Board of Directors
2026-2028 Board of Excellence
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Dr. Lester Woods Jr.
Board Chair
Dr. Lester Woods, Jr. currently serves as the Executive Consultant of First Last Mile Valet. He was appointed Chief Administrative Officer on April 1, 2020, after serving in the position on an interim basis since July 2019. In this capacity, he oversees four MoDOT divisions including communications, diversity and inclusion, health and wellness, and human resources. He has been with MoDOT for 19 years, and previously, served as MoDOT’s External Civil Rights Director for 15 years. Before coming to MoDOT, he worked in human resources at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Woods holds a bachelor of science degree in wildlife biology from Grambling State University, a master of public administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia and was conferred with a doctor of ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in May 2020.
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Kimberly Haynes-Slaughter
1st Vice Chair
Ms. Kimberly Haynes-Slaughter is a nationally respected transportation executive with more than 35 years of distinguished experience across public transit agencies and leading global consulting firms. Currently leading regional and national teams, she is a recognized champion for transportation equity, talent development, and sustainable innovation. Widely regarded as a powerhouse within the transportation industry, Kimberly brings a rare combination of strategic insight, risk management expertise, and leadership acumen, serving as both a trusted advisor and a culture-shaping mentor. Her career spans senior executive leadership roles at major architecture, engineering, and consulting firms—including TYLin, SYSTRA USA, HNTB, PBQ&D, and HDR—complemented by direct operator experience with the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Houston METRO). Through her C-suite and senior leadership roles, Kimberly has demonstrated exceptional strength in strategic planning, complex problem-solving, executive communication, and business operations. She is known for building high-performing, collaborative organizations that attract, retain, and develop top talent while delivering impactful projects and programs.
Beyond her professional leadership, Ms. Haynes-Slaughter is a lifelong advocate for public transit, equitable mobility, and community development. She has served for decades on influential boards and committees shaping transportation policy and practice nationwide. Her current and past service includes the Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity, the American Public Transportation Association Executive Committee, the Mineta Transportation Institute Board, and the national board of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), among others. Deeply committed to developing the next generation of transportation leaders, Kimberly actively supports educational and workforce pipeline initiatives. She serves on the boards of the American Public Transportation Foundation and the Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy in Houston, Texas. In recognition of her leadership and impact, she was named a COMTO “Woman Who Moves the Nation” in 2022 and received the prestigious Shirley A. DeLibero Award. Kimberly holds a Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning and a Bachelor of Science in Government/Pre-Law from The University of Texas at Austin.
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Sharon Jean-Baptiste
2nd Vice Chair
Ms. Jean-Baptiste is an accomplished engineering executive with over 24 years of experience in the water, transportation and built environment sectors. A civil and environmental engineer by background, she has served in operational, program delivery, technology and innovation, and sales leadership roles over her career. Sharon has worked with public agencies to develop solutions to complex environmental and community challenges, successfully led highly visible capital infrastructure programs, and facilitated multi-stakeholder engagement, policy development, community outreach, diverse business capacity building and workforce development. She is passionate about connecting people and places through transformative solutions that put communities first to achieve lasting equitable outcomes. Currently she serves as President at Ardmore Roderick.
Previously, Sharon joined Jacobs in 2007 and served as Vice President, Strategic Growth and Delivery for the Americas East region. She focused on business portfolio growth, broad industry impact, and client relationships and national partnerships. Prior to this role, Sharon led Operations for Midwest US (OH/MI/IN/IL/WI/MN/IA/MO) leading an exceptional talent force, partnering with clients to solve challenges, and focusing on future sustainable business growth. Sharon has held many other key roles at Jacobs including Vice President, Growth & Sales for MidAtlantic US (PA/DE/DC/MD/VA) and US North Regional Solutions & Technology Director. She also previously served as the Executive Advisor (Chief of Staff) to the CEO and Chair. In her more than16 years at Jacobs, Sharon has made an impact on the company culture.
In addition to her promotion of technology and innovation, she has been an advocate for corporate giving and volunteering programs, and inclusion and diversity strategies. She is an active member and mentor within several Employee Networks at Jacobs including former global lead of the Black Employee Network (Harambee) and current global colead of the Women’s Network. She serves as a positive mental health champion and is a past nominee for Jacobs’ Inclusive Leader Award for enabling an inclusive workplace culture. Sharon contributes to the industry through leadership roles in several technical and advocacy organizations including COMTO, WTS, NSBE, ACEC and IRTBA. She is a frequent speaker/presenter and has co-authored several technical and industry papers and articles.
