AASHTO Journal - Montana DOT’s Burke Wins AASHTOWare Prismatic Award

Patricia Walsh Burke (above) – a traffic safety engineering section supervisor for the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) – recently received the Prismatic Legacy Award for her work on behalf of AASHTOWare.

[Above photo by MDT. Graphic design by AASHTO.]

AASHTOWare, a division of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, offers a suite of transportation software products delivered through a collaborative business model with state departments of transportation across the country.

Volunteers from those state DOTs are intricately involved in the decision-making processes regarding AASHTOWare products; providing expert advice and insight that makes AASHTOWare’s software suite unique in the transportation industry.

To recognize and honor the valuable role state DOT volunteers play in its software development work, AASHTOWare created the Prismatic Legacy Award, which is bestowed on an outstanding volunteer across the AASHTOWare product line.

Burke received the Prismatic Legacy Award for her work as a leader in fostering a collaborative environment during the establishment of the AASHTOWare Safety User Experience Committee.

She served as a co-chair of the inaugural 2022 user committee meeting and then served as the chair for the 2023 AASHTOWare user committee meeting. Burke’s guidance of the agenda topics and discussion allows all states to share their experiences and best practices; helping spark the 120 percent growth in state attendees since the first meeting.

Burke also helped Numetric – AASHTOWare Alliance member – develop innovative user permissions and roles features to support critical cyber security needs of state DOTs.

Her collaborative work with Numetric helped create flexible configuration options for supporting and managing the Highway Safety Manual safety performance functions within AASHTOWare Safety.

Meanwhile, Burke continued to promote awareness of AASHTOWare Safety to non-licensed states with a webinar of Montana DOT’s best practices in using AASHTOWare Safety.

“It has been a positive experience from day one working with AASHTOWare and Numetric,” she explained. “It is very easy to reach out to both AASHTO and Numetric staff as there is a team player atmosphere. It is like working within our own agency, where we are all working toward a common goal. If one of us learns something, we share the knowledge across many platforms. When working with AASHTO, you are working alongside colleagues to improve traffic safety on our nation’s highways.”

The most rewarding part of volunteering for Burke is the “sense of satisfaction” she gets knowing the work she is doing with AASHTOWare Safety is helping save lives.

“MDT’s top priority is safety,” Burke noted. “Safety is also personal and I anticipate will stay at the forefront of the transportation industry. Volunteering with AASHTOWare while improving safety on our roadways, is a very rewarding experience.”