“Raise Your Hand.” Bridgette Beato on Power, Mentorship, and Building Careers That Last

Let's talk about the role and the power and the importance of

women in public transportation.

I'm Paul Comfort, and on this episode of Transit Unplugged, we take you to a live

interview conducted at the TRB Conference in Washington, DC with Bridgette Beato.

She's the chair of WTS, the Women Transportation Seminar, the largest

women's group in public transportation, and we dive into the role that this

organization plays in promoting women in transit, the importance

of having them represented in the top positions in our industry.

And we also talk about the role of mentoring and how to maneuver your

career in public transportation.

It's a really powerful, interesting interview.

I think you'll find fascinating with Bridgette Beato, who not

only is chair of WTS, but she also owns her own very successful

business Lumenor Consulting Group.

Let's listen to this conversation now with Bridgette recorded live at TRB.

We're excited to be at the Washington DC Convention Center in downtown

Washington at the Transportation Research Board Conference, and I am

with my good friend, Bridgette Beato.

Bridgette, thanks for doing the show today.

Thank you so much, Paul.

I'm excited to be here and talk with you.

Yeah.

This is our, Fantastic February we're some of the top guests in the country

on our show, and, you're chair of WTS.

Tell us what is WTS?

WTS is Women's Transportation Seminar and everybody who knows us simply as

WTS, but I'd like to go a little bit into the background of that name.

When we started the organization almost 50 years ago, women were not

allowed to go to conferences, but they were allowed to attend seminars.

Wow.

It's unbelievable.

Especially in these times right now.

Yeah.

But that meaning and that history, we refused to change the name

because it's important to have that history as we move forward

And tell us about the organization now.

The organization is phenomenal.

We have over 70 chapters.

We have five more chapters in formation right now.

We've truly expanded internationally.

We have Canadian chapters and more growing.

We have over 10,000 members, so it's been a really high growth area.

But the key about WTS that I think is so important is, you know, our whole

mission, it's attracting, advancing, and promoting women in transportation.

And we do that through scholarship programs.

We do that through training programs, networking, and,

and creating opportunities for women to come into our industry.

And we try to make sure that they stay.

26% is the figure of women in our industry.

So we still need to work to get that number up.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

So speaking of your chapters and scholarships, you've got some

amazing things going on there.

So this is in February, so, but in December you have a chapter in Washington

DC and they host a big holiday party, like a Christmas holiday party.

And I've been going the last couple years because in my role at the executive

director of the North American Transit Alliance, we give a scholarship.

Mm-hmm.

A $2,500 scholarship to a woman who is pursuing advanced education.

Something related to transportation.

Tell us about the scholarships and how all that works.

The scholarships are amazing.

So altogether, WTS has awarded just under a million dollars

of scholarships last year.

So it's significant.

Yeah,

it's a large amount.

And you have big sponsors like Boeing and all kinds of things like that?

Yeah,

We have many sponsors across the country.

They happen at our chapter levels as well as the international level.

And it really is, it's amazing.

Some like you are for advanced education, others focus on people

that are in trade schools, so we try to cover the full gamut.

Oh, that's cool.

I like that.

We do it for both, you know, undergraduate as well as graduate programs.

Yeah.

We have training programs that go into the high school level, so we're

really trying to attract these young women and bring them into the industry.

And then after they're graduating, we work with them to get internships and to get

jobs so they can stay in our industry.

That's really good.

Bridgette.

Yeah.

the other thing I was gonna mention about that holiday party is, it's like

the place to be in Washington, DC.

Everybody's there from Randy Clark, the head of WMATA to FTA people.

I mean, the WTS DC chapter is like creating something not just

for women, so to speak, right.

For an event like that.

Absolutely.

And it really, it's, you know, the foundation.

We wouldn't be making any changes if it weren't for the men that were there

at the table and all of our chapters, we have awards where we recognize

those men for the transformations that they're making, and all of our

chapters have this amazing event.

a lot of them call it a scholarship gala or an event.

