Key Points

• Dennis Mendenhall received ILTA’s Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to terminal industry safety.
• Marathon Petroleum’s Logistics & Storage Terminals also earned ILTA’s 2026 Safety Excellence Award, marking its eighth consecutive year of recognition.
• Mendenhall’s work focuses on helping employees see themselves as safety leaders while supporting programs that enable others to work safely and meet regulatory requirements.

---

When Dennis Mendenhall talks about safety, he starts with people.

Mendenhall is a Personal Safety Manager for Marathon Petroleum’s Environmental, Safety, Security and Product Quality (ESS&PQ) organization that supports the company’s Logistics & Storage (L&S) Terminals, Marathon Pipe Line, Marine Transportation and L&S Engineering. For him, safety is rooted in the belief that every employee and contractor should return home the same way they came to work.

“That’s what motivates me to do what I do,” Mendenhall said. “When you see effective safety work directly protecting people’s lives and livelihoods, that matters. A well-designed program, a timely intervention and a culture of looking out for one another can prevent serious injuries and create a workplace where people feel valued.”

Recognition rooted in safety leadership

That commitment was recently recognized by the International Liquid Terminals Association (ILTA), which presented Mendenhall and a fellow industry safety leader with a Distinguished Service Award during its 2026 Conference & Trade Show. The recognition highlighted their years of service to ILTA, including their work as co-chair of the association’s Health & Safety Committee and their contributions to industry education, programming and safety award selection efforts.

ILTA also presented MPC’s L&S Terminals organization with its 2026 Safety Excellence Award during the conference. To achieve the award, L&S Terminals was required to score in the top two quartiles of a leading indicator survey and 2025 OSHA recordable performance. This is the eighth consecutive year ILTA has recognized L&S Terminals with a safety award.

Collaborating on safety

Mendenhall has supported ILTA for almost 10 years and has served as co-chair of the Health & Safety Committee for the past four. In that role, he helps bring terminal industry representatives together to discuss emerging safety topics, share best practices and provide input on issues that could affect terminal operations.

“ILTA exists to advocate for the terminaling industry,” Mendenhall said. “As co-chair, part of my role is to help coordinate input from member companies and turn that into something tangible ILTA can use to advocate on behalf of the industry.”

That work can include facilitating discussions about new regulatory requirements, emerging technologies or simply sharing best practices regarding issues member companies are facing such as workforce fatigue or heat stress.

“One of the major advantages of being involved with ILTA, or any industry association, is that the professional connections make the world smaller,” he said. “When we’re facing issues or concerns, we have people we can go to for potential solutions. We have common allies across the industry.”

“If we can help every employee see themselves as a safety leader – whether they are in the field with hands-on tools, in a support role, or piloting a vessel on the river – that has a multiplying effect on our culture.”

A path to safety

Mendenhall’s passion for safety began long before his current role. After high school, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he served as an aviation electronics technician. He said the military’s brotherhood mentality helped shape his perspective on accountability and care for others.

After leaving the Navy in 2000, Mendenhall began working as a contractor at MPC’s Robinson refinery. There, he was introduced to safety as a profession.

“I’ve always had a genuine care for people and their development,” he said. “Coming out of the military and moving into the refinery setting, I got to see safety as a profession for the first time. I started building connections with people in that field and thought, ‘This is something I want to do.’”

Safety in action

Today, his team has responsibility for all the health and safety programs across L&S. That includes industrial hygiene, life-critical standards, contractor safety, auditing and safety communications. His team of professionals serves as subject matter experts and work closely with field personal safety professionals who coach and support employees and contractors in the program requirements, implementation and execution.

“We are building a culture of safety leaders across Marathon,” he said. “If we can help every employee see themselves as a safety leader – whether they are in the field with hands-on tools, in a support role, or piloting a vessel on the river – that has a multiplying effect on our culture.”

Speaking up for safety

For Mendenhall, one of the most important safety habits is having the courage to stop when something does not seem right.

“If people have the courage to say stop whenever they recognize, knew or have the feeling that something wasn’t right, it would prevent an untold amount of near misses, injuries or potentially significant events,” he said.

In Logistics & Storage, that mindset is supported through the Stop, Help, Start process, which encourages employees to pause work, ask for help and restart only after the right controls are in place.

Senior Director of Environmental, Safety, Security and Product Quality Aaron Martinez says Mendenhall’s impact on safety reaches far beyond the programs he leads.

"He is a trusted leader who continuously works to strengthen our safety culture, improve our processes, and keep safety at the center of our operations,” said Martinez. “This recognition reflects not only his commitment to Marathon Petroleum, but also his dedication to advancing safety across the entire industry. The respect he has earned and the influence he has had on safety excellence make this award exceptionally well deserved."

For Mendenhall, the ILTA recognition reflects work that is bigger than one person or one company.

“It is about protecting people and helping them go home safe,” he said. “That is the sweet part of the story for me – the connection, collaboration and shared commitment that happens when people come together around safety.”