A bit over 25 years ago, the FAA selected a General Aviation Operations Inspector in each of two District Offices (Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich.), designated them Accident Prevention Specialists, and charged them with the responsibility of establishing a safety program on a test basis. Each of these two inspectors selected several flight instructors in his district to work with him as volunteer Accident Prevention Counselors, and they set to work developing a workable safety program for pilots. At the end of the test year it was decided that the program was worthwhile and the Accident Prevention Program - now called the Aviation Safety Program - was born. It went national and one inspector in each District Office was designated as an Accident Prevention Specialist, later Accident Prevention Program Manager (give 'em the title "manager" and you don't have to give 'em a raise), and, finally, Safety Program Manager. It seems that the FAA is in love with words - they keep changing the names of things. Since the term "accident" has a negative connotation it was dropped in favor of using the word "safety" and instead of specialists, the folks who administer the program became managers.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/eye-of-experience-34the-biennial-flight-review