Dan Orr
Chief Safety Officer​
Dan Orr retired from the positions of President of Divers Alert Network (DAN) and Chairman of the Board of International DAN after 23 years helping DAN focus on its worldwide diving safety mission. Prior to coming to DAN, he worked and taught recreational diving in a retail store, developed and implemented course curricula in the academic environment as part of two university diving programs, collected data and supervised research efforts in the field of science diving.
Dan was certified as a US Navy diver and tested diving equipment for military contractors. As a diving industry consultant, Dan provides consulting expertise on diving safety to a number of companies in the global diving industry including Avelo (www.diveavelo.com) and ScubaTech/DIVO (www.divo.se).
​
He has been an invited speaker at many national and international diver education programs including Beneath the Sea, The scuba Show, Boston Sea Rovers Clinic, the British SubAqua Club Annual Convention (Birmingham, England), the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Beneath the Sea, the Scuba Show, Boston Sea Rovers and the Mayo Clinic Diving Medicine Workshops and the Diving Science Symposium. Dan also does regular webinars on a variety of diving safety topics.
Dan works with BlueGreen Expeditions and has provided logistics and safety expertise on expeditions to Antarctica, Svalbard (the Arctic), Greenland, Tasmania, Cuba (Gardens of the Queen), India and Guadalupe Island, Mexico. He has served on the Boards of various non-profit and for-profit organizations during his career including the Historical Diving Society (President, Chairman of the Board and Advisory Board), Our World Underwater Scholarship Society, Recreational Scuba Training Council, Force Blue (Chairman of the Board), WCH Media Group/Best Publishing Company (Chairman of the Board), the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association-DEMA (Chairman of the Board) and the Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences (President).
He has published and co-authored over 200 articles and a dozen books and manuals including: 101 Tips for Recreational Scuba Divers, Scuba Diving Safety, Diving Science – Revisited, Pocket Guide to First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries, Pocket Guide for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries, and the DAN Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries Training Manual. He is the Industry Relations Editor for DiveNewsWire and the Safety/Health/Legislation/Legal Editor for Scuba Diving Industry Magazine contributing regular articles on a variety of diving safety topics.
He has also been honored by his peers by being the recipient of many prestigious awards and honors including the NOGI Award in Sports/Education, the Leonard Greenstone Award for Diving Safety, the Our World-Underwater Award, Beneath the Sea’s Diver of the Year, the Wyland Foundation Award for Lifetime Achievement and the DEMA Reaching Out Award, Sea of Change Foundation Lifetime Explorer Award and NAUI Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a member of the Explorers Club, NAUI Hall of Honor, Hall of Fame for Disabled Divers, the Diving Industry Hall of Fame and the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame.