Paula Hammond

Paula Hammond is the National Transportation Market Leader for WSP USA, in Seattle, WA. Paula is responsible for representing the company as an industry leader in the emerging transportation practice areas of: funding and finance, organizational leadership, transportation resilience, performance management and asset management, pricing and managed lanes, and transportation system operations. Paula dedicated her 34-year public service career to improving transportation systems in Washington state, and served as WA Secretary of Transportation from 2007-2013. She has been a national figure on transportation issues, with leadership on numerous AASHTO committees, TRB Executive Board, ARTBA Board of Trustees and WTS International Board of Directors. Ms. Hammond is a graduate of Oregon State University (OSU) with a B.S. degree in civil engineering. She is a registered professional engineer in the State of Washington.

Paula has been a member of the WTS Puget Sound Chapter for over 20 years. While at WSDOT, she was instrumental in supporting the Chapter’s technical programs on state DOT services and projects, and participates in the mentorship of WTS members and students. She has been a member of the WTS International Board since 2014, and was inducted as Board Vice-Chair in May, 2018. As a Board member, Paula has led the Region Council Liaison committee, and served as the Northwest Region Council Board Liaison. She has actively supported the Board’s work to establish an updated strategic direction for the organization, and looks forward to successful efforts to grow WTS membership and partnerships within the industry to continue to advance women in transportation leadership.

Jannet Walker-Ford

Jannet Walker-Ford is an executive for AECOM, the world’s premiere infrastructure firm. She was recently appointed as the Senior Vice President for Transportation Strategy, Growth & Key Accounts for the Design and Consulting Services Americas (DCSA) where she is responsible for driving an integrated transportation business line strategy for growth and innovation across all market sectors. Prior to this role, Walker-Ford served as Cubic Corporation’s Vice President of Government Affairs and as the Vice President and General Manager for the Eastern Region of the Americas with P/L and delivery responsibilities.  Walker-Ford has more than two decades of diverse public and private sector and experience and previously held senior leadership roles with Parsons Corporation, CH2M Hill (now Jacobs) and Booz Allen Hamilton. During her time in the public sector, she served as the Metropolitan Area Rapid Transit Authority’s (MARTA) Deputy General Manager/Deputy CEO and as the Assistant General Manager & Chief Information Officer where she led the Breeze Card Program, the first ever regional all smart card fare payment system in the United States

Just this year, Walker-Ford was elected Chair of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) Foundation and as the Vice Chair of WTS International Board and recognized as the National Women of Color’s STEM Conference as a Technology All Star, the 2019 Transportation Diversity Council (TDC) – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Honoree for Service to the Transportation Industry, by the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials’ Women Who Move the Nation and by the Miami Women Who Rock for National Business Achievement. She has also received past recognitions from the Technology Association of Georgia  as the Women in Technology’s Woman of the Year, the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) as the  Outstanding MBA of the Year, National Women of Color’s STEM Conference for the Professional Achievement Technology Award - Industry Category and Philadelphia's Women of Substance and Style.

Walker-Ford serves on numerous boards including the Jacksonville University Board of Trustees, WTS International Board, WTS Foundation as Vice Chair, American Public Transportation Association (APTA), American Public Transportation Foundation as Chair, Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville as Chair and ENO Transportation Advisory Board.

Walker-Ford received her bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Memphis and a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from Central Michigan University, and has completed significant coursework toward her doctorate in Information Systems at Nova Southeastern University.

Walker-Ford strives to inspire young girls, women and minority professionals to pursue roles in STEM and transportation-related fields.

Danielle Smith

Danielle Smith is the Central Region Director for Triunity, Inc. and is based out of the Denver headquarter office.  Danielle oversees the operations, business development and project management of the engineering, construction management and program management teams that provide services in all aspect of transportation. Danielle has over 25 years of delivering transportation projects in Colorado and was involved in the nationally recognized multi- modal project T-REX and the FasTracks project. Danielle’s leadership role as a program manager on FasTracks included experience of project prioritization, stakeholder coordination, highway and light rail design oversight, utility coordination, project controls, cost estimating, and project coordination. She has excellent communication and the ability to lead teams to implement projects and bring them to completion.

