The Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) has announced the winners of the 2014 Carrie Nevans Community Service Award. This year’s award recipient in Southern California is Pamela Foust, Zenith Vice President of Claims. Tom Rankin, State Compensation Insurance Fund Board of Directors and president emeritus of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, is the Northern California recipient. The awards will be presented at the upcoming 21st annual DWC educational conference luncheons.

Pamela Foust has been involved in workers’ compensation since 1978. She was a workers’ compensation judge from 1985 to 2010 before joining Zenith. In 2010 she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Executive Committee of the State Bar’s Workers’ Compensation Section for her body of work as an attorney and judge. Her seminal treatise California Lien Claims in Workers’ Compensation Cases transformed how liens claims were litigated.

Tom Rankin is regarded as an authority on workers’ compensation law and unemployment insurance and has been a key participant in every legislative effort to improve the workers’ compensation system since 1983. He has served on the boards of many labor, academic, and research organizations and was the President of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, from 1996 to 2004.

The awards, which began in 2010, were renamed in memory and honor of Carrie Nevans, the acting administrative director who passed away in 2011.

The DWC’s 21st annual educational conference is the largest workers’ compensation training in the state and allows claims administrators, attorneys, medical providers, return to work specialists, employers, and others to learn about the most recent developments in the system as well as ongoing DWC programs. The Los Angeles conference (February 3-4) is nearly sold out: registration is still open for the Oakland training, February 10-11 at the Oakland Marriott City Center Hotel.