Oh, okay.

And sometimes it's coupled with a holiday party and it

is definitely the place to be.

Yeah.

So just what you were saying that I just remembered back when I was

CEO of MTA in Baltimore, I remember WTS put on like a big luncheon.

Mm-hmm.

There was probably like three or 400 people there.

Absolutely.

And the Secretary of Transportation spoke, my boss and all that.

I mean.

You guys are big time.

We, we do.

I mean, I knew you were, but Yeah.

Well, it's been amazing because, you know, we have support from the

U.S. DOT, we have support from local DOT commissioners and secretaries.

Is that right?

How they support you?

What do they do?

So they've been supporting us with membership.

They attend our events, they come and speak.

We've had, different representatives and administrators

that come and, speak to the.

Scholarship recipients speak at our awards.

They provide keynote.

Just last night we had Seval Oz as our keynote speaker.

Oh yeah.

At our chairs reception here at the TRB club.

Oh yeah.

That was fun too, by the way.

That was a packed room with all the power players here.

It was.

We were sold out once again.

And so that's a thing that's really nice.

And we like to host that at TRB because we see ourselves as a really good

intersection across different modes.

So whenever you're bringing everybody together, WTS is a great mechanism

to bring together DOTs to transit agencies, ports, aviation, and so it's

a nice organization where you can have people from all those different areas.

Yeah, that's good.

So what else do you all do?

Let's say I'm a young woman and I wanna get involved.

I say, oh, I never heard about this before.

You know, and they hear me talking to you.

What would she do if she wanted to get involved, like in a

local chapter or whatever?

You'd just show up and you.

Okay.

Introduce yourself.

You let somebody know that,

is there like a membership fee or something, or,

there are, there's, there's membership fees and we have them at different

levels, ranging from student all the way up to executive career.

Okay.

And there's different benefits that happen across each membership level.

I think it's important whenever you go there, you just introduce yourself,

let people know, and you will find yourself welcomed into a community.

WTS has a saying, it's our code.

If you ever need something, you call somebody.

Anybody that's a WTS member.

And you reach out to them and you ask for help and the WTS code is, you will

always get a response to that phone call.

Oh, that's good.

And you'll have mentorship programs too, anything like that?

We do.

We have 'em at the chapter as well as the international level.

And it's really wonderful.

We have it for, all levels of leadership.

So we have it from, we talked a little bit about the Transportation U

program, which goes into high schools.

We have it for emerging leaders, advancing leaders.

We also have a women business owners round table.

Where small businesses can get together and, learn from each other

and go through mentorship programs.

So there's a lot of opportunities to try and touch everyone

across their career journeys.

Right.

What about like, so, you know, with the podcast I talk to CEOs all the

time and one of the things I think that maybe people don't realize is

it is kind of lonely at the top.

you're not gonna be openly vulnerable.

A lot of times, you know, you go to a, a big national transportation conference.

I won't say the name of those conferences, but everybody's got

their chest puffed out and they're trying to be, you know, the, the best

they can be and put on a good show.

But, so let's say I'm somebody like a Leslie Richards or somebody

who's at the CEO or C-Suite level, what benefits do they get from WTS?

that's where we have our executive program.

Okay.

And so we'll do executive women's round tables where just like you

said, you have opportunities in, you know, more of a smaller setting.

So talk about some of the things that you may not wanna be vulnerable about.

Yeah, yeah.

In a, you know, a large conference setting where, like you said,

people may be putting their high level presentation form forward.

Right.

But that's one of the ways that we, you know, we do create those spaces where you

can have the conversations and you can get the guidance, and you can get the support

and really just talk through some of the challenges, because you're right, when

you're at the top, there's not a whole lot of people that you can really go to.

What struggles are there now for women to get involved at the highest levels?

It seems like you've kind of broken the glass ceiling when it comes to the CEO.

The last few years there's been a lot of women CEOs appointed I've noted, and

I've had a lot of 'em on the podcast.

