Erin Lawler-Hart

Erin Lawler-Hart is a Human Factors Engineer, patient safety consultant, and patient safety program implementation advisor with 20 years of experience improving the safety, reliability, and design of healthcare systems. She helps healthcare organizations and states build and operationalize patient safety programs, reporting systems, governance models, and learning frameworks that reduce preventable harm.

Her work applies human-centered design, systems thinking, and equity-informed methods to improve how care is delivered in complex clinical environments. She focuses on designing safer systems for patients and the healthcare workforce, rather than relying on individual vigilance alone.

Ms. Lawler-Hart previously served as Associate Director, and Interim Director, of the Office of Quality and Patient Safety at Joint Commission, where she led national patient safety initiatives and modernized reporting and learning systems. As Enterprise Human Factors Engineer, she also helped integrate AI into incident reporting workflows. Earlier in her career, she developed national training programs in systems thinking and root cause analysis for the Military Health System. She holds a Master of Science in Human Factors and Ergonomics from Cornell University.