WTS-LA Chapter News (April 29 2016)

WTS-LA Chapter News

Calendar

May 13: 11am

Join WTS Los Angeles and Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl for a windshield tour of the Expo Phase II line and lunchtime reception. More Information

May 18-20

WTS International will host the annual conference in Austin, Texas, May 18 - 20, 2016. This annual event attracts more than 600 corporate and governmental industry leaders worldwide. More Information

May 26

Save the Date! Join WTS-LA and LAWA for lunch at the Westin Los Angeles Airport. More details coming soon

Corporate Partners

PLATINUM

AECOM

Arcadis

CH2M

HDR

Jacobs
Mott MacDonald

Stantec

WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff

GOLD

HNTB

John Livzey Photography

KDG Construction

Consulting
MBI Media

Nossaman LLP

Port of Long Beach

Port of Los Angeles
Skanska

SILVER

Access Services

Berg & Associates

Cambridge Systematics

Fehr & Peers

ICF International

Iteris

Los Angeles Metro

Los Angeles World

Airports

Loudmouth Graphics

LTK Engineering

Michael Baker

International

Moffatt & Nichol

Myers & Sons Construction

RailPros, Inc

STV, Inc.

The Solis Group

T.Y. Lin International
USC

BRONZE

Alexandra Spencer

Curt Pringle & Associates

DCA Civil Engineering

Group

DiazYourman & Associates

Earth Mechanics, Inc.

Katherine Padilla &

Associates

Lee Andrews Group
Morgner Technology

Management

V&A, Inc.

Become a Corporate Partner

Message from the President

One of my all-time favorite movies is Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Ferris has an outlook on life I think we can all agree on: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." In May, Expo Phase II is opening! And WTS-LA wants to celebrate this moment and bask in this amazing achievement. In true Ferris Bueller fashion, I invite you to take a long lunch on Friday, May 13, and join us for a ride of the extension. We will be accompanied by Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who will be honored for her historic contribution to the project.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Amanda Smith Heinke

Fehr & Peers

Photo by John Livzey.

30TH ANNIVERSARY PRESIDENTS SERIES

High-Speed Grail: Melissa de la Peña's Leadership Training for Women

Cordoba Corporation regional manager Melissa de la Peña views her 2011-2012 WTS-LA presidency as challenging, rewarding, and enlightening. But it was more than that, too. It provided a consummate training ground for leadership and a forum for access.

"The facetime we got with our dignitaries and speakers was invaluable. Our illustrious program speakers included the likes of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former acting administrator of the Federal Transit Administration Therese McMillan, and then-administrator of the Federal Highway Department Victor Mendez. But there were so many others that I would never have gotten the chance to meet if it weren't for WTS-LA. So it made it worth the risk of taking on the role of the presidency, even though I didn't follow the 'typical' path to the position. I'm very lucky that the board approached me with the opportunity and also that my mentors were encouraging and supportive."

WTS-LA was lucky as well. De la Peña's tenure heralded significant advances in the chapter. Though never easy, the lessons learned proved as indelible as the effort.To read more about how her leadership in WTS helped shape her career, click here. Photo by John Livzey.

MEMBER PROFILE

Balance Beaming: Tina Backstrom on Raising a Family and a Career

Project manager, team lead and WTS-LA Diversity and Recognitions chair Tina Backstrom, PE, has used her talent and expertise to help the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) keep Los Angeles moving in a variety of ways for more than 20 years. And the LADOT has returned the favor.

"I have had a gamut of exciting and interesting jobs at LADOT, but the one I absolutely loved was working as a project manager in the bikeways division, building up Los Angeles's bicycle network. But the most challenging assignment was my role as one of the department's public information officers. In that capacity I represented the department to the media. No matter what type of question they threw at me, I had to make sure that my response was not from a place of emotion, but from facts. And gathering all the facts can be challenging in itself. I also had to know everything that was going on in the department. And we handle everything from traffic management, taxi franchises, pipeline franchises, permit parking, parking meters, parking tickets, design and installation/construction of traffic control devices, bicycle facilities, pedestrian facilities, para-transit services and transit. Just to name a few of our responsibilities..."

Today as LADOT project manager and team lead, Backstrom manages capital projects built by Metro. But she joined LADOT as an engineering assistant and worked her way up through the ranks. It was not a direct path. To read about Backstrom's career and career influencers, click here . Photo by John Livzey .

VOLUNTEER REPORT

Kyra Tao Takes the Lead: Volunteering for the Greater Good

It's a catch-22. Leadership can only be learned through experience--by leading. But no one gets to lead when they're in an entry-level position. So how does one gain leadership experience without being given opportunity? WTS-LA has the answer--volunteering.

"The most valuable part of donating your time to WTS-LA is that you get to develop leadership skills. Whether it's conducting a meeting or running an event or heading up a subcommittee, participating meaningfully in WTS-LA gives individuals the unique opportunity to lead a group in achieving an objective. And that is absolutely invaluable," explains WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff transportation engineer and WTS-LA Volunteer Committee chair Kyra Tao. "But you also gain so much more. You get a chance to extend your professional and social network. You make friends in the industry. You get to know top people in the industry. And volunteering is a stepping stone for getting more involved in the chapter down the road." To read more about how volunteering and access to leaders in the industry can affect your career, click here. Photo by John Livzey.