What other things are you all, do you feel like, you're working

on your challenges or whatever?

we do a lot of focus with women to say, you know, you've gotta raise your hand,

you've gotta put yourself out there.

Oh, that's good.

And let it be known that you wanna have those career advancement opportunities

and you need to, reach out to the people that you work with, your

colleagues, your mentors, and really find that and create that journey.

some people have started their careers and and shared that

they just kind of go along.

But you have to really create that plan.

Yeah.

It's just like whenever you're running a business without a plan,

you don't tend to achieve that.

And it's the same thing with your career journeys.

Yeah.

Having that plan, letting people know that you're open to it and

not waiting to be called on.

Putting yourself out there to say, this is something that I want.

And, asking people to help coach.

It's remarkable in this industry how willing people are.

Yeah.

To help each other.

Yeah.

I love that.

I have three thoughts on that.

Let's talk about these a little bit.

One is like the Andy Byford model of career planning.

I've talked about this before on the show.

Andy told me people know Andy, you know, the train daddy and all that stuff.

So, he, you know, he started in London, then went to Toronto, was CEO

there, then New York City, CEO there, then back to London, and now he's at

Amtrak, helping to do Penn Station.

and he told me he curated his career.

He had a plan, he said, Paul, I knew I wanted to be the best CEO I

could be so I did a couple years in safety, a couple years in operations,

a couple years administration.

So that's one model of careers.

Let's talk about that.

What do you think about that?

That sounds like what you're encouraging women to look at is plan out your career.

Don't just stay there.

I, think so.

I mean, and, and it's a great example and he's one that has been very open

about having a plan that's very specific and very detailed and and defined.

And I think that's definitely an option.

And I think there's also things that, curve balls come along.

That's right.

That's what I wanted to talk about next.

Let's go into that then.

I'm more of the follow the river of life kind of guy.

So, you know, I'm, I'm in this river, I'm feeling like I'm

meeting the people I need to meet.

You know, I'm, testing whether I'm in the right place based on, timing.

Mm-hmm.

So, I remember one time I was at a conference, when I was in county

management and I wanted to, talk to a guy about a job in a different

county, and I'm walking outta this room with thousands of people and

I feel led to walk out this door.

I walk out, I literally bump right into him.

He was leaving the conference.

I wouldn't have seen him, and he's very hard to get on the phone.

That to me is like a signal.

Okay, I'm in the right place at the right time.

I'm on the right path.

What do you think about that as a career path model,

Yeah.

I think that people live their lives in different ways.

Yeah.

And there's some people that are just open and looking at all times.

What's an opportunity that may present itself, or to your point, you run into

somebody and create that opportunity.

Yeah.

You know, put yourself out there.

And I think there's sometimes the curve balls that are unplanned.

That's great.

Bridgette, this is actually a good segue 'cause I wanted you to kind

of tell your story a little bit.

I think it's a good model for women or men to look at.

so where did you go to college and what were you interested in?

How did, how did you get into this industry?

So, I went to college.

I went to school at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

Okay.

And I studied management information systems.

MIS, the old MIS, I remember that.

Yes.

I guess I will say it's the precursor to all of our data

analytics and visualization now.

Yeah.

But back then it was a big thing.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I came outta school and I went to work in the energy industry.

Okay.

I started doing large scale system implementations, and that's the career

path that I followed for the first 10 years, ah, of my career journey.

And I thought that that would be something I was going on, you know, into perpetuity.

Yeah.

And that's actually how I fell into the public sector of transportation.

I was doing supply chain logistics, really focused in the private side, and

then I took an opportunity to help MARTA with a large system implementation.

Okay.

And I just fell in love with the industry.

I loved that we were doing something intentional, that it was meaningful,

that we were really creating a space that we could have an impact.

Coming from other backgrounds, you just didn't really always know, you didn't

have the openness and the support.

I was able to call people up at other agencies and say,

Hey, how did you guys do this?

