COLLEGE STATION, TX – Dr. Naomi Ledé, senior research scientist at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) in College Station, Texas was honored as the recipient of the inaugural Sharon D. Banks Award for Innovative Leadership in Transportation on January 16, 2002, at the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 81st Annual Meeting held in Washington D.C.
“Dr. Ledé’s expertise, strategic thinking, planning and ability to create and implement innovative transportation programs fully represents why she is a highly deserving recipient of this award,” said Dr. Herb Richardson, director of TTI.
Sharon D. Banks was the General Manager of AC Transit, Oakland, Calif., from 1991-1999. She also served as the Chairwoman of the TRB Executive Committee in 1998. Banks died in 1999.
Established by the TRB with the support of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Sharon D. Banks Award for Innovative Leadership in Transportation recognizes sustained leadership accomplishments and innovations over an extended period of time, that exemplify Bank’s caring nature and depth of character. The award criteria include documented record of successful and innovative leadership by improving transportation services, operations, management practices, mentoring and training programs, community relations or labor relations.
Dr. Ledé assumed her position with TTI in 1998 after retiring from Texas Southern University with a distinguished career in transportation research and education. She served as director of the Center for Transportation Training and Research (CTTR), where she developed one of the strongest and most well respected transportation research and education programs in any historically black university in the nation.
Additionally, she developed a National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) aimed at introducing junior high and high school students from the minority community to the many opportunities of a career in transportation. Dr. Ledé developed partnerships with historically black and Hispanic-serving universities and with public and private transportation entities to offer the students an insider’s view of the transportation industry. The program has been recognized with a number of national Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) awards.
Dr. Ledé earned her Ed.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Houston. She also holds two M.A. degrees, studying urban affairs from the University of Texas at Arlington and sociology at Texas Southern University, respectively, and earned her undergraduate degree from Mary Allen College.