She has been active in the WTS Colorado Chapter since 1997, serving in roles as Secretary and President. She was WTS Colorado Member of the Year in 2016. She was named the Council Chair for the pilot Northwest Regional Council in 2014 and has severed on the International Advisory Board. Danielle served as Treasurer for the International Board in 2018 to 2020.  She will serve as Secretary of the International Board and is looking forward to continuing to serve and promote the WTS mission.

Susan Martinovich

Susan serves as the DOT National Practice Consultant for HNTB, supporting the firm’s national DOT and toll market teams in building and fostering relationships and providing strategic advice with clients across the country. As part of HNTB’s leadership team, she also mentors and coaches project, office, and division leadership teams.

In her almost 40 year career, Susan has been a nationally recognized expert in surface transportation development in the areas of safety initiatives to reduce fatalities, alternative project delivery methods, asset management and performance-based decision making, and transportation funding mechanisms and policies to ensure continued investment in the nation’s infrastructure.

For nearly three decades, Susan was part of the Nevada Department of Transportation, including serving two Governors of Nevada as the DOT Director for the last six of those years. As Director, she worked to form the Department into a responsive and customer friendly agency through broader communications strategies both within and externally to give, receive, and follow-up with information, and to improve transparency and show accountability to the Nevada Governor, Legislature and public.

She initiated several programs which are still in place today, including the Joint NDOT/Construction committee, the Executive Leaders Safety Committee, and NDOT Leadership training

Under her leadership, she oversaw the design and construction of several key projects within Nevada, including the Hoover Dam Bypass, US95 Widening in Las Vegas, I-15/US95 Design build (the first in the state), I-580 Freeway between Reno and Carson City, and the Carson City Bypass.

Susan has held numerous chair and vice-chair AASHTO Committee leadership positions including being elected AASHTO President (the first woman) in 2010.  Other committee leadership roles include - the Chair of Committee on Research, Chair of Committee on Safety, Vice-Chair Committee on Design, and Vice-Chair Committee on Highways.  She was also a member of the TRB Executive Board.  She has been on the WTS International Board for 3 terms, with the last term as the Board’s Secretary and she is also on the ARTBA Executive Board.

She is also the proud mother of two sons.  One is the city transportation engineer for Carson City, NV and the other is a retired marine who know works at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Reno, NV.

Maggie Walsh

Maggie Walsh is Vice President and Strategic Clients and Pursuits Leader at HDR, a leading consulting company in engineering, architecture, environmental and construction services. She leads teams in securing new work by providing guidance, oversight and support for highly visible and game changing project pursuits. She keeps her focus on strategic client development programs across market sectors including transit, freight rail, highways, bridges, aviation and maritime resulting in transformative growth for HDR employees.

Maggie has been an active member and supporter of WTS since 1997. Having a strong connection to Chapter level activities and has a solid understanding of WTS International’s needs, her tenure as Chair of the Board advanced the organization in many ways. Operationally, a new WTS Staff has been hired and a new operating systems and website have been put into place. Strategic partners and professional organization alliances were strengthen by formalizing relationships with AASHTO, ARTBA, COMTO, TRB and APTA. All six Region Councils were launched, 62 professional chapters are active and the organization has grown to 8,500 members. The brand and image of the organization has been refreshed to better reflect the forward-thinking, inspiring, inclusive nature of WTS.

Today, Maggie serves as Immediate Past Chair and the Governance Committee Lead. She has held several other leadership positions including a 3-year term as the Greater Chicago Chapter President, International Board Liaison to the Central Region and she remains on the Greater Chicago Chapter advisory board. Maggie served a two-year term on the WTS Foundation Board where $611,000 in scholarships were given out in 2019. She feels very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in Chapter events as she travels throughout North America.