Roger Millar (above) – secretary of the Washington Department of Transportation and 2022-2023 president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials – has been selected by The Resilient Roads Roundtable as one of its “Innovators and Influencers” luminaries.
[Above photo by AASHTO]
The Roundtable is an organization of transportation infrastructure leaders from across the industry who are allied to improve the resilience of America’s roadways. It includes members from state, county and federal transportation agencies to road product manufacturers, civil engineering/road construction firms and academia.
The group said in a statement that it selected Millar for his “vocal advocacy” of resilience initiatives both at AASHTO and WSDOT. At AASHTO, he has helped to broaden the transportation sector’s view of resilience, making it a key emphasis area for the organization to focus upon during his one-year presidential term.
“Many think of resilience in the context of climate change and natural disaster response,” Millar explained during a recent presentation. “But to me, it is also about the need to prepare for and adapt to changing conditions such as shifting demographics, an aging population that will drive fewer cars, and economic changes such as moving from extraction industries like forestry and mining to technology and software companies.”
Millar has also incorporated his views regarding resilience into WSDOT’s strategic initiatives which take an expansive approach to resilience including improving seismic resilience, enhancing resilience-oriented asset management and improvement of operational resilience including emergency preparedness.
Appointed secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation in August 2016, Millar – a 1982 graduate of the University of Virginia – is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
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