Current Year Winners
2023 – 2024 WTS Puget Sound Award Winners
Each year, the WTS Puget Sound Chapter honors achievement in the transportation industry with several coveted awards. The awards for the 2023 – 2024 year will be presented at our annual Gala in March 2024.
Tickets for the Gala are on sale through March 5. Individual tickets and tables are currently available through the event's Auctria platform.
Woman of the Year
Barb Chamberlain, WSDOT
Barb Chamberlain is a tenacious champion of building pedestrian and bicyclist networks that serve all ages and abilities. As WSDOT’s first-ever Active Transportation Division Director, she raises awareness about active transportation safety, equity, and accessibility across the state and at the national level. Barb led the development of WSDOT’s award-winning Active Transportation Plan, which is grounded in equity analysis and serves as a decision-making tool for active transportation projects across the state. The effects of her leadership are seen in the historic levels of active transportation funding in the 2022 Move Ahead Washington package. Barb shares her wisdom and expertise through multiple national organizations, raising the bar for transportation plans, standards, guidelines, and professional practice.
Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership
Ambika Coletti, ICF
In addition to her incredible technical knowledge, Ambika Coletti has worked diligently to promote diversity and inclusion both within her work for ICF, and broadly within the transportation electrification sector. Ambika has a passion for building opportunities for women in STEM, launching the Seattle Chapter of Women of Electric Vehicles in 2022– to connect local women working in the transportation electrification field. At work, she spearheads Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts for the Beneficial Electrification team including development of a DEI Committee and DEI Manual to provide a conceptual framework for DEI and identifying tools and experts to integrate strategies across programs and projects. Ambika is also invested in building a diverse and inclusive pipeline of talent for ICF through the revamping of hiring practices to be more objective and onboarding materials to highlight multicultural awareness and inclusivity.
Member of the Year
Colleen Gants, PRR
For over 20 years, Colleen Gants has supported the Puget Sound Chapter of WTS by connecting women with opportunities to grow their transportation careers. As one of four women owners of local communications and engagement firm, PRR, she has been a valuable connection for our mentorship program and in regularly promoting and attending local and national WTS events. In 2022, Colleen was the Committee Local Co-Lead for the WTS International Conference in Seattle, where she helped plan communications and events that highlighted the Puget Sound chapter and welcomed hundreds from WTS International. Today, in her role on the Advisory Board, she continues to encourage and build more community connections with our chapter and is always ready to mentor Puget Sound women in transportation.
Innovative Transportation Solution
Colman Dock, Washington State Ferries
Washington State Ferries (WSF) is the largest ferry system in the United States, and Colman Dock in Seattle is the system’s busiest terminal serving 9 million riders per year. Work on the new multimodal terminal at Colman Dock provided career-building opportunities for at least 150 women, and since its completion, immediate benefits to Seattle’s transformed waterfront. With women at the helm (pun intended), WSF was able to build a seismically-sound and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible facility, with more seating, restrooms, retail and food services, and access to transit and other ADA facilities. Through consultation with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and the Suquamish Tribe, indigenous culture is represented in the new terminal with tribal-named plazas along Alaskan Way, art installations at the terminal building, and the improved marine environment after removing 7,500 tons of creosote-soaked pilings from our waters.
Employer of the Year
WSP USA
WSP USA is a leading global engineering and professional services consultancy, with guiding principles that closely align with the WTS mission and vision. WSP is committed to ensuring a future in which we embrace all voices, ideas, differences, and beliefs, and this includes opportunities and growth for women and others who are underrepresented. They have many career development plans and programs – such as their Developing Professional Networks program which is dedicated to advancing emerging professionals with less than 10-years of experience. WSP is active in both the local and international level of WTS and provides memberships, sponsorships, and encourages employee involvement.