WTS-LA
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Dec 6, 7, 11
Metro is holding public hearings to receive input on the 2016 Disparity Study Draft Report . More information here.
May 16-18
Save the Date for the WTS International annual conference in San Diego, CA. More information  here.
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Board of Directors
President
LKG-CMC Inc.
 
Vice President, 
Programs & Professional Development
Mott MacDonald 
 
Vice President,
Membership & Communications
Athens Services 
 
Vice President,
Recognition & Student Outreach
California High-Speed Rail Association

Treasurer
Antich Consulting
 
Secretary
WSP
 
Immediate Past President
Fehr & Peers
Directors at Large
Dina Aryan-Zahlan, PE, PMP
Port of Los Angeles
   
Michelle Boehm
California High-Speed Rail Authority

Carrie Bowen
Caltrans District 7
 
Cynthia Guidry, PE
Los Angeles World Airports

Elissa Konove
Southern California Regional Rail Authority

Gary Lee Moore, PE
City of Los Angeles

Lisa Levy Buch
Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority
 
Prof. James Moore II
University of Southern California
 
Mark Pestrella, PE
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works

Seleta Reynolds
LADOT
 
Eric Shen, PE, PTP
USDOT
 
Stephanie Wiggins
Los Angeles Metro

Dr. Allison Yoh
Port of Long Beach 

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Metrolink
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Wilson Ihrig
DECEMBER 2017
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
A Decision-Making Address
In The Wasteland, T. S. Eliot's poetic crisis of conscious can be whittled down (arguably) to one line: "In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse." Think about that. Already burdened by indecision and insecurity, he's convinced that whatever he decides will be undone a minute later. We all know how that feels. Fortunately, most days go better than that. But he's got a point. We make a lot of decisions each day. From the mundane (Is the left lane moving faster?) to the sublime (Should I invest in Bitcoin?), we face many more decisions than we realize. In a sense, everything is a decision. And therein lies the problem.  What's a decision-maker to do?  Read Kathy's full message here.
DIRECTOR AT LARGE PROFILES
LA County Public Works Mark Pestrella: A Mission of Hope and Story
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works  budget is larger than the GDP of more than three dozen countries. And any one of its six major business areas handles more emergencies and responsibilities in one year than many entire small towns. LA County Public Works is astounding. Delivering regional infrastructure and services for more than ten million residents in Los Angeles County, the agency has an annual budget of $2.7 billion and a workforce of more than 4,500 professionals in a 4,000-square mile area. It is the largest public works agency in the US. And someone has to lead it. Enter Mr. Pestrella. Read more
Lisa Levy Buch is Comms, Cool, and Respected
As the chief communication officer for Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority, Lisa Levy Buch oversees all agency communications, community outreach, and its media relations program. But that is the 30,000-foot view of a complex and dynamic communications program.  Read more.
PAST PRESIDENT SERIES
With WTS-LA, Rachel Vandenberg doesn't believe it's who you know: it's whom...
Dewberry vice president Rachel Vandenberg believes that serving as WTS-LA president offers many unique rewards. But one particular benefit has served her best during her more than two decades long career in transportation. Read more.
MEMBER PROFILES
Lucy Olmos Delgadillo: The Road Best Traveled
When working for one of the largest transportation organizations in the world, one that operates bus, light rail, heavy rail, and bus rapid transit, few expect to be secunded to highways. But that's exactly what happened to Metro transportation planning manager Lucy Olmos Delgadillo.  Read More.
Blair Schlecter: law became a vehicle for greater transportation involvement
Sometimes the law is a portal, a launching pad to use one's training in another discipline. For attorney and WTS-LA member Blair Schlecter, the law provided fantastic training, experience, and opportunity. Working successfully for a firm and on his own, as a lawyer Schlecter prepared a brief for the United States Supreme Court (that resulted in a victory), turned around a high-profile lawsuit that saved his client more than $1 million, and launched a successful law practice in only two years. But he wanted more. Read more .
PAST WTS-LA SCHOLARSHIP WINNER
Rachel Lindt: How WTS-LA Is Supposed to Work
