Several industry VIPs were virtually  in attendance at our 2020 Virtual Viewing Party, and those VIPs who were not able to attend, pre-recorded meaningful messages of congratulations for our scholarship winners, as well as individual awardees. Those VIPs included: 

• Kome Ajise, Executive Director of SCAG
• Darrell E. Johnson, CEO of OCTA
• Samuel Johnson, CEO of TCA
• Stephanie Wiggins, CEO of Metrolink

Their kind words of encouragement were the perfect way to close out our 2020 Virtual Viewing Party!

Each of our Graduate Scholarship Winners received $5,000 in scholarship money! SCAG kindly co-sponsored this scholarship award category, and their continued generosity and support of WTS Orange County made these awards possible. Congratulations to our 2020 graduate scholarship winners: Heidi Busslinger, Qian Fang, Kelsey Garrett, Karen Phan and Bailey Barton.​​

Each of our High School Scholarship Winners received $5,000 in scholarship money! This year, in this category, WTS Orange County created the Phyllis Fukumoto Legacy Scholarship. Our Board of Directors was thrilled to honor Phyllis because of her humility, love of teaching and devotion to her students’ education. She retired from her 35 ½-year career at Dale Junior High School in the Anaheim Unified School District at the end of 2020, but her devotion to the Girls’ Engineering Day Program, which she championed in 2015, continues to inspire our chapter.

Congratulations to Phyllis on a successful career, and congratulations to our 2020 high school scholarship winners: Clarissa Avalos and Joanne Lee.

Each of our Undergraduate Scholarship Winners received $5,000 in scholarship money! This year, in this category, WTS Orange County created the Sharon Yates Memorial Scholarship in honor of Sharon Yates, who passed away in April 2020. Sharon was instrumental in building the Orange County chapter over the last three decades. She was the face of the organization for nearly eight years while serving as our Hospitality Chair between 1998 to 2005. Her dynamic personality and dedication to the chapter lives on through these scholarship awards.

With the memory and spirit of a woman who embodied WTS, we congratulate our 2020 undergraduate scholarship winners: Tara Char, Patricia Garcia-Martinez, Joan Lee and Beatrice Ongawan.

Each year, WTS chapters around the country take a moment to recognize the notable contributions by individuals to advance women and the transportation industry overall. WTS Orange County proudly awarded three chapter industry awards to the following individuals:

• Woman of the Year – Valarie McFall, TCA
• Honorable Ray LaHood (Man of the Year) – Steve Huff, Michael Baker International
• Member of the Year – Karen Chapman, TY Lin

Each year, WTS chapters around the country take a moment to recognize the notable contributions by organizations to advance women and the transportation industry overall. WTS Orange County proudly awarded three chapter industry awards to the following organizations:

• Innovative Transportation Solutions – OCTA
• Employer of the Year – Mark Thomas
• Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award – SCAG