And we could answer where,

oh yeah.

The

early part of my resume, I wasn't even able to write down what clients,

'cause everything was confidential.

Oh wow.

So it was a complete shift in my perspective.

Yeah.

And we don't compete against each other.

So you can call whoever Right.

Philadelphia to get input on what you're doing in Pittsburgh or Atlanta.

Yeah,

absolutely.

So that was really wonderful and I loved that aspect.

'cause we're, you know.

Good stewards of taxpayer funds, if you

will,

yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And so then what did you start your own company, then you decided to.

so the company, it's a very interesting story because I never envisioned

myself as being an entrepreneur.

That was actually not part of my plan.

Okay.

And I think that's where I talk about the curve balls.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That I, you know, referenced.

For me personally, I had a family tragedy.

And so that shifted everything.

Mm-hmm.

I was no longer able to continue along that path.

And, you know, sadly, and that's part of the reason that I became the

chair of WTS because there weren't opportunities for me, or I didn't

feel there were opportunities for me In the kind of positions that I

wanted to take with the larger firms.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so I really created my business out of necessity.

Okay.

And I started it as what is referred to as a lifestyle business.

I created it because I wanted to be able to do the work.

I wanted to select whom I was working with, pick meaningful

projects, but I needed flexibility in my own personal life.

Yeah.

And so you started Lumenor Consulting, and what kind of projects did you start

doing when you first kicked it off?

When I first kicked it off, I stuck with my large scale mega implementation, so I

did a lot of the fare collection programs.

Oh yeah.

I started out,

that's where I met you.

That's where we met,

yeah.

Yeah.

When I was at MTA.

Back in Baltimore.

Yeah.

Okay.

So supported, you know, agencies across North America and actually

went over to London to do some work with them, and it was wonderful.

And then after eight years, I decided, well, I wanna start to build this.

And so, you know, Lumenor is now 18 years old.

Okay.

Uh, next November we'll get to 20 years.

So it's gonna be a big celebration, you know, for Lumenor.

And, um, we've grown to over 50 people.

And so now we've got, across all different modes and it shifted,

you know, like we talk about the curve balls, the changes,

you're other things now, right?

We're in other things and we go across all modes of transportation.

Yeah.

Talk about what you all do, your company.

So Lumenor does environmental services.

We still do large scale mega implementations.

So we support things like asset management we have a project controls group.

So for instance, here in Washington DC we support the Metro procurement

department and we help them manage their program management, construction

management, and GAEC contracts.

Okay.

Other groups?

Within Lumenor we have, uh, the asset management, and then

we do planning and geospatial.

So you decide to start your own company, get it going, and you're,

kind of growing into different areas, That your company can address.

You're at 50 people now.

You're almost not a small business anymore.

But, but let's talk about small businesses.

How do you get your work, do you bid directly with agencies or do you

bid as a sub with a larger A&E or both or what's the story on that?

It's a combination.

Um, you know, early stages, we went after everything as a prime because

I just didn't know any better.

Oh yeah.

And somehow we won a couple of awards.

I got my first contract with LA Metro and then I was able to move over.

SEPTA supported me on a, an award.

I got some work in Baltimore MTA.

But then as I wanted to start growing, then I really started

to partner with the A&E firms.

Okay.

And working together with them.

Now that I've gotten to be larger, now I'm trying to create

a different model where we go in and, you know, we go in as a prime.

Yeah.

And it takes a lot of, support from the industry to do that,

and I think the industry's really seeming to be, supportive of that.

For instance, this project that I won as a prime in Washington DC

I brought in a minority firm that had not been working at the agency.

So trying to create other models where, maybe you flip it a little bit, I've got

a large, A&E firm with me supporting.

And so by taking these economies of scale and bringing multiple firms

together, we can support because I think what the the agencies really

need is they need specialized skills.

Hmm.

And we've got the mega firms that do a fantastic job on

all of these mega projects.

