11:45 - 12:00 pm Sign-On
12:00 - 1:00 pm Speaker
TSPE & NSPE Legislative Update
Jennifer McEwan, Ph. D.
TSPE L&GA Director
Trish B. Smith
TSPE Executive Director
About the Speakers:
Jennifer McEwan, Ph. D. is widely known for her transportation expertise and knowledge of project development and advancement.
Prior to founding Grace & McEwan Consulting, Jennifer served as Senior Policy Director at the international law firm Greenberg Traurig. She is experienced in advocacy and policy research for regional and statewide mobility coalitions, chamber organizations and trade associations, in addition to numerous statewide appointed task forces and the Sunset Advisory Commission. She currently serves as TSPE Legislative & Governmental Affairs Director, Treasurer of the Transportation Advocates of Texas, and policy director for the Texas Transportation Alliance.
Jennifer has a B.A. in Political Science from Texas A&M University, a Masters from Texas State University and a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin.
Trish B. Smith is the Executive Director of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers. Trish has been with TSPE 24 years. She is also the Executive Director and a Trustee of the Texas Engineering Foundation and manages the TSPE Political Action Committee for Engineers (PACE).
She recently completed a third term on the NSPE Executive Committee, Board of Directors and House of Delegates.
Prior to joining TSPE she served as the Coordinator and Program Manager of the Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism at Texas Tech University where she assisted in the delivery of engineering ethics seminars to engineering faculty, private firms, TxDOT and engineering students.
In her earlier career she spent over fifteen years involved in the legal field in a variety of positions from legal secretary, paralegal, assistant to the Dean of the Texas Tech School of Law and Administrator of a 55-person law firm.