The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently appointed Mike Carroll – secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation – to a two-year term as chair of its Committee on Transportation Communications, known as TransComm.
Carroll – named PennDOT secretary in January 2023 – is a former state representative first elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2006 and subsequently re-elected for seven additional terms. He worked on transportation issues throughout his time in public office. He also served as Democratic chairman of the state legislature’s House Transportation Committee from 2018 to 2022.
As PennDOT secretary, Carroll has already tackled several major state transportation issues – from overseeing the completion of permanent repairs, in less than a year, to portions of Interstate 95 in northeast Philadelphia that collapsed in June 2023 following a tanker truck crash and fire to supporting an “advocacy day” held by the Pennsylvania Interagency Human Trafficking Workgroup to ramp up the fight against human trafficking statewide.
TransComm promotes excellence in communications through the exchange of ideas and educational programming, presents an annual skills awards competition, and advises other AASHTO committees on communication issues. It’s comprised of public affairs professionals from all 50 state DOTs, plus those of Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
The committee plans to hold its annual meeting September 22-25, 2024 in Atlanta, with sessions on everything from ways to improve social media outreach to empowering change through innovative communication strategies. To register for TransComm’s annual meeting, click here.
Information courtesy of AASHTO. Learn more here.