But you have smaller firms and really we come in with the boutique service.

And I think it's important.

And right now in our industry, we've gotta really be intentional to make

sure that we create that opportunity and allow that innovation to continue.

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Tell us about how you bundle, memberships for agencies.

So we've really expanded our agency partner program in recent years,

and what we've done is we've created multiple levels to attract an agency

at whatever is most meaningful to them.

So some of them may be opportunities for them to have bundled memberships, others

that really wanna provide training.

We'll bundle in our signature leadership training on both

the executive and mid-career.

And then the final one is if you wanna have a combination of all of

those, so we've created these new opportunities to attract the agencies,

like, like a transit agency?

A transit agency, a DOT.

Okay.

A port.

Okay.

We've had, you know, we're, we're expanding across the full gamut, and

this is a way that we can bring a lot of the different modes together.

Because I think WTS really sits there at the Nexus, and so we have the, the

different opportunities and we wanna keep women in transportation, whether

you're gonna go in from one mode to another, but having the agency part

of that conversation is critical.

So let's say back when I was CEO of MTA, so if I wanted to say, okay,

I've got these, you know, six women leaders that I see up and coming

leaders in my agency, what would I do?

So you could contact WTS International.

Okay.

And it's offered through international, not at the chapter level.

Okay.

It's at the international level.

And talk through, with our CEO, Dr. Malika Reed Wilkins,

what is meaningful to you.

And, she can direct as to which is gonna be the most impactful

for your particular agency.

And then sponsorships.

Talk about, you know, how do WTS is a nonprofit, but you

still have to have money to run.

How do you make your money other than, okay, you got those and

you've got membership dues there.

Anything else you do, can other.

Big organizations or companies get involved?

Absolutely.

And we do, we've got different, corporate partners and sponsors that, come

in and support at different levels.

And, uh, there's opportunities that we create at, you know, everything

from a pinnacle level all the way down to a pillar level, which is

attractive to small businesses.

Okay.

So there's a variety of levels with different benefits at each level.

And, the ROI back to the sponsors is that we're actually doing

a lot of training and a lot of advancement for their own employees.

Oh yeah.

So that's the, that's the value proposition for them.

Yeah.

They love, you know, it's not just that they love supporting WTS 'cause

it's a great organization, but a portion of their contributions go

to fund our scholarships and then we're actually creating meaningful

value back to their employee base.

So if I'm a, a. Or if a listener here is a woman who wants to, you

know, she's thinking about her career and not sure, that's where that

mentorship program could come in.

So they could actually meet with somebody through WTS and you would tell

'em, okay, let's talk about your plan.

It's no money.

You don't, they don't have to pay for that.

No.

It's all part of your membership.

That's great, man.

It's part of your chapters.

And then, you know, we have, for instance, with the women business owners round

table, I have women that reach out to me that are interested in starting

their business, and we connect them and talk to them about what is that?

What does it really look like?

What does it really take?

Yeah.

And, you know, help each other.

Career journey wise, you know, people wanna talk through something.

We do a signature leadership training, so we do that for, executive and mid-career.

So we actually have a multi-day group where you go through and you have the

training to really go through and help.

And then you have that cohort that can follow you through.

As you go through your career journey.

So it's another mechanism to stay connected and work with people.

That's great.

two more things I wanna talk about.

One is just from, so you, you have a really unique perspective.

You are not only running a business for almost 20 years in the

transportation industry, but you're head of a big national association.

for public transportation?

Just any general thoughts you have.

I think we're at a very transformative time.

Okay.

And I think if we.

Are not intentional about the journey, then we could have

some unintended consequences.

Hmm.

there's a lot of change and change is good.

Yes.

You know, I think we need change and I think when there's dramatic

change, like we're seeing, everything from the technologies that we have.

Yeah.

The opportunity to, you know, you've got AI you've got autonomous vehicles.

There's a lot of opportunities that come in here.

With opportunity comes risk.

Yeah.

