President's Message: September/October 2021
Dear WTS-DC Chapter Members and Friends,
Fall is here! I hope the season has started off well for you, and, for those of you with children, I hope the new school year is going well.
Given that the school year has kicked off, this is the time of year when WTS-DC begins reviewing applications for our scholarship program. The WTS-DC chapter offers graduate, undergraduate, and junior (community) college scholarships, typically ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 each. Select recipients of the WTS-DC scholarships will then be nominated for WTS International recognition—the Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship ($10,000), the Leadership Legacy Scholarship for Graduates ($5,000), the Sharon D. Banks Memorial Scholarship ($5,000), the Molitoris Leadership Scholarship for Undergraduates ($5,000), and the Junior College Scholarship ($2,500). If your organization is interested in sponsoring a scholarship, please reach out to our WTS-DC Scholarship Committee.
This is also the time of year when we start planning for the coming year, especially ensuring that we have a full board of volunteers. If you are interested in getting involved with the WTS-DC board, now is the perfect time to say so! Please email me and we can find a time to discuss your interest in any of our 12 board committees.
WTS-DC remains active in hosting programs to benefit our membership and our community. On August 11, we held our annual event with YPT-DC and TRF-DC. This year the topic was “After COVID: Future Travel and Land Use in the National Capital Region” and there was a lively discussion with the audience. Later in August, we held our annual bike event which, this year, highlighted the bike infrastructure improvements in DC. On September 8, we held an event titled “Exploring Equanimity” during which our session leader, Christine Baker (Principal Planner and Vision Zero Program Manager for Arlington County), led attendees in yoga to help them achieve mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper. On September 15, Norma Krayem of Van Scoyoc Associates led a fascinating discussion on “Navigating the Cyber Storm: Understanding Cybersecurity Risks in the Transportation Sector” with panelists CISA, APTA, WMATA, and TSA. A week later, on September 23, we hosted our annual event with VDOT, the topic this year being “VDOT Leaders: A Candid Discussion on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” We hope you were able to join us for these interesting events! Stay tuned for additional programing in the coming months.
As fall snowballs into the holiday season, we at WTS-DC are preparing for our Annual Holiday Party. The festivities will be held on Tuesday, December 7 at the Hotel Monaco. During this party, we will be giving out our scholarship awards and our recognition awards. We have an impressive list of recognition awardees this year, so please be on the lookout for more information about the party. We hope you will be able to join us!
We hope to engage with you again soon!
Best,
Neela Babu, Ph.D.
President, WTS-DC Chapter
Contact Us!
If you or your organization are interested in contributing to WTS-DC and would like to know how you could do so, please contact us. You can reach us through any of our social media channels listed below, or you can email me at president.wts.dc@gmail.com.