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David Wong
Secretary/Treasurer
Dave leads strategic planning, client development and market growth initiatives, guiding business development programs and working across disciplines and geographies to align the right expertise with client needs and advance key business objectives. His approach brings structure, clarity and consistency to how client programs are planned, prioritized and delivered.
With more than 20 years of experience leading complex infrastructure projects and business development initiatives, Dave focuses on transportation solutions that improve quality of life through safe, efficient mobility, expanded economic opportunity, and more sustainable, community-centered outcomes.
Dave has served in key leadership roles throughout the full project life cycle, helping deliver infrastructure improvements that meet schedule, budget and quality expectations. Notable projects include serving as project engineer during design and resident engineer during construction of the Manchester Road bridge replacement and pedestrian bridge rehabilitation in Wheaton, Illinois, improving connectivity, accessibility and safety.
Committed to advancing opportunity and leadership within the transportation industry, Dave serves as an executive officer of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) National Board, where he supports industry engagement, workforce development and leadership advancement.
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Tanya Adams
Immediate Past Chair
Tanya works with WSP USA’s business lines, regions, and functional groups to create a work environment that produces three key outcomes: a culture of trust that provides safe spaces for sensitive conversations; increased workforce diversity and advancement of diverse WSP talent; and greater support for WSP colleagues who are leaders in underrepresented communities. In addition, she advocates for business involvement in both the engineering and transportation communities and on WSP USA’s contracts. Prior to joining the firm, she served in leadership roles with the Illinois Department of Transportation for 19 years.
Tanya is actively involved in strategic initiatives with community organizations—serving alongside underrepresented business partners—and she develops and directs both internal and external programs to meet business needs. Tanya’s personal goal is to see the faces of America equally reflected at all levels of the transportation industry. She has devoted her career to serving as an advocate and a resource to all individuals and businesses.
Since 2007, Tanya has been involved in the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), having served as a member of the Board, Corporate Advisory Council, Joint Leadership Team, Women Who Move the Nation Committee, and the Program Planning Committee. In 2016, she was named COMTO’s Corporate Executive of the Year, in 2018 she received COMTO’s President’s Award for Excellence and currently serves as 1st Vice-Chair, recognizing her leadership efforts and outreach to minority and disadvantaged business firms locally and nationwide.
In 2015, she became the first African American woman to be elected to the board of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Illinois. She also served as the Chair of ACEC’s Students Engaged in Engineering Committee for 10 years, currently serving as Vice Board Chair, Tanya is actively engaging and fostering an interest in the transportation industry among students.
In addition, Tanya is a member of WTS and was named 2018 Woman of the Year; she also actively participates in the Illinois Road and Transportation Builders Association (IRTBA).
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Nancy Daubenberger
Member At-Large
Nancy Daubenberger has served as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation since May 2022.
Prior to her appointment, Nancy held several leadership and engineering roles during more than 25 years with the agency, including as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Engineer, Assistant Commissioner for Engineering Services, and State Bridge Engineer. She also previously held planning, project management and design roles with the MnDOT Bridge Office and Metro District. Before coming to MnDOT, she worked in consulting for six years, in both bridge and road design.
Nancy holds a master’s degree in civil engineering (with a structural emphasis) from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from North Dakota State University.
In 2022, Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Flanagan appointed her as the Chair of the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, and she co-chairs the Governor’s Advisory Council on Connected and Automated Vehicles.
Nancy serves on the Board of Directors for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. As a member of AASHTO, she serves on their Strategic Management Committee, she is the Chair for the Council on Active Transportation and Convenor of the Inter-Committee Working Group on Electric Vehicles. She serves on the Executive Committee for the Transportation Research Board.
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Garrett T. Eucalitto
Member At-Large
Garrett T. Eucalitto was confirmed as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) in January 2023. In this role, he oversees an agency tasked with providing a safe and efficient intermodal transportation network that improves the quality of life for all.
In addition to his role as commissioner, he was selected by his peers to serve as president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), is a member of the Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board, serves as co-chair of the Northeast Corridor Commission, chairs the state’s Vision Zero Council, and previously served as President for the Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials (NASTO).
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Debra Johnson
Member At-Large
Debra A. Johnson serves as the General Manager and CEO of the Regional Transportation District (RTD), the multi-modal transit agency serving the Denver metro region.