And I think just understanding and making sure that as we make

our decisions, that we understand the full consequences of those.

Even, taking a look, shifting back to my perspective about small businesses,

there's been a lot of change in that area.

And, you know, we have to be intentional to make sure that we create and continue

to have those opportunities so that the businesses don't leave our industry.

That's right.

Yeah.

That's important.

So we are here at TRB, the Transportation Research Board, and you all had

this fantastic reception last night.

What's the connection between WTS and TRB other than you have?

Three initials in your name.

So TRB is an MOU partner of ours.

Okay.

And so we partner with different industry organizations to help collaborate.

So we have our mission as WTS to attract, promote, and

advance women in transportation.

Obviously, TRB does a lot of research, so an MOU where we can lean into each other.

To support and make sure that we all focus on our core missions.

Similarly, we have MOUs with AASHTO.

We have an MOU with APTA, COMTO, Latinos in Transit, and other organ

organizations so that we can get that support and make sure that it

stretches and expands our reach.

While allowing us to focus on our core mission and vision.

That's good.

And, and talk to me about the, have you all done any grants or anything with TRB?

We've had different research programs that we've done in the past and,

um, really hope, helping to focus and, you know, gather information.

It's, it's amazing whenever you do some of these studies and you actually, you know,

what comes at a gut feel, and then you see the, the layout and how deep things go.

And that's been really transformative in terms of what we've gotten, in

terms of the information on women and access to different things, access

to training, access to education, access to different opportunities.

And I'd like to see our research expand in the future to really focus even

more on the small business side and how we can do things to help elevate and

attract and give them more opportunities.

That's great.

Yeah.

We're doing a panel today actually at, the APTA booth about that, about the studies.

It's so important, I think since we are in a time of transformation to have, um

documented studies about some of the cool things that are happening in the industry.

We wanna make sure like AI serves us and we don't end up serving it.

We don't wanna be like Terminator

movie, you know, where, uh, AI becomes the overlord.

Uh, I mean, some of the, what, you know, I know everybody doesn't like Elon

Musk, but he, the comment he made this week about, you know, the singularity.

We've just gone into that.

It's kind of kind of crazy, man.

A little scary.

It's a little bit frightening.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we wanna make sure we have studies and analytics to say what's the best

usage of that to serve our end goal, which is to serve our passengers.

That's always our end goal in the industry.

We've just done a whole series on the state of the industry.

We did six podcasts the two of the end of the year, and then

the first full month of January.

And I got, you know, everybody from David Zipper to give me what he thinks is coming

to, uh, lots of other takes on things.

And I think transformative is a great word to describe it.

Mm-hmm.

There's so many changes happening.

States are stepping up in massive ways to support agencies like in

Chicago where Illinois did that, and LA, California, other places like.

Pennsylvania with SEPTA, still looking to make sure they get enough funding.

So, and then you've got a real emphasis out of Washington, which is a change.

Mm-hmm.

From what the previous administrations, not so much emphasis on zero emission

buses, you know, not so much emphasis on DEI, they're doing other things now.

So you're right, it is tra it's changing and I think people have to, um, a,

a group like WTS is a great place, first off, to stay in tune with that.

Mm-hmm.

and then also kind of plan your career and pivot around what's happening.

That's good.

One of the great places, I think you all throw some great events and

one of the great places to do that might be your upcoming conference.

Tell us about that.

So we're gonna be going to LA in May.

So May in LA we're gonna have our, annual conference there.

And, uh, we've shifted the model this year where we go from Tuesday

to Thursday to create opportunities for women to come up before and

after and really do connections.

And we'll start the conference off with some, you know, executive

women's round tables, some women business owners round tables.

We'll have our three days of the conference creating

opportunities for people to come through and have conversations.

one thing that I love about the conference is it's educational,

but it's also inspirational.

And we create something where people can come through, share experiences, give

the guidance, like you had talked about having opportunities for conversations

you may not have in another venue.

Right?

