WTS Hampton Roads Chapter Newsletter - Summer 2023
Our Hampton Roads Chapter is making a splash this summer! We hope your summer has been busy with incredible events, exciting projects, and plenty of beach days. With more wonderful events to come, we can't wait to dive into more opportunities to network and learn as the season comes to a close.
- WTS HRC Communication Committee
Letter from Leadership
To say that summer is heating up is such an understatement! Our Board and Committees want to extend a sincere thank you to everyone for continuing to brave the heat and attend the many exciting and educational events we have had this summer. From the informative presentation JMT held on modular roundabouts, to our Spirit of Mount Vernon dinner cruise held in June, and our upcoming Reception and Wine Raffle with Chief Deputy Commissioner Cathy McGhee, this summer has been one for the books.
We are also excited to welcome so many new faces to our organization, and appreciate our many members and supporters for encouraging those in their circles to follow and attend our events. If you’re not currently on our email list, please consider joining to you can keep up with the exciting events and outreach opportunities we have coming up this Fall.
I also encourage everyone to consider taking part in one of the many WTS International opportunities available. While many of the 2023 opportunities have passed, we look forward to the many opportunities that will be available in 2024 such as the Annual Conference that will be held in New Orleans! I hope everyone finds time in their schedule to check one (or a few) out. For more information on the events held in 2023, visit the WTSI Event Website.
Again, I want to thank our many members and sponsors for their support throughout this very active Summer, and I look forward to seeing many of you at our Fall events!
Kodi Berger, PE
WTS Hampton Roads Chapter Vice President
Congratulations to our 2023 Scholarship Recipients!
We are so excited to celebrate this years scholarship recipients! Read below to learn more about what makes these awardees so special.
Kota Laning
Kota is a senior at Old Dominion University, graduating in December 2024. Her focus is in Transportation related Civil Engineering and a minor in Environmental Engineering. Her plan is to return to the Baltimore area upon graduation. She is one of the officers for the Old Dominion Student Chapter of the Society of American Military Engineers. She has been a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of WTS since she was in middle school as a part of their TrYOU program and is now a student member of the Philadelphia and Hampton Roads chapters.
Yang Liu
Yang is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Old Dominion University. Prior to this, she earned a Bachelor's degree in Statistics from Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics and a Master's degree in Data Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her research focuses on transportation safety and the Internet of Things (IoT). With the rapid advancement of AI, she has discovered numerous intriguing avenues to explore. Yang is eager to investigate how the combination of AI and safety measures can further enhance our environment and bring about even more benefits.
Jazmine J. Jones
Jazmine J. Jones was born & raised on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and has worked for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel District since July 2016. Jazmine started as a toll collector, then was promoted to the E-ZPass Rep, to an Accounting Clerk and recently in April she was promoted to the A/P Accountant. Jazmine is currently enrolled into Eastern Shore Community College to complete an Associates Degree in Business Management. In her spare time, she loves to travel and spend time with her godson.
Congratulations to the 2023 Recognition Award Winners!
Woman of the Year
Anna Bonet
Anna was born and raised in Lleida [yay-da], Spain. She holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management and a master's degree in Economic and Financial Management from Esade Business School in Barcelona. She is also a graduate of the London Business School Senior Executive Program. She has more than 20 years of experience in the Transportation sector. She joined Abertis in 2001 and has held several different roles within the group. Before moving the US, she was the CEO of Autopistas, a subsidiary of Abertis, which owned and operated seven toll roads across Spain. She moved to Virginia one year ago and was named CEO of Elizabeth River Crossings in January 2022. During her time as CEO, she has built positive relationships with key stakeholders and elected officials within the state and the local community. At the company, she has prioritized environmental, social and governance initiatives across all business units, introduced new technology and mobility solutions, and has strongly advocated for diversity by adding more women to her executive team. She is also focused on finding other opportunities for Abertis to expand their footprint within the United States. Anna is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Italian. She and her husband have three children, ages 4, 13 and 15. They currently reside in Virginia Beach, where they are adapting to American culture and enjoying the coastal lifestyle of the Tidewater region.
