THE ASBESTOS INSTITUTE - Key Persons


Bill Cavness

Job Titles:
  • Director
  • Founding Director, past President, and Board Member of the Arizona Chapter of EIA
Since its founding in 1988, Bill has been at the forefront of EPA-accredited and OSHA-compliant course development and coordination for The Asbestos Institute. Aside from serving as a speaker at numerous national conferences and being published in a number of Asbestos-related articles and papers, Bill has an extensive and impressive list of credentials that solidify his place as an authority in the industry. Bill is the former national chairman of Environmental Information Association's Asbestos Operation and Maintenance Committee and the Lead Committee. He currently chairs the national Asbestos Committee. Bill is the founding Director, past President, and Board member of the Arizona Chapter of EIA. He is the former Vice President and Board of Directors member of the national EIA. Bill serves on the National Institute of Building Sciences asbestos and lead committees. He is a member of ASTM, participating in the asbestos standards task force. Bill also served for many years on the Advisory Committee to the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Arizona OSHA). Bill has developed and teaches the California Air Resources Board (CARB) 250 training course for asbestos demolition and renovation throughout California.

John Cavness

Job Titles:
  • Instructor
As an owner and operator of both general construction and asbestos abatement companies, John knows the ins and outs of the business. With almost 50 years of general construction experience (nearly half of which dealt with asbestos abatement), he has been at the forefront of refining many of the state-of-the-art procedures currently in use in the asbestos/lead abatement industry. John specializes in training Contract Specifications for the Contractor/Supervisor training and Building Systems for the Building Inspector classes. His credentials include: John was the former National President of the EIA. He served as the former President of the Arizona Chapter of EIA. J has worked in the asbestos control and construction industry for over 20 years, starting out as a laborer and rising to the level of a general field superintendent and AHERA-Certified Supervisor, Building Inspector, Management Planner, and Project Designer. He supervised medium- to large-scale abatement projects in several states throughout the southwest, and even spent some time in sales with a major supplier to the abatement industry. He has also served as President of the Arizona Chapter of the Environmental Information Association and is currently the Treasurer of National EIA. J conducts training of all AHERA initial and refresher certification classes as well as OSHA asbestos and construction safety classes for The Asbestos Institute.

John R. Butler

Job Titles:
  • Instructor
John R. Butler, CIH, CSP, is a Senior Industrial Hygienist with Central Arizona Project. He has worked in the safety and health field since the mid-1960's as a U.S. Navy Corpsman, Licensed Vocational Nurse, and as an Industrial Hygienist (IH) with the Trident Submarine Base, Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH), State of Arizona Risk Management, Salt River Project, Ahearn & Associates, Western Technologies, and SA&B Environmental Consultants. He has been active in asbestos inspection and abatement activities since 1978 and has taught IH classes at Gateway Community College. Within Industrial Hygiene, John specializes in noise assessments and development of air sampling strategies to document the presence or absence of air contaminants. John serves on the Advisory Board and was past Director of the AZ Chapter of the American Indoor Air Quality Council. He has been a member of the Chapter of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) for nearly two decades.