Yeah.

That's one thing that people, find valuable.

You've been to our Think Transit conference, I think, and we do that one

day executive summit, and I hear from, we had 60 people each year, last two years.

I hear from people all the time saying to me that's like the most open I've

ever been able to be because we have Chatham House rules, you know, meaning

you don't quote anybody by name.

and, it's very important to have real, real conversations with people and not

be worried about, you know, oh, it's gonna get back to my board or whatever

I want, but I need some honest input.

and that, by the way, for listeners, is coming up at the end of March, the Think

Transit Executive Summit for executives.

Oh, I know one other thing I was gonna mention to you.

You did a great job.

I wanted to thank you publicly.

You, uh, you were a guest lecturer at my Villanova courses last year, uh,

up in Philadelphia and the, uh, the, it's all graduate students in the

engineering program and you talked about career paths and all like that.

And, uh, the dean just told me last week, how much they enjoyed all those

talks and they invited me to come back and teach a course again in the fall.

You wanna come and if you can fit it in your schedule, come

be a caguest lecturer again.

I would love to, I mean, to me that's one of the, true benefits of, of, you

know, being in a career in this industry, being able to give back to people.

I mean, when I taught that course, just seeing their expressions,

hearing their questions, I mean, they were really so engaged.

Yeah.

They were engaged.

And it's so exciting.

Yeah.

You know, you leave after that feeling energized and that I can see why you, you

went down that path at first, whenever I heard you were, you were teaching, I

thought, where do you have time for this?

But I see it's the kind of things that you just make the time for.

Yeah.

And it energizes you, you know?

Mm-hmm.

I think you and I are people people, and we get energized when we're around

people, so it's, it's fun to see that.

Well, it's been great.

Anything else you wanna share before we wrap up?

About WTS or anything else, or a word to women in the industry?

I'd like to make a word to, to men and the women.

Okay.

And just welcome you.

You know, please, if you haven't been to WTS, just come to an event.

Just come show up.

Let people know it's your first event.

We had 25% of the people at our, TRB reception were non-members

that had just shown up and said, Hey, I've heard about you.

would like to see what this is all about.

So just show up.

Check us out, and hopefully you'll find some inspiration

and decide to, to join us.

Yeah.

We'll put a link to WTS in the show notes.

Yes, WTS international.org.

Very good.

Excellent.

Well, Bridgette, wish you all the best both, uh, personally and professionally,

and both your gigs, uh, as chair.

So your term finishes up at the conference, is that the idea?

Right.

At the conclusion of the conference, we'll do the transition to the new W

And who is it?

Can you announce it?

Oh, yes.

It's known.

Okay.

Our, our incoming chair will be Erin Slayton.

And she is a remarkable and dynamic leader, so she is gonna be, carrying

this forward with great hands.

We had a transformative year in WTS last year.

We hired our new CEO and executive director, Dr. Malika Reed Wilkins,

and she is known to our industry.

She came to us from the Atlanta Regional Commission, where she was

an executive leader there as well.

She's a past president, so I think I'm, I'm feeling very good about leaving WTS.

In good hands because one of the pillars of my time as the chair was to focus

on the resilience of the organization.

I really spent the last 18 months listening and just hearing from

our chapters, from our sponsors, from our MOU partners, our members,

and just all the volunteers that make this an amazing organization.

And so I think with listening becomes momentum.

So I'm really excited.

I feel like I'm leaving the organization in a much better place,

and I've seen that positive response.

So I'm, I'm very much excited for the future of WTS.

And now that we've hit 10,000, I don't think 15,000 is far away.

That's wonderful.

You're gonna hit it.

Congrats.

Thank you, Paul.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Transit Unplugged, the world's

number one transit executive podcast.

I'm Julie Gates, executive producer of the podcast.

Many thanks to the team that makes this show happen.

Host and producer Paul Comfort, producer Chris O'Keeffe, editor Patrick

Emil, associate producer Cyndi Raskin

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