She joined RTD in 2020, having previously served as Deputy CEO of Long Beach Transit from May 2014 to October 2020. Prior to that, Johnson served as the Chief Operations Officer at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro), as well as other C-Suite positions at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). She began her career in the public transportation space at an engineering consulting firm, performing work on various capital improvement projects, and transitioned to roles in the public transit for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and later the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).
She serves on the American Public Transportation Association’s Executive Committee as well as many other association committees and serves as the Chair of the Public Transportation CEOs Coordinating Council and the Chair of the Commuter Rail CEOs Committee. Additionally, she serves in leadership roles on the boards the American Public Transportation Foundation; the International Association of Public Transport; and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) and on the COMTO Colorado Chapter Advisory Board. Johnson also serves as a Leadership Fellow for the Mineta Transportation Institute and as Chair of the Joint Service Executive Oversight Committee, which is engaged in a collaborative effort among several agencies to bring passenger rail service to Denver’s Northwest Metro region.
Within the Denver metro area, she serves on the Front Range Passenger Rail District Board of Directors, the Visit Denver Community Board, the Metropolitan State University of Denver Community Cabinet, the International Women’s Forum of Colorado, and the Denver Civic Ventures Board.
Johnson holds a master of arts degree in public administration from California State University, Hayward (now CSU East Bay) and a bachelor of arts degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis and is an alumna of Leadership San Francisco, the Eno Center for Transportation Senior Executive program, as well as Leadership Long Beach’s Executive program.
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Dr. Karen Philbrick
Member-At-Large
Karen Philbrick is the executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University. Dr. Philbrick leads two competitively selected multi-university consortia: the California State University Transportation Consortium (CSUTC), which unifies the surface transportation research and workforce development efforts of the 23-campus California State University system, and a Rail Training and Research Program funded by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Prior to joining MTI, Dr. Philbrick shaped the field of transportation in a variety of roles, including as assistant director of the National Center for Intermodal Transportation at the University of Denver. She was appointed four times by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation (Secretaries LaHood, Foxx, Chao, and Buttigieg) to sit on the USDOT Transit Advisory Committee for Safety (TRACS) where she chaired the FTA Administrator’s Tasking 14-02, which identified key elements of a safety management system approach to fatigue management.
Long committed to the USDOT University Transportation Center program, she was elected to several roles on the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) executive committee, including President. Dr. Philbrick also has the privilege of serving as the Immediate Past President of the Research and Education Division of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, where she also sits on the Board of Directors. Dr. Philbrick was the co-chair of the TCRP F-29 panel “Mental Health, Wellness, and Resilience for Transit System Workers,” and she currently chairs TCRP F-32 “Culture Reform: Psychological Health and Safety at the Workplace – The Missing Elements of Successful Workforce Retention and Recruitment in Transit.”
With an eye toward seamless and equitable transportation for all, Karen also serves the industry through elected positions on the boards of the American Public Transportation Foundation, the Academic Council for the Auto Innovators Alliance, the International Transportation Learning Center, and most recently, she was elected to a three year term on the TCRP Oversight and Project Selection (TOPS) Commission.
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Veronica Vanterpool
Member-At-Large
Veronica Vanterpool currently serves as AECOM's Senior Vice President, Americas Transit Lead for its global Transportation business. In this role, she will be responsible for delivering major transit projects across the Americas, driving AECOM’s business growth, and advancing its strategic priorities in this critical sector.
Veronica Vanterpool was appointed Deputy Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) in May 2022 after serving as Senior Advisor to the Administrator since August 2021. She worked directly with FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez to advance the goals of the Biden-Harris Administration and policy objectives of U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
She coordinated and provided executive and strategic direction on FTA’s focus areas, including safety, equity, workforce development, climate change and innovation. She represented FTA in several forums and working groups, including serving as the agency representative for the White House Interagency Policy Council on Puerto Rico, the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation and the USDOT Sustainability Officer’s Council.
Vanterpool joined the FTA from Delaware Transit Corporation, where she served as its first chief innovation Officer. During her tenure, she launched the state’s first on-demand microtransit service in a rural community and also launched and managed Delaware’s first autonomous transit shuttle demonstration program.
Deputy Administrator Vanterpool draws upon 16 years of experience in advocacy, policy, media communications, public outreach, coalition building and issue campaigns.
She is the former Deputy Director of the national Vision Zero Network and Executive Director of the New York City-based Tri-State Transportation Campaign. Deputy Administrator Vanterpool also served on the board of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority by the nomination of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In December 2022, Deputy Administrator Vanterpool completed the inaugural Presidential Leadership Workshop of the Biden-Harris Administration, a five-month leadership development program for senior-level political appointees serving in the Administration.
