2023 COMTO Chicago Black History Celebration Scholarship Fundraiser

740 East 56th Place,Chicago IL 60637

25 February, 2023

Description

Attendees will enjoy Museum Tours, Dinner, Spoken Word Event, and Vendor presentations with all proceeds contributed going to the COMTO Chicago annual scholarship fund. The Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) was created to provide a forum for minority professionals in the transportation industry. COMTO’s membership includes individuals, groups, transportation agencies, private sector corporations, non-profit organizations and Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs). When you join COMTO, you gain access to an exclusive national network of transportation industry professionals. Our scholarship event will present COMTO Chicago Member and President of the Chicago Transit Authority Dorval R. Carter as Keynote Speaker. Also speaking will be COMTO Chicago Member and WSP Senior Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion Tanya Adams  https://members.comtonational.org/page/membershipapp Sponsorship Opportunities for this event: Contact COMTO Chicago President Rovaughn Graham @ [email protected] Dorval R. Carter, Jr. is President of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the nation’s second-largest transit agency, providing approximately 1.5 million rides on an average weekday and serving the City of Chicago and 35 surrounding suburbs. Overseeing more than 10,000 employees, President Carter carries out CTA’s mission of delivering quality, affordable transit services that link people, jobs and communities. President Carter is a founding member of COMTO Chicago. When Carter was a young lawyer working in CTA’s Law Department in the 1990s, he was recruited to COMTO by COMTO Chicago’s first president, Ernest Sawyer, then CTA’s Chief Operating Officer. In the mid 2000s, President Carter became a COMTO mentor, guiding CTA employees to join and support the organization and encouraging CTA senior staff to mentor staff members of color, especially in departments where he felt minorities were under-represented. He also encouraged senior staff to identify members in their respective departments to serve as part of the COMTO Chicago executive team. Tanya Adams works with WSP USA’s business lines, regions, and functional groups to create a work environment that produces three key outcomes: a culture of trust that provides safe spaces for sensitive conversations; increased workforce diversity and advancement of WSP diversity talent; and greater support for WSP colleagues who are leaders in underrepresented communities. In addition, in her role as Senior Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity, Tanya advocates for minority business involvement in both the engineering and business communities and on WSP USA’s contracts. Prior to joining the firm, she served in leadership roles with the Illinois Department of Transportation for 19 years. Tanya is actively involved in diversity initiatives with community organizations—serving alongside many minority business partners—and she develops and directs both internal and external programs to meet business diversity needs. Tanya’s personal objective is to see the diverse faces of America equally reflected at all levels of the transportation industry. She has devoted her career to serving as an advocate and a resource to minority individuals and businesses. Since 2007, Tanya has been involved in the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), having served as a member of the Board, Corporate Advisory Council, Joint Leadership Team, Women Who Move the Nation Committee, and the Program Planning Committee. In 2016, she was named COMTO’s Corporate Executive of the Year, in 2018 she received COMTO’s President’s Award for Excellence and currently serves as 1st Vice-Chair, recognizing her leadership efforts and outreach to minority and disadvantaged business firms locally and nationwide.