PROGRAMS REPORT

The Doctor Was In and He Took Professional Development to a New Level

Innovation is like

the weather--much talked about, but seldom acted upon. M etro's chief innovation officer, Dr. Joshua Schank, is changing that paradigm. Heading up Metro's new Office of Extraordinary Innovation (OEI), Dr. Schank looks to act on innovation and bring it to a very practical and implementable level. And in a unique members-only professional development program on March 18, WTS-LA welcomed Dr. Joshua Schank to discuss careers and how he intends to innovate the Southland. To read more about this fascinating discussion, click here. Visit our event photo gallery by clicking here. Photos by John Livzey.

IN THE NEWS

Devon Deming: An Uncommon Metrics System for Creating Outstanding Leaders

Leadership is difficult to define. It is even harder to teach. But newly appointed Metro Director of Commute Services Devon Deming discovered that leadership could be taught, and taught well. And she learned this when she participated in the invitation-only WTS International Mid-Career Leadership Program in Washington, DC. By every measure, Deming's experience was profound.

"The WTS training program helped me understand my own personal career goals and gave me insight into the career paths of other successful women in transportation. Before the training, I might not have considered taking a position outside the comfort zone of my previous agency, but the training helped me understand the huge growth potential of finding the courage to take that leap! " To read more about the intense--and intensely effective--leadership program as well as learning about the leap Deming made, click here . Photo by John Livzey.

IN THE NEWS

"This is Dan Beal!"

Few question the value of mentors. But some people, like WTS-LA Corporate Partnership chair Dan Beal, take mentoring to a whole new level. Providing pragmatic mentoring to University of Southern California (USC) graduate students from the Price School of Public Policy and the Viterbi School of Engineering through USC's METRANS Transportation Center, Beal has broadened the horizons of his mentees. But to him, he's just "helping them out."

"It is an odd position for me, being a UCLA grad, but I joined the METRANS Advisory Board at USC through my prior work with the Auto Club. And they asked me to mentor students in technical fields, even though I'm not an engineer or technical person. But technical folks need to know about broader issues, too. So it seemed like a good strategy to me. We cover everything including policy and politics. And that's important." To read more about Beal and his mentees from around the world, click here . Photo by John Livzey.

IN THE NEWS

Amy Grat on an Uncommon Courtesy: A Note to the Wise Should Be Sufficient

Worlds turn on simple actions. But one action stands apart as being one of the simplest, most powerful, and least practiced: the handwritten thank you note. Amy Grat, WTS-LA member and International Trade Education Programs (ITEP) chief executive officer, recently expressed this succinctly in a tweet that read, "Your thank yous should be as passionate as your pleases." But she was only just getting started.

"The tweet was actually a note to myself," Grat explains. "That morning I had spent time contemplating a couple of folks who had gone out of their way to do something for ITEP. I thought, they have given me the gift of their time, treasure, or talent, and this is my opportunity to give them the gift back of validation, recognition, and a return on their investment. But it was more than common courtesy, acknowledgement, and appreciation. Not writing them misses a huge opportunity." To read more about Grat and her thoughts about thank yous as a business calling card, not just an expression of gratitude, click here . Photo by John Livzey.

IN THE NEWS

For Liz Cousins, Best Practices Make Perfect: Advancing Transportation by Design-Build

It is an honor to be nominated. But Nossaman LLP partner and WTS-LA Legislative chair Elizabeth "Liz" Cousins won. The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) chose Cousins as a recipient of its 2016 Design-Build in Transportation Leadership Award in the Young Professional category, along with Nossaman partner Evan Caplicki (in the Industry Professional category). The award honors "the agencies and individuals from across the country that have made critical strides to advance and expand design-build project delivery through Design-Build Done Right™ within the transportation sector, resulting in enhanced project delivery ranging from faster completion to higher-quality projects." To read more about Cousins, the award, and her work in the P3 and project delivery arenas, click here . Photo by John Livzey.

IN THE NEWS

METRANS and WTS-LA Present Dinner and Thinks

Sometimes devouring a good book is just not enough. But participants at the standing-room-only March 23 dinner program and panel discussion got to do more. The capacity crowd of 150 industry practitioners and students from USC and Cal State University, Long Beach had the opportunity to consume the wit and wisdom from the book Boots on the Ground, Flats in the Boardroom: Transportation Women Tell Their Stories and interview one of its authors, two of its participants, and two other experts on its subject.

Hosted j

ointly by WTS-LA and METRANS, a USC-based transportation center that seeks to "solve transportation problems of large metropolitan regions through interdisciplinary research, education and outreach," the program was developed and chaired by METRANS assistant director Victoria Deguzman. Book co-author and BART general manager Grace Crunican moderated the panel, which featured CDM Smith vice president Dana Hook, former FAA Airports Division manager LaVerne Reid, KOA Corporation senior transportation planner Mengzhao Hu, and professor and vice dean for Academic Programs at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering James E. Moore, II.

By all acco

unts, the networking dinner, panel discussion, audience Q&A, and dessert reception provided a fantastic forum to discuss women in transportation and their careers. To read more about this inspiring event, click here . Photos by John Livzey.