Please join WTS Boston on September 13th for our first in person luncheon seminar since February 2020! We are excited to host a panel of speakers including representatives from MassDOT, MBTA, and Massport. The panel will discuss their capital programs in light of the new federal funding. Speakers and the moderator will be announced soon.
The luncheon seminar will be located at the UMass Club. Parking is available at the venue and MBTA stations are within walking distance.
The University of Massachusetts Club
One Beacon Street, 32nd Floor
Boston, MA 02108
11:30am - 1:00pm
Register today! Registration closes Tuesday, September 6th.
Registrations are binding. No-shows will be billed. A $10 late charge will be applied to registrations received after the deadline.
For questions on this event, or to purchase a table, please contact Amanda Alzaim at [email protected].
This event will feature the following speakers:
Meghan Haggerty
Meghan Haggerty is the Chief Administrative Officer at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Highway Division. Meghan is responsible for overseeing the Highway Division’s budget, hiring priorities, and the team responsible for implementing organizational efficiencies. She has been a transportation and economic development policy professional in Massachusetts state and local government for the past 15 years. Prior to working at MassDOT, Meghan was the Director of Operations in the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development at the City of Boston. Meghan was also the Policy Director at Massport. She has her AB in Social Studies from Harvard College and a Master’s in Public Policy and Urban Planning from the Harvard Kennedy School. She lives in Milton, Massachusetts with her husband and two children.
Sarah Dennechuk, P.E., CCM, Senior Project Manager
Sarah is a registered professional civil engineer and project manager with 23 years of design, construction, and project management experience at general aviation and major international airports within the United States. She currently serves as a Senior Project Manager, Horizontal Projects, in the Massachusetts Port Authority Capital Programs and Environmental Affairs Department. Prior to Massport, Sarah worked for Jacobs Engineering Group (formerly Edwards and Kelcey) in the Airports Department as a Senior Engineer/Project Manager and served as Client Manager and Project Manager on several projects for Massachusetts airports in addition to the three Massport Aviation Facilities, including Barnstable Municipal, Nantucket Memorial, and Beverly Municipal. Sarah is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a Certified Construction Manager (CCM), and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from WPI.
Jillian Linnell
Jillian Linnell is the Senior Director of Capital Program Planning at the MBTA. The Capital Program Planning team is responsible for the 5-year Capital Investment Plan and the development of a high-level funding strategy for capital projects which includes the submissions of all discretionary grant applications. Jillian has been at the MBTA for over three years and prior to joining the T, worked at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation in the Rail and Transit Division. Before moving to Massachusetts Jillian lived in the Washington D.C. area where she worked for the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the U.S. House of Representatives.
This event will be moderated by Rachael Barolsky Sack:
Rachael Barolsky Sack
Rachael Barolsky Sack is the chief of the U.S. DOT Volpe Center’s Innovative Research Program Office, and serves as the director of the U.S. DOT Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Sack’s work focuses on innovative approaches to program design and communication strategies for sharing information on emerging technologies, best practices, and related policies.
Since joining the Volpe Center in 2002, her work has supported a variety of transportation areas including environmental streamlining for highway projects, technology transfer initiatives, highway safety countermeasures, and most recently the Inclusive Design Challenge, a prize competition seeking inclusive design solutions to both create and enable accessible automated vehicles (AVs) for people with disabilities. Sack also facilitates interagency working groups and issue-specific meetings with the goals of sharing information across agencies, reaching consensus on key issues, and agreeing to action-oriented solutions.
Sack has served as Federal Women’s Program manager for the Volpe Center and is past president of the Women’s Transportation Seminar-Boston Chapter. In 2009, Sack received the FHWA Administrator’s Team Award for her work on the Surface Transportation Project Delivery Pilot Program and the FRA Administrator’s Team Award for her work on the development of FRA’s new Risk Reduction Program. In 2011, she received Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s EEO/Affirmative Action Award for her contributions to support women in transportation. She holds a master’s degree in energy and environmental analysis, and a bachelor of arts degree in energy and environmental policy, both from Boston University.