AASHTO Journal - AASHTO Officially Joins Engineering Workforce Consortium

At its 2026 Washington Briefing in Washington, D.C., the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) officially joined the Engineering Workforce Consortium – and industry-wide collaborative effort to address a growing shortage of engineers facing infrastructure development efforts across the United States.

[Above photo by AASHTO]

The Engineering Workforce Consortium is a collaborative effort led by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), American Public Works Association, and American Society of Civil Engineers.

The consortium brings together 20 leading professional societies, trade associations, and academic institutions around three core objectives: attracting the next generation of engineering talent; retaining the existing workforce in engineering and public works; and advocating for industry growth and sustainability.

The new partnership connects AASHTO’s network of state departments of transportation with EWC’s diverse portfolio of workforce initiatives, from K-12 STEM engagement programs to retention initiatives like RetainHER, which focuses on keeping women in engineering careers. State DOTs will gain access to best practices, collaborative resources, and a unified platform to address shared workforce challenges, ACEC noted.

“AASHTO is pleased to join the partners of the Engineering Workforce Consortium in supporting an industry-wide approach to providing solutions that address the transportation and public works workforce shortage,” said Jim Tymon, AASHTO executive director, in a statement. “State DOTs recognize the need to collaborate with other leaders in the engineering field to foster the talent we need to deliver critical transportation projects.”

NOCoE – a partnership of AASHTO, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, with support from the Federal Highway Administration – also joined the EWC as engineers represent “an important component for the nation’s transportation, systems, management and operations industry including the education of students on careers and increasing the skills of the current workforce,” explained Tracy Larkin Thomason, director of the Nevada Department of Transportation and chair of the NOCoE Strategic Advisory Committee.

“AASHTO’s decision to join the Engineering Workforce Consortium reflects the growing momentum behind this collaborative approach to solving our industry’s workforce challenges,” said Linda Bauer Darr, president and CEO of ACEC.

“Welcoming AASHTO brings state transportation leadership directly into our coalition, ensuring that workforce solutions are developed with the agencies who are on the front lines of infrastructure delivery,” she noted. “The collective strength of this consortium is essential as we work to ensure the engineering talent pipeline meets the historic infrastructure investment our nation is making.”