Tamara Smith

Vice President/Scholarship Chair

Dr. Smith is an associate vice president/senior project manager at AECOM. She has over 20 years of professional experience managing major state and local projects. During her career in the STEM industry, she has worked as a Project Manager or Administrator with AECOM, providing services to several clients on large multi-million-dollar projects in the Connecticut area, including Amtrak and the Connecticut Department of Transportation. As a project management professional, she is responsible for planning, overseeing, and leading projects from inception to completion. She meets budgetary objectives and adjusts project constraints based on financial analysis. With a strong understanding of the impact and implications of decisions, she consistently analyzes project issues to make sound, well-informed, objective decisions for her clients.

Dr. Smith holds a doctoral degree in organizational leadership. Her doctoral research study explored the status of women in STEM leadership positions. The qualitative exploratory case study aimed to understand what engineering industry leaders and former leaders perceive as obstacles to female career advancement to STEM leadership positions. She hopes to use the study’s results to help practitioners understand the obstacles female employees are experiencing and to drive positive changes that will increase leadership diversity in the STEM fields.

With a passion for giving back to the STEM industry, she serves on various professional organizations, including Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) CT Chapter, American Council of Engineering Companies of Connecticut (ACEC/CT), and Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), CT Chapter. She is the current Treasurer, an Executive Board member, and the scholarship chair of the Connecticut COMTO chapter. She is the 2022-2024 co-chair for ACEC/CT Emerging Leaders and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEI&B) committees. She was recently elected to serve as a director, alternate for ACEC/CT 2023-2026 term. She serves as an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee member of WTS International. She is a member of COMTO National Strategic Planning Committee. She is an active member of the West Indian Social Club of Hartford and the Greater Hartford West Indian Lion’s Club—Dr. Smith mentors at the University of Phoenix, College of Doctoral Studies.