Members Appointed to Diversity Council

At its regularly scheduled September board meeting, the NTTA Board of Directors approved a group of nine business and community leaders to guide the NTTA’s new Business Diversity Advisory Council (BDAC).  The group will advise the NTTA in its efforts to encourage the participation of disadvantaged minority, women and small business enterprises (D/M/W/SBE) in NTTA contract opportunities, assist the NTTA’s Business Diversity Department (BDD) with outreach activities, serve as a primary resource in identifying specific industry groups to target procurements, and help identify barriers experienced in contracting by D/M/W/SBE programs.

The council includes two appointees from each of the four counties currently served by the NTTA and one “at large” member, which is similar in structure to the NTTA’s Board of Directors. 

“We are honored these accomplished individuals have agreed to serve on our council,” said NTTA Executive Director Allen Clemson. “We look forward to advancing our business diversity program and believe the counsel of our BDAC will play a large part in doing so.”

Collin County appointees are Tanya Allen and Galileo Jumaoas. Ms. Allen is a senior group manager of organization and management development in human resources at PepsiCo.  She is responsible for the oversight of diversity initiatives, employees and provides resources to the company’s diversity council.  She has extensive experience in human performance consulting and human resources interaction with D/M/W/SBEs growth and development. Current executive director of the Greater Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce (GDAACC) since March 2007, Mr. Jumaoas has been involved with the Chamber for more than 20 years as a volunteer and, later, on a full time basis as education director.  He served five years as the minority business development director and managed the satellite Multi-ethnic Education and Economic Development Center. 

Dallas County appointees are Reginald Gates and John H. Martinez.  Currently, Mr. Gates serves as the president of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce. Most of his experience has been working with entities to resolve issues and looking for strategies that impact the success of D/M/W/SBE programs.  He previously served on NTTA’s Fair Share Committee.  Mr. Martinez is currently president of the Hispanic Contractors Association of Dallas Fort Worth. His career has been dedicated to developing and growing D/M/W/SBE firms. Most recently the agency completed two major projects, the Women’s Business Conference and Luna Awards. 

Denton County appointees are William (Bill) Lawrence and Beverley Wright. After serving three terms as mayor of the City of Highland Village, Mr. Lawrence opened his own consulting company that provides contract bid awards protests and acquisition reform policies services.  Mrs. Wright has worked at IBM for more than 30 years and currently is the sales execution executive and coach.  She serves on the Leadership Dallas Alumni Advisory Committee and previously served on the board of Dallas Women’s Foundation and Urban League of North Texas.

Tarrant County appointees are Devoyd Jennings and Rosa Navejar. Mr. Jennings is the current president of the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Texas Association of African American Chambers.  His extensive knowledge of public and private organization efforts in the area of economic development has been gained through more than 20 years experience with economic development organizations in the metroplex. He also has served as a member of the NTTA’s Fair Share Committee.  Ms. Navejar is current president of the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and has worked