WTS Central VA Winter Newsletter 2025
2025 End of Year Recap
A Letter from Our Chapter President:
As we close out 2025, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to each of you for an incredible year. Serving as your Chapter President has been an honor, and I’m thrilled to continue in this role for 2026—our 20th anniversary year!
This past year, I brought the theme of Balanced Brilliance: Cultivating Excellence in Every Dimension to our board during the board retreat in January. The idea behind this theme was to enrich our networking events while also facilitating meaningful and informative seminars. I recognized that I had some lofty goals for 2025, but I have never been one to back down from a challenge. Over the past year, I was astonished to see how this theme was able to come to life through your energy, engagement, and support. Together, we launched innovative programs like our “Lunch & Lens” event, blending professional development with networking in a fresh way. We also broke new ground with the Inaugural Joint Pickleball Tournament with ASCE—proof that collaboration can be both productive and fun.
Our programming was engaging and empowering. From Professor Richard Coughlan’s insightful webinar on professional negotiations to our Women’s Month Career Spotlight featuring Michelle Roberts of HDR, we created spaces for learning and growth. Our annual and marquee events such as Transportation Trivia and our Annual Awards Reception saw record attendance, and enhancements to our scholarship program helped us further WTS’s mission to attract, sustain, connect, and advance women’s careers in transportation.
None of this would have been possible without the dedication of our board members and the enthusiasm of our chapter community. Thank you for helping the chapter grow—and for helping me grow as a leader and person.
Let’s carry this momentum into 2026 and make our 20th anniversary year our most impactful yet.
Sincerely,
Alexa Overeem
Meet the 2026 Board of Directors and Committee Chairs
We are proud to announce our 2026 Board of Directors and Committee Chairs in charge of leading the Chapter's efforts for the next year.
Events Recap
2025 Annual Recognition Awards
At our Annual Reception this year, we celebrated our award winners and listened to inspiring speeches from leaders in our industry. Our Woman of the Year, Marshall Herman, gave the keynote speech for the evening. We also had the honor of shining a spotlight on Cathy McGhee to celebrate her tenacity, longevity, and the path she has set forth for women in the transportation industry with the new Cathy McGhee Trailblazer in Transportation Award. One more big congratulations to all of our award winners!
Give Thanks Event
This year’s Give Thanks Event was another one for the books! We partnered with ACEC Virginia to support the YWCA Richmond’s Sprout School program. In total we were able to raise $1,800 which helped provide classroom supplies for each of the Sprout School 2nd Presbyterian’s seven classrooms. Volunteers helped to assemble classroom boxes and spent time with students enrolled at 2nd Presbyterian. We read STEM-themed books and brought a variety of building blocks to spark creativity and introduce students to the foundations of engineering through hands-on play. Thank you to all those who donated and volunteered time to this event- we are proud to partner with and support such an impactful program in our community!
Upcoming Events
WTS Central Viginia Chapter turns 20!
We are thrilled to be going into our 20th year as a chapter with all of you as our supporters, sponsors, and members. We are looking forward to celebrating throughout the year during 2026, and we will be kicking things off with our anniversary celebration event in March. Please save the evening of March 24, 2026, on your calendars for this special event!
We are also in the process of planning events for 2026. Our Annual Transportation Trivia Night benefiting our scholarship fund will be in February. Stay tuned for more information on this highly anticipated annual event for our chapter.
Thank you to our 2025 Chapter Sponsors
Each year, our Platinum and Benefactor sponsors go above and beyond to support not only our chapter, but also our local community and women across the transportation industry. We invite you to learn more about our sponsors by clicking here.
Looking to Get More Involved?
Join a Committee
Make the most of your membership by joining one of our committees. Committees include communications, sponsorship, membership, programs, scholarship, and Transportation YOU. If you're interested in taking a more active role within the chapter, please contact our 2026 Chapter President, Alexa Overeem, at [email protected].
Transportation YOU Volunteers Needed
The Central VA Chapter will be partnering with NextUp RVA and City of Richmond Public Schools to offer our Transportation YOU weekly after-school sessions for the 2025-2026 and upcoming 2026-2027 school years. In 2024, we worked with both Lucille M. Brown and Thomas Henderson Middle Schools to bring STEM to 15 young women. We plan on volunteering again starting in March 2026 for the spring session. All year long, Transportation YOU will be focusing on our webinars, attending career fairs, and in-school presentations. Current members, in good standing, interested in volunteering their time should complete the volunteer form found here. Unable to volunteer your time, but still want to help out? Contact Zarriea Latimore if your company is interested in sponsoring one of our weekly sessions.