Dear WTS-DC Chapter Members and Friends,

On behalf of the WTS-DC Board, I would like to wish all of you a happy spring and thank you for your continued support of the WTS-DC Chapter. It is always a fun time of year to watch tourists and locals alike take advantage of the diverse transportation modes we have in the DC area to go see the cherry blossoms.

As I begin my term as President of the WTS-DC chapter, the calendar is already filling up with many exciting events. Our chapter is showcasing female transportation leaders in Northern Virginia for our first two events, with Renée Hamilton, Monica Backmon and Kate Mattice sharing their insights. And I am looking forward to meeting fellow chapter leaders and members at the 2024 WTS International Annual Conference, The Crescent City: Connecting Cultures, Connecting Communities, which will be held from May 8–10, 2024 in New Orleans, LA.

We had a very multimodal fall and winter of 2023, starting with Women Who are Moving the Aviation Industry Forward in September. We followed with our annual event with VDOT on Multimodal Transportation: Connecting Communities while Transforming Tomorrow's Travel. October featured Cocktails and Conversation with WMATA’s General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke, an event that is fast becoming a popular tradition, and towards the end of the month a bike tour of Washington, DC. Closing out the year were a joint Equity, Diversity and Inclusion event with several other chapters "You Belong Here" - Harnessing the Power of Inclusion featuring Dr. Katrina Hutchins, and finally our Holiday Party, during which we presented our 2023 Recognition Awards and Scholarship Awards.

We had a record number of attendees at our Holiday Party, and I want to thank May El-Khattab (Burns Engineering) and Chetna Sinha (Gannett Fleming) for organizing another wonderful event. I also want to extend special thanks and congratulations to our Corporate Membership and Fundraising Committee, chaired by Shelley Johnson (Epstein Creative) for raising a record $63,000 in corporate memberships.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming events. We always look for new and better ways to serve the DC transportation community, so please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any feedback or thoughts to share.

Wishing you all a good continuation of 2024 personally and professionally,

Sophie Guiny

WTS-DC Chapter President