If you could design exactly how WTS-LA could help a young graduate student, Rachel Lindt's experience would be the prototypical plan. Today, she serves as a planner with WTS-LA Platinum Partner AECOM in the Downtown LA transportation planning group, where she gets to use both her planning acumen and her art background. And she is getting to do extraordinary work. Read more.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Tamar Fuhrer: Volunteering for Greater Insight
Many WTS-LA members use the chapter as a mirror to gain perspective and clarity on their profession. Metro Transportation Planning manager Tamar Fuhrer doesn't have to do that. Structurally, her work at Metro in many ways reflects what she's doing as chair of the WTS-LA Volunteer Committee.  Read more.
Jennifer Lao and WTS-LA Social Media: Advancing Women on the Information Superhighway
Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos said, "If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends." That means two things. One, social media is powerful. And two, social media is not as simple as many people believe. No one knows this better than WTS-LA Social Media co-chair and MBI Media project manager Jennifer Lao .  Read more .
Puja Thomas-Patel: A Force Built by Committee
Abraham Lincoln said, "Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition." And that is sage advice. But someone must worry about recognizing achievement, particularly in Southern California transportation. And that responsibility falls largely to the WTS-LA Annual Scholarship and Awards Dinner Committee and its chair Puja Thomas-Patel. Taking that responsibility most seriously, she sees it as a true group effort over time. Read more .
IN THE NEWS
City of Los Angeles Engineer Julie Allen: Making a Distinct Impression
Queen Elizabeth II said, "At its heart, engineering is about using science to find creative, practical solutions. It is a noble profession." Decidedly, Queen Elizabeth is right. But there is also quite a bit more to the job. Requiring endless training, grit, sensitivity, and strategic and tactical thinking, being an engineer can be as challenging as being a monarch, maybe even more so at times. Yet there are some who master the profession, elevating it through selfless devotion, unwavering fairness, and an unyielding striving for excellence. For more than 25 years, City of Los Angeles principal civil engineer Julie Allen has done just that. Read more .
Lessons from the Continent: A WTS-LA Tour de Course
Traveling is rarely about the destination. More often than not, it's the journey itself that provides transformational experiences. As ex-patriot, American writer Henry Miller put it, "One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing." And on a recent sojourn to Europe that's exactly what happened to a WTS-LA delegation that included WTS-LA Director at Large Eric Shen, Mott MacDonald senior project engineer and WTS-LA Programs and Professional Development vice president Lisa Karwoski, Fehr & Peers transportation planner/engineer and former WTS-LA president Amanda Heinke, and WSP transportation and environmental planner and WTS-LA Transportation Resume Book chair Todd Nguyen. For them, this trip was nothing short of a transportation version of a trip to Lourdes.  Read more .
Through a Pioneering P3, Angels Flight Takes Off Once Again
It's only 298 feet long. Dubbed the "shortest railway in the world," it first ran more than 116 years ago. And if you ask Angelenos to name three things that are quintessentially Los Angeles, Angels Flight will almost certainly be one of them. For a while, though, it looked like that might no longer be the case. It had fallen into disrepair and there had been accidents. It was shuttered. But thanks to an historic and innovative public-private partnership (P3)-the first transit P3 project in Los Angeles-Angels Flight is back and running again for new generations to fall in love with it. Read more .
PROGRAMS REPORT
WTS-LA Programs Deliver a Most Important Audience
Programs are the public face of WTS-LA. In nearly every case, a woman or man's first exposure to the chapter is through a program. So, the quality, substance, and timeliness of each program can determine whether or not a guest is moved to join the chapter. In short, programs are of critical importance. And in the past six months, the Programs Committee and its co-chairs-Kaoru McCullough, Jenelle Saunders, and Heather Anderson-outdid themselves by delivering compelling, informative, and invaluable events that have enticed people to join the chapter. Here is what they put together. Read more .

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