Internationally known transportation leader Dr. Katie Turnbull has been honored with a lifetime achievement award by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association’s Transportation Development Foundation (ARTBA-TDF). Turnbull, executive associate director for the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), received the Ethel Birchland Lifetime Achievement Award July 26 in Lansdowne, Virginia.
Turnbull received the award through ARTBA’s Women Leaders in Transportation Design and Construction Council (WLTDCC). The WLTDCC was established in 2010 to promote leadership and career advancement for women in the transportation design and construction industries. This is the second year of the WLTDCC awards program. The Ethel Birchland Lifetime Achievement Award is named after the ARTBA executive director who served from 1924 to 1928.
“It is a great honor to receive the Ethel S. Birchland Lifetime Achievement Award from ARTBA,” notes Turnbull. “To be recognized by one’s peers is a special honor; to receive an award named after a woman who was an early leader in the transportation design and construction industry makes it even more meaningful.”
Turnbull, who started at TTI in 1989 as an assistant research scientist, is a recognized expert on high-occupancy vehicle facilities, toll facilities, managed lanes, public transportation, transportation planning, travel demand management and intelligent transportation systems. She has nearly 35 years of experience in the transportation community.
In her role as executive associate director at TTI, Turnbull is responsible for numerous activities including managing the Institute’s System Planning, Policy and Environment Research group, which has offices across Texas, and serving as director of TTI’s new U.S. Department of Transportation-funded Transportation Economics Center.
In addition to her TTI-related activities, Turnbull is a lecturer in Texas A&M University’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and she currently serves as chair of the Technical Activities Council. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and is sought after as a speaker for national industry conferences. During her extensive career, Turnbull has mentored women who have achieved positions of leadership at TTI, TRB and elsewhere.