Greetings WTS Members and Friends:

It was wonderful to see so many of you at our annual Scholarships and Recognitions Luncheon earlier this month. The event is a time for us to come together and celebrate the achievements of our friends and colleagues working here in our Minnesota transportation community, and WTS was blown away by record-setting attendance at the event.

Last year at the annual luncheon the chapter presented our first honorary membership to former Commissioner Gail Dorfman. During her 12 month honorary membership, she was instrumental in raising the visibility of WTS, particularly among our 2014 Employer of the Year, Hennepin County. This year we had the pleasure of presenting honorary memberships to Jeff Hamiel, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, and Susan Haigh, Chair of the Metropolitan Council. Both individuals have made outstanding contributions to the transportation industry and both support our mission to transform the transportation industry through the advancement of women. Please look for Mr. Hamiel and Chair Haigh at future WTS events and help welcome them to our chapter.

In other chapter news, WTS continues building on strategies to fulfill our mission of advancing women in transportation. Our Chapter's Transportation YOU mentorship program at Blaine High School continues to thrive with the number of mentees and mentors doubling this past year. Our chapter is excited to be sending a pair, Natalie McGrath (mentee) and Katie Ellis (mentor), to the TYOU Summit in Washington DC this June. In March, WTSI hosted the first Central Region Conference in St. Louis. The conference has a huge success with over 50 people, including Kathleen Mayell and Tracy Hatch from the Minnesota Chapter, in attendance for the day-and-a-half long conference.

So far 2014 has been a busy year and there is still much more to come. A complete 2014 events calendar can be found on our chapter website and I encourage all of you to check it out. 2014 promises to be another exciting year at WTS and I look forwarding to seeing many of you at upcoming programs and networking opportunities this year! 

Best wishes,

2014 WTS Minnesota Scholarships & Recognitions Awards Luncheon

Kate is currently completing her second year in urban and regional planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. She is currently an intern with Metro Transit in the BRT/Small Starts Office. She is involved in many transportation organizations and has successfully taken on leadership roles for the Planning Student Organization, the Young Professionals in Transportation group, and the American Planning Association. Kate hopes to have a career helping to create more sustainable, accessible, and equitable transportation options.
 

As the chair of the Metropolitan Council, Susan Haigh's leadership on transportation issues is outstanding. She is a tireless advocate for building a 21st century transportation system for the Twin Cities metro area. In 2012, Susan participated on the Governor's Transportation Finance Advisory Committee, which developed recommendations to fund and finance the state's highways, roads, bridges and public transit, as well as its air, rail and port facilities. In 2013, she crisscrossed the state with MnDOT Commissioner Charlie Zelle to make the case for an adequate, sustainable funding mechanism for highways and transit, speaking about the importance of investing in both for the economic vitality and quality of life in Minnesota. She has led the Council through construction of the METRO Green Line (Central Corridor light rail transit). During the sometimes difficult construction process, she advocated for millions of dollars of funding to provide loans for businesses that saw losses due to construction, and for a marketing campaign to support Green Line businesses. Under her leadership the Council is creating Thrive MSP 2040, the new regional development framework for the metro area that emphasizes transportation investments to help achieve five regional outcomes: livability, sustainability, prosperity, equity, and stewardship; updating its Transportation Policy Plan, which covers all transportation modes in the region, including highways, transit, bike/pedestrian, airports and freight transportation; and has adopted a Transit-Oriented Development Strategic Action Plan, a TOD policy, and established a new TOD office within Metro Transit to partner and coordinate with communities to advance TOD. 

Employer of the Year: Hennepin County

Hennepin County has shown its commitment to WTS and its women employees. Within Hennepin County Public works there are numerous gatherings to support women in the transportation field including; lunch with the women transportation engineers, brown bags to discuss issues including diversity and inclusion, a culture and communications team, and various networking opportunities to expand knowledge relating to the transportation field including formal project management training deployed in 2013. In addition, Hennepin County facilitates various leadership development programs targeted towards fostering leadership skills in women and minorities. This includes a Public Works diversity and inclusion group - "Connections", formal annual leadership programs supported by assigned mentors and new agency policies supporting diversity and inclusion. Hennepin County is an organization with women in positions at all levels of the organization, including Debra Brisk as the Assistant County Administrator for Public Works. Under Debra's leadership, the county's commitment to WTS has grown. As a WTS MN Advisory Board member, Debra has encouraged staff to attend WTS events and to become members of WTS. Debra recently announced that staff can be fully reimbursed for their memberships in WTS. As a result of the county's commitment to WTS, the number of Hennepin County staff members of WTS more than doubled in 2013, from 4 to 9 members.

Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award: Fostering an East Side Transit Equity Conversation

The Fostering An East Side Transit Equity Conversation (FESTEC) campaign was a six-month organizing blitz that took a historic approach to transit organizing on the East Side of St. Paul. A steering committee of District Councils and other neighborhood groups (50% women) hired 10 organizers who lived in the neighborhood, 90% people of color and 60% women, to bring forward the voices of women, low-income, and communities of color to transit decisions. With this diverse organizing group, they were able to bring together a large town hall meeting. The meeting had over 75% people of color and good representation of elders, youth, women, and men. They developed a set of four Transit Equity Principles to guide future transit projects. The equity framework they worked with made the issues of all under-represented communities central; the concerns of women and elders, people of color, and low income. They were also able to productively create a new dialogue as they brought together community members and transit systems professionals into a transformative intersection between these two groups. Systems people had new strength in their realms to insist on equity issues, and community people had the power of more information and new relationships.

Innovative Transportation Solutions Award: I-494/34th Ave S Diverging Diamond Interchange

The WTS Minnesota Chapter wrapped up another successful Transportation YOU program on April 17, 2014 with a tour of the new Green Line LRT line. This tour began at the Green Line LRT Operations and Maintenance Facility (OMF) in St. Paul and included stops at various stations along the line, including the new Target Field Station and Metro Transit's Transit Control Center (TCC) in Minneapolis. Other events throughout the year included presentations on roundabouts, public involvement, storm water, public speaking/networking, road design and geotechnical engineering. This year's program included 12 high school students and 10 WTS mentors - a huge thank you to everyone that helped organize and participate in this year's program!

WTS will be sending another mentor/mentee pair to the Transportation YOU DC Summit, which hosts several mentor/mentee pairs from around the country providing them an opportunity to see how transportation works in Washington D.C.

WTS will be looking for volunteers to help organize next year's program and participate as a mentor - if you're interested, please contact Lisa Rasmussen.

WTS Central Region 2014 Conference Overview

WTS International piloted the first regional conference in St. Louis, Missouri on March 14-15. The conference drew approximately 50 participants from the central region states of Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Michigan, North Dakota and Wisconsin. The Minnesota chapter of WTS sent two MnDOT members to the event - Tracy Hatch and Kathleen Mayell. Tracy Hatch presented on the panel Challenges for Central Region DOT Executives. 

The conference sessions included chapter updates, updates on passenger rail, aviation, alternative delivery methods, a lunchtime presentation on the new Mississippi River Bridge Crossing connection Missouri and Illinois in St Louis, and a keynote address from Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, Director of the Lambert St. Louis International Airport. A professional development session spawned by the Lean In movement and a presentation and site visit to the St Louis Gateway Arch concluded the conference.

Attendees reported that the conference overall was a success, and hope that is continued in future years as an opportunity to bring groups from around the region together.