Diversity Matters!

              Diversity Matters!
AUGUST 2011
I would like to say thank you to the readers of Diversity Matters! for your continued support of transportation in Illinois. On July 1, 2011, I was honored to be appointed Acting Secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) by Gov-ernor Pat Quinn. In recent years with IDOT, I have had the privi-lege of serving as Chief of Op-erations and as Director of Fi-nance and Administration.
With a robust construction sea-son in full swing, I am excited to take on this new role following the retirement of Secretary Gary Hannig, who has provided out-standing leadership for IDOT since his appointment as Secre-tary in early 2009.
I share the same dedication and commitment as Governor Quinn and Secretary Hannig to help minority contractors and work-ers gain employment opportuni-ties and find more effective ways to improve minority participa-tion on state and federally funded contracts.
Under Governor Quinn’s leader-ship, IDOT has had many suc-cesses, including awarding a re-cord amount of more than $429 million overall for contracts to Disadvantaged Business Enter-prise (DBE) firms in 2010. IDOT also has increased minority rep-resentation on the IDOT Engi-neering Consultant Selection, established a scholarship pro-gram for minorities and women
Message from Acting Secretary Ann L. Schneider
Effective May 16, 2011, the Diversity Recruitment and Outreach Office was estab-lished in the Office of the Secretary at the Illinois Department of Transporta-tion (IDOT). This office will coordinate all IDOT diversity recruiting and outreach efforts. Lesa Branham, formerly a Dep-uty Director of the Office of Finance and Administra-tion, has been appointed the Chief of Diversity Re-cruitment and Outreach. The activities of the Diver-sity Recruitment and Out-reach Office are frequently supported by the Office of Communications commu-nity relations staff, which performs many outreach activities and initiatives. Diversity Recruitment and Outreach is committed to increasing the number of employees from under-represented groups in IDOT’s applicant pool. The goal is to help ensure a reasonable representation comparable to the labor market in Illinois. Diversity Recruitment and Outreach staff consists of a team of four full-time em-ployees, college and gradu-ate interns mainly housed in the IDOT Hanley Build-ing at 2300 South Dirksen Parkway in Springfield, Room 339. Currently, two of the staff members are in the IDOT Chicago offices located at the James R. Thompson Center, 100 West Randolph.
Office of Diversity Recruitment and Outreach
in engineering programs, imple-mented two Engineering Techni-cian Training Programs and devel-oped the only federally approved Construction Mentor Protégé program in the nation, which provides DBE firms valuable men-toring support to help them build business and compete for trans-portation-related contracts.
As I begin this new chapter in my career, I want to assure our read-ers that ensuring improved em-ployment and contracting oppor-tunities for minority and female owned businesses will continue to be a top priority at IDOT. Again, thank you for reading Di-versity Matters! and for your dedi-cation to the service needs of Illinois. -Ann L. Schneider
Diversity - A Guiding Principle Every Day at IDOT
Questions / Comments: DOT.Diversity@illinois.gov
creased again to $75 million for FFY 2010, which accounted for 22.72 percent of the total selec-tion dollar amount ($330 million). Much of the credit for this signifi-cant increase in contracting diver-sity can be attributed to the suc-cess of IDOT’s outreach efforts which saw the number of DBE-certified firms increase from 522 to 631 between 2009 and 2010. Acting IDOT Secretary Ann Schneider will continue to further IDOT’s pledge to improve the quality of life for Illinois citizens through diversity and inclusion. With the continuing leadership of Governor Quinn and the General Assembly, IDOT will continue to promote contracting opportuni-ties for disadvantaged small busi-nesses in order to achieve greater inclusion and diversity in all phases of the highway construc-tion industry.
contracting opportunity for Dis-advantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms has risen dramati-cally since 2008. In federal fiscal year (FFY) 2010 alone, more than $268 million worth of high-way construction awards/commitments were made to DBE firms (3,815 total prime/subcontracts). This represents an increase of more than $135 million from the total of $132.9 million just two years prior in FFY2008 (1,899 total prime/subcontracts). The news is even better in the area of engineering consultant contracts. Awards/commitments to DBE firms increased from $25 million in FFY2008 (495 total prime/subcontracts) to $58 mil-lion in FFY2009 (642 total prime/subcontracts). Awards/commitments to DBE firms in-
.Diversity is not just a buzz word at the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) – it is a way of doing business. When Secretary Gary Hannig arrived at IDOT in February 2009, one of the first actions he took was to order the revision of IDOT’s guiding principles to include the word diversity to help all employ-ees understand the importance of actively seeking and promoting equal opportunity for all Illinois citizens. Since that time, IDOT has made significant progress in ensuring that minority-owned, woman-owned and other disadvantaged small businesses have an equal opportunity to compete for IDOT’s federal- and state-funded construction contracts. Thanks to Governor Quinn’s landmark Capital Program Illinois Jobs Now!,