News Story

Operations Academy Wins Education Award

The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Transportation Education Council has awarded its 2008 Innovation in Education Award to the Operations Academy Senior Management Program.

The Operations Academy is a two-week, total immersion transportation management and operations program. The Operations Academy was developed by the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT) in the Clark School's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. It is funded by the I-95 Corridor Coalition.

The program, now in its third successful year, uses a mix of classroom instruction, workshops and analysis of existing systems to ensure the retention of the principles presented. Enrollment in the Senior Management Program is highly competitive and applicants must be nominated by a local, state or federal transportation agency.

"If you need or desire to look at the five-year future of transportation, this course is a must," stated Bill Behrens, a November 2007 Academy graduate and deputy director of maintenance and operations for the New York State Thruway Authority.

Another November 2007 Academy graduate offered advice to future attendees.

"I feel the Operations Academy program has been successful in helping me acquire new knowledge of leading industry principles and best practices to organize a transportation agency towards being more customer-focused and performance-oriented," advised John Easterling, district traffic operations engineer for Florida's Turnpike Enterprise. "I will highly recommend it to others who have similar responsibilities in managing a system in the 21st century to take advantage of such an opportunity."

The objective of the ITE Transportation Education Council Innovation in Education Award is to recognize an individual, university department or organization/learning institution that has implemented an innovative technique or program to attract, develop and/or retain transportation professionals.

October 9, 2008