breakthroughs) while working with Dr. Richard R. Schrock, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. After receiving a highly competitive and prestigious National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, he then went to Northwestern University where he studied superconductivity as part of an interdisciplinary team that included collaborators at Argonne National Laboratory. In 1993, he went to the University of Kentucky as an assistant professor of chemistry.

At UK, Dr. Toreki was a campus leader in the development of web-based teaching and learning. He served on the University's Web Policy Committee and Academic Computing Subcommittees, designed and set up the Chemistry Department web site in 1994, and was a campus pioneer in web-based quizzing. His teaching repertoire includes electronic homework, virtual reality tours of student laboratories, and hypertextual supplementary course materials. His laboratory research interests are broadly defined in the areas of Inorganic, Organometallic, and Materials chemistries.

Dr. Toreki left UK in June 2000 to work full-time at ILPI and launch our retail division, Safety Emporium. He continues to participate in professional meetings and societies concerned with pedagogy, computers in chemistry, and safety. He is an active member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and its Division of Chemical Health and Safety. He was Secretary of the South Jersey Local Section of the ACS in 2011, Program Chair for 2012, and Chair for 2013. In his spare time he volunteers at Gloucester County Habitat for Humanity, serving on the Construction Committee and as Volunteer Coordinator.

Paul J. Restivo, Vice-President

Mr. Restivo is also Director of the Center for Environmental Health and Safety at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois. Mr. Restivo manages the Southern Illinois University Carbondale unit, which is responsible for all areas of environmental health and safety including environmental management, hazardous waste, laboratory safety, occupational health and safety, and radiation safety.

Previous positions held by Mr. Restivo include: Director of the Occupational Health and Safety Department and Associate Director of the Environmental Health and Safety Division at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky; Head of Occupational Health and Safety Section for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, and Superintendent of Safety Inspection and Education at the Illinois Department of Labor.

Mr. Restivo holds a B.S. in Occupational Health and Safety/Labor Studies from The State University of New York/Empire State College. He holds a Safety Professional Designation from the American Society of Safety Engineers (National Registry of Safety Professionals); is a Certified Hazard Control Manager-Master Level, and is a Registered Professional Industrial Hygienist (Tennessee). In 2007, he was appointed to the National Safety Council Board of Delegates. He has previously served on the Editorial Advisory Board for Safety and Health Magazine of the National Safety Council.

Mr. Restivo has been a presenter and/or conference planning committee member for numerous national conferences including the National Safety Congress; Laboratory Safety and Environmental Management annual conferences; Semi-conductor Safety Association, and Association of Official Analytical Chemists.

Mr. Restivo served as a Peer Reviewer for the U.S. EPA Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Division (SHEMP) "SHEMP Operations Manual For Laboratories" project. The SHEMP manual is utilized by US EPA's own laboratories for safety and environmental issues.

His professional memberships include: American Society of Safety Engineers, the National Safety Council, and the Southern Illinois Safety Association.

Caroline J. Gil, Treasurer and Secretary

Caroline Gil graduated from the University of Toronto and then obtained a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in chemistry. She was a professor of chemistry at Bluegrass Community & Technical College (formerly known as Lexington Community College) for 13 years, where she served on the Chemical Safety Committee and was Chemical Hygiene Officer. She left academia to work full time for ILPI and Safety Emporium in mid-2007, but still teaches one course a semester at Camden County College.

Our Environmental Commitment

ILPI is proud to announce that effective mid-July of 2011, 100% of our electric energy needs are being fulfilled with solar power. We achieved this goal using an on-site photovoltaic (PV) array rather than taking the easy way out and purchasing "green" power credits produced elsewhere. The picture shown on the left is part of the array that is installed on our roof. This system powers everything from our lights to our web servers. Of course, PV arrays don't produce energy at night, so we have to draw power from the grid from time to time. But the power we produce during the day exceeds our consumption and that excess is fed back into the grid during the time of greatest demand. The State of New Jersey's net metering program makes this all possible. The net effect is that we produce as much (or more) solar electricity than we consume, and we are reducing the need to construct additional fossil fuel power plants and suffer the ecological damage they cause (black lung disease, mountaintop removal, strip mining, heavy metal emissions, smokestack pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions, toxic fly ash disposal etc.)

Our Community Commitment

ILPI believes in giving back to our local community. We focus our efforts on areas in which we can contribute expertise and manpower. To this end, we support our employees with full pay while they participate in Gloucester County Habitat for Humanity's efforts to provide a hand up (not handout) with safe, decent and affordable housing in our local area. Instead of going to work, employees may choose to spend up to one work day each week working with Habitat. This ongoing commitment means our employees may participate in Habitat builds two mornings a week and on Saturdays. Don't be surprised if you call or email in the morning and find out that most of our staff is on a work site rather than the office. But don't worry, we will always be available to take your calls, emails, questions, and orders no matter where we are!



Copyright 1998-2013 by Interactive Learning Paradigms Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Questions? Comments? Contact us by email.