Member of the Year
Kodi Berger
Kodi has a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Michigan Technological University, is a Professional Engineer licensed in Virginia and North Carolina, and has been with Kimley-Horn for nine years. Kodi's background is in traffic and ITS systems planning, communications design, and lighting photometric and electrical design. She has supported updates to the VDOT Statewide Transportation Communication Master Plan and updates to the Virginia DOT Statewide ITS Specifications, has led various traffic signal interconnect and ATMS upgrades across the Commonwealth of Virginia, and is currently leading the Tennessee DOT Statewide Roadway Lighting Design Services On-Call Contract. Kodi has been actively involved with the Hampton Roads Chapter of WTS since moving to Virginia in 2014. She has served as an active general member and Communications Committee Chair, and currently serves as the Vice President. As Communication Chair, Kodi revitalized the chapter newsletter. She recruited and developed a Communications team which issues a newsletter every quarter highlighting chapter and member news and events. She also expanded the newsletter to include a Member Spotlight which features a WTS HRC member to not only share information but also to encourage others to join WTS HRC. Her unique ideas encourage our members to keep attending our events and stay involved in the chapter. Kodi is also actively involved in the Tidewater Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and the Intelligent Transportation Society of Virginia (ITSVA).
Employer of the Year:
HDR
HDR actively encourages participation in WTS to women and men throughout the company. HDR’s Virginia Beach office is a strong supporter of WTS HRC, serving as a gold level annual sponsor and donating items to the silent auction for the WTS HRC annual reception. HDR has local and national women in leadership roles contributing to WTS HRC and WTS International. In fact, Deanna Nevling is a WTS HRC founding member, past president, and director at large. Maggie Walsh served ten years in various roles on the WTS International board, including Board Chair with responsibilities of the entire organization. Erin Slayton currently serves on the International Board and Transportation Client Development Director Christi Skinner is in her second term on the Foundation Board serving as Treasurer for the 2022-24 term. HDR is fortunate to have these leaders sitting at the highest levels of the organization. HDR has a strong internship program and WTS HRC’s 2022 scholarship winner Kota Laning is currently working as an intern for HDR’s Virginia Beach office. HDR has numerous training and mentorship opportunities available to advance women in transportation. Brianna Binowski is a mentee in the HDR Women’s Mentor program. HDR is proud of its women in senior and executive positions where HDR’s hiring practices give significant attention to promoting diversity in the work force. HDR's core values align with WTS’s mission to advance women in transportation.
Honorable Ray LaHood Award
William E. Harrell
For the past 10 years, Mr. Harrell has made many outstanding contributions to the transportation industry. Perhaps most notably, he has led Hampton Roads Transit to secure dedicated funding (Hampton Roads Regional Transit Fund) via legislation in the Virginia General Assembly. With Mr. Harrell at the helm, HRT was the first transit agency in the Commonwealth to receive and operate a small fleet of electric buses. In addition to his impact on the transportation industry, William Harrell has played an integral role in advancing the WTS mission to attract, retain and advance women in transportation, in particular at Hampton Roads Transit. On his senior executive team, Mr. Harrell has hand selected three women to take on the critical roles of Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Safety Officer and Chief Communications Officer. This brings the number of woman executives to four, including the Chief Facilities and Engineering Officer, that he entrusts to lead and to whom he provides mentorship, guidance and direction almost daily. Additionally, Mr. Harrell previously completed an analysis of senior executive pay where he found that two of the women executives were being paid significantly less than their male counterparts and adjusted their salaries accordingly. His support of women at HRT doesn’t stop at the executive level. It trickles down to the director and manager levels as well. He has always encouraged hiring managers to consider promoting women who have demonstrated leadership potential. He has also promoted a workplace culture where employees may enjoy a positive work-life balance and the flexibility needed to maintain career and family. Overall, Mr. Harrell is a servant leader, and prides himself on making the needs of people - customers and employees – a priority above all.
Innovative Transportation Solutions Award
Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) Expansion Project
The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) Expansion Project, as the largest infrastructure contract in Virginia’s history, will greatly improve mobility at one of the most congested facilities in Hampton Roads. The HRBT Expansion Project will add much-needed travel lanes across the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel while increasing safety, easing congestion, improving emergency evacuation readiness, and providing additional options for multi-modal transportation. The HRBT Expansion Project brings innovation to the region as the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) first bored roadway tunnel. In fact, there are only two other completed bored roadway tunnels in the United States. This innovative approach to tunnel construction will allow building the new twin tunnels with less impact to the marine environment and to maritime traffic (including the U.S. Navy and the Port of Virginia), as compared to the traditional immersed-tube method which had been used for all the region’s previous tunnels. The project staffing is comprised of 14% women with significant representation on the leadership team. From the start, female leadership has been a defining element of the HRBT project, for both the VDOT and design-builder teams. The very first full-time employee VDOT hired to the project was female and has been instrumental throughout the planning, procurement and now construction phase of the project. A female consultant project manager administers the entire consultant oversight organization for VDOT. And the design-builder, ever since the early stages of procurement, has placed numerous women in lead engineering and construction roles throughout the organization, working across the project areas of landside, marine and tunnel activities. In addition, many of the subcontractor firms advancing the HRBT project are women-owned businesses: the project is proud to have awarded over $500 million of work to date –
representing over 325 individual executed agreements – to small, women-owned, minority-owned, and disadvantaged business enterprises.
Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award
HRT IDEA Committee Members: Jamica Baker, Daniele Hill, Noelle Pinkard, Claudette Boneparte, Christina Malcolm, Frederick Hamilton, Jennifer Dove, Pater Katranides
As Virginia’s largest public transportation provider, HRT takes seriously its role and responsibility in ensuring diversity, equity, and accessibility. HRT is embracing the necessary change to move forward with our mission of connecting Hampton Roads with transportation solutions that are reliable, safe, efficient, and sustainable. Moving forward with this IDEA, Hampton Roads Transit created its “Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and
Accessibility Committee.” The IDEA Committee is made up of a diverse group of HRT employees tasked with developing and implementing the agency’s plan of action. The Committee will help better connect HRT with the diverse communities it serves and to achieve a greater awareness of the needs of those communities. IDEA is focused on establishing a sense of belonging for HRT employees by promoting connectivity and creativity within the organization, creating empathetic leadership by equipping HRT’s management with development opportunities to work toward increasing both intellectual and emotional skills centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Committee is working toward ensuring the company creates an inclusive environment that promotes equity in the workplace. While the committee recognizes that inclusion efforts within an organization is ongoing, they believe true change is possible when poor habits are identified, new habits are built, and these new habits are put into action in a supportive environment that fosters healthy conversations.
Event Highlights
May Luncheon: JMT Presents Modular Roundabouts
The future of roundabouts is here, and our Chapter heard about it first hand from John Riley, the Vice President and Project Manager with JMT. He discussed the JMT team's journey and involvement in evaluating, analyzing, and designing multiple modular roundabouts in Virginia. John described the successes and challenges of implementing modular roundabouts, which are prefabricated units made from recycled material. Modular roundabouts are considered a low-cost alternative when compared to traditional roundabouts. John shared several case studies from the engineering support that JMT provided for the first six roundabouts for VDOT’s Richmond District in 2018 (three of which were installed in 2020 and won ACEC’s Grand Prize for 2022).
June Dinner Cruise Aboard The Spirit of Mount Vernon
On June 28th, the Hampton Roads WTS Chapter set sail on dinner cruise aboard the Spirit of Mount Vernon. The event provided an opportunity for members to network and socialize while taking in beautiful views along the Elizabeth River at sunset.
Member Showcase
This month's spotlight is Brianna Binowski from HDR. Read below to learn a little more about Ilana and her WTS journey!
Brianna Binowski
HDR
Position/Title at Company - Bridge EIT
Hometown - Bridgewater, NJ
When did you join WTS? I joined formally back in 2019 when a NJ Chapter was first forming! I then joined the Hampton Roads shortly after starting on HRBT in January 2020.
Why did you join WTS? My company encouraged me to get involved in a professional engineering organization and WTS seemed like the perfect opportunity with all the interesting events they hosted. Having a WTS champion in my current office like Deanna Nevling has also helped me see what an awesome network you can build by continuing to attend WTS events!
Do you hold a position in WTS HRC or International? What is your role? Not yet! I plan to get more involved in the future.
What do you like best about your job? I love working on bridges right here in the Hampton Roads area that my friends and family utilize all the time. Between field visits to HRBT and High Rise Bridge, there are such cool projects I've gotten to be involved in with HDR!
Favorite project you have worked on - Greenville Yards Transfer Bridge Reconstruction and HRBT
How do you like to spend your free time? Grabbing a beer with friends at Commonwealth, reading a good book or walking my dog Poppy on the beach!
Tell us an interesting fact about yourself. I know how to make balloon animals!
Save the Date - Upcoming Events this Fall
- WTS Wine Raffle Reception for WTS Scholarships - August 10th
- DEI Panel Luncheon - September 19th
- WTSI Signature Leadership Training - October 10th-14th
Interested in sponsoring one of our next events? Contact our Corporate Sponsorship Committee.