HRT Celebrates History-Making Commission Leadership

March is Women’s History Month. Throughout the month we’ve been celebrating women who made important contributions to transportation. Women like Luella Bates who was the first female to receive a commercial driver’s license back in 1920 and Helen Schultz who became the first woman to own a bus company in 1922. Both made significant contributions not only to women’s history, but the history of transportation.

While those history-making events happened more than a century ago, we don’t need to go that far to find women making history in transportation. In fact, we need only look as far as our own Transportation District Commission. For the first time in its history, the Commission has an all-female leadership team; Amelia Ross-Hammond, Patricia Woodbury, and Andria McClellan.

Dr. Amelia Ross-Hammond (Virginia Beach) is the current Chair – and the first Black woman to serve as Chair of the Commission. She was an early advocate of light rail expansion and was first appointed as Gubernatorial Commissioner in 2016. She was reappointed to a second term in 2020. Then again in 2022 she was re-elected to the Virginia Beach City Council and will complete the presidential term of newly elected State Senator Aaron Rouse. Dr. Ross-Hammond says her greatest achievement, so far, is being part of the team that helped secure dedicated funding from the state that made the 757 Express possible and is helping to build the new Southside Facility in Virginia Beach.

Dr. Patricia Woodbury (Newport News) has a long, storied history with Hampton Roads Transit. She is the current Vice-Chair of the Commission and its longest serving member. Dr. Woodbury joined the Commission in 2008. She has served as Chair twice and will serve a third term beginning later this year. Dr. Woodbury says she’s stayed all these years because she feels like the work makes a difference. During her tenure she’s had a hand in every aspect of the Commission but says her work on the Budget Committee and helping to bring back the Management / Financial Advisory Committee (MFAC) has been the most fulfilling.

Ms. Andria McClellan (Norfolk) is the current Past Chair. She was first appointed to the Commission in 2017 and is credited with spearheading the Smart Cities & Innovation Committee. As chair of SCIC Ms. McClellan has been a motivating force behind our mobile ticketing initiative, which we plan to roll out in the near future. Ms. McClellan Chaired the Commission from July 2019 – June 2020.

I’m proud to work alongside such an esteemed group of dedicated leaders and honored to recognize them during Women’s History Month. I hope you’ll join me in congratulating them on their history-making accomplishment.?

William E. Harrell

President & CEO, Hampton Roads Transit