She co-founded the Delaware WTS Chapter, where she remains an active member, and served as the chapter’s first president. In addition, she is a member of Latinos in Transit, the DC Chapter of COMTO and Board Member Emeritus of the Bronx River Alliance, which serves to protect and preserve the Bronx River, NYC’s only freshwater river. She is a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent born and raised in the Bronx. She is a proud mom of a 2022 Rutgers University graduate working in the supply chain/logistics sector.
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Charlotte Shaw
COP Representative
Charlotte Shaw is a seasoned leader and multi-modal expert with over 30 years of leadership experience in the disciplines of capital programs, procurement, project and program management, construction and professional services in both the public and private sectors.
As the Chief Executive Officer at Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA) since 2021, she has excelled in strategic planning, innovative project management, and fostering key partnerships with a wide spectrum of professionals, multidisciplinary teams, and stakeholders. Her background in capital improvements and contract management from roles at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) and other esteemed organizations, has been essential to her success at BJCTA.
Shaw’s impactful leadership and guidance have transformed transit operations for BJCTA. Her strategic initiatives have fortified partnerships with labor unions and have secured substantial multi-million dollar federal and local grants, which enhanced transportation infrastructure without compromising service quality. During the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, she introduced cutting-edge technologies that boosted the local economy by over $165 million. Recognized for her achievements, Shaw holds various memberships in prestigious industry associations. In 2023, she was named the Executive Leader of the Year by the Minority Business Awards. In addition, she was elected as the Second Vice-President of the Transportation Association of Alabama (TAA) Board of Directors. Most recently, she was selected as one of the national honorees for Women Who Move the Nation by the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) and will be receiving that recognition this April in Washington, D.C. She was chosen for Leadership Birmingham Class of 2024.
Shaw holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Urban Studies and Public Administration from Drake University and is one of a few leaders to hold an Asset Management Certification. She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), Women in Transportation (WTS), Project Management Institute (PMI), National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA). Charlotte Shaw is not only a visionary in public transportation but also a symbol of excellence in leadership, a dynamic public speaker, and an exceptional role model.
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Edna Stanley
COP Representative
Edna Stanley
COP Representative
Edna Stanley is the Deputy Chief Operations Officer of Transit Service Delivery at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), the second-largest public transit agency in the United States. In this role, she oversees all daily bus and rail operations, including more than 4,700 operations personnel, six rail lines, and 118 bus routes. Her responsibilities also include Bus and Rail Operations Control, training, track allocation, vehicle burn-in and testing, and the start-up of major capital projects. She plays a key leadership role in regional mobility planning and operations for high-profile events, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Edna brings more than 25 years of experience in the transportation industry, with a career that spans nearly every aspect of bus and rail operations. She began her career in frontline roles such as Bus Operator and Train Operator and advanced through positions including Station Manager, Customer Communications Specialist, Dispatch Supervisor, Central Control Supervisor, Roadway Worker Protection Instructor, and Chief Operations Supervisor. Prior to joining Metro, she held executive and management roles at Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT), Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), and the University of Maryland Department of Transportation Services.
A committed leader in the industry, Edna serves as President of the Southern California Regional Chapter of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), where she has been a member since 2016 and previously held roles as 2nd Vice President, 1st Vice President, Scholarship Committee Chair and Membership Engagement Committee member (COMTO DC). She also serves on the COMTO National Board as a Council of Presidents representative, overseeing the West Coast Region.
Edna is an active member of WTS-LA, the League of Railway Women, and the California Transit Association Operations Committee. She serves as a mentor for the WTS-LA and WTS Sacramento chapters and participates in the APTA Emerging Leaders Program, as well as the APTA Bus and Rail Operations Committees. She also serves on the board of the Transportation Business Advisory Council.
Beyond her professional commitments, Edna is dedicated to community service, volunteering with organizations such as Be My Eyes, Everyone In, and local food banks throughout the Los Angeles region.
Edna is a graduate of the ENO Center for Transportation Executive Leadership Program. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Mary Baldwin College and a master’s degree in organizational leadership from California Baptist University. She is the recipient of the 2025 WTS-LA Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award.
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Brenda Nnambi
COP Representative Alternate
Brenda is the Director for Equity in Contracting at Sound Transit. She offers more than 35 years of dedicated service to civil rights, equity, and inclusion work in both the public and private sector. She previously led all civil rights programs statewide for WSDOT.