Over 13 years have passed since Monica Harwood Duncan participated in the Operations Academy but the experience was transformational. Since then, she has become a Transportation Operations Specialist in the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and she applies the skills she acquired in her courses on a nearly daily basis.
Monica had worked in traffic operations for five years at Washington State DOT (WSDOT) when she attended the Operations Academy. She had begun to understand her role and how it related to the rest of the agency, but she hadn’t grasped the greater scope of operations, nor its critical importance to the agency. While at the Operations Academy, she took a “sidestep” into the world of transportation systems, management and operations (TSMO) and she learned that without it, departments of transportation could not function.
“Once I found my ‘why,’ I was able to take pieces of what I learned from everyone, fit it into my own style and the needs of my agency, and tell that story about TSMO and why it’s so important that we invest in the effort and continue leveraging more resources toward the mission of TSMO,” she explained. “I learned I wasn’t a small cog in the wheel. I was a critical cog, and I learned why that was true.”
Attending the Operations Academy put conviction into her heart and reaffirmed her purpose in choosing transportation operations as a career path. After she completed the program, she excitedly returned to her job in one of the regions at WSDOT with a list of new ideas and plans. Her new skill set allowed her to help join the efforts that were already in place, but she was able to see the big picture and the “why” of everything much more clearly.
“My time at the Operations Academy helped me put a plan in place, of how, why and what I wanted to do with all my new knowledge and conviction, and it really spurred my growth in many areas,” she continued. “It helped me think about how I wanted to advance myself in this profession, because I saw this as my career.”
The greatest advantage she brought home was the ability to connect and network with others in the profession. The instant connection to others in her cohort, and to graduates of the Operations Academy, along with the almost unlimited access to support from others higher up in their agency became a great source of support that she relies upon even to this day.
“There’s an instant kinship you feel with the others in your group,” she said. “If you are motivated for career advancement, professional growth, or to advance in transportation operations, you will find a great reward by graduating from the Operations Academy program.”
