Mr. Avant graduated in 1990, from the University of MD in College Park, with a BS in Industrial Technology. He began his career working with the Department of Defense as an Industrial Hygiene Technician evaluating military industrial operations throughout the Eastern US. He worked from 1993-1996 as a Health Compliance Inspector for the North Carolina Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Division. He returned to the Department of Defense in 1996 to work as an Industrial Hygienist at Fort Monmouth, NJ then Fort Belvoir, VA. At Fort Belvoir he was involved in respirator fit testing Fort Belvoir fire fighters and other first responders who responded to the 9/11 Pentagon attack. Before coming to NASA in 2010, Mr. Avant developed and managed the Agency Safety and Health Program at the National Archives and Records administration. Since 2010 Mr. Avant has been working as the Center Asbestos Coordinator for the Safety Division (Code 360).
