The Arizona Department of Transportation's Business Engagement and Compliance Office and Robert Samour, ADOT deputy state engineer for the Major Projects Group, have been honored for contributions to the transportation industry and to advancing women.

At an April 1 ceremony in Phoenix, the WTS Advancing Women Advancing Transportation's Metropolitan Phoenix Chapter presented its Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award to ADOT's Business Engagement and Compliance Office (BECO). BECO ensures that ADOT and its subrecipients, contractors and consultants comply with federal regulations related to disadvantaged and small business inclusion, equal and fair employment opportunity and on-the-job training in the construction trades.

BECO's efforts include Construction Academy Pre-Apprenticeship Training Programs that prepare minorities, women, disadvantaged individuals and veterans to enter highway construction trades. A Disadvantaged Business Enterprises and Small Business Transportation EXPO that was scheduled on Wed., May 3, at the Mesa Convention Center, helped small businesses and those owned by individuals from socially and economically disadvantaged groups compete for transportation contracts that received federal funding.

Samour, who received the Honorable Ray LaHood Award, named for the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, oversees ADOT's Major Projects Group. In that role, he is responsible for the state's largest freeway projects, including construction of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway and the I-10 Broadway Curve Improvement Project. That includes managing public-private partnerships that allow ADOT to construct these projects faster and at a lower cost.

The WTS Advancing Women Advancing Transportation is an international organization dedicated to shaping the future of transportation for the public good through the global advancement of women. For more information on the group and its mission, visit wtsinternational.org.

For more information on BECO and its mission, visit azdot.gov/BECO.

To learn more about other winners of the Metro Phoenix Chapter's annual awards, visit wtsinternational.org/chapters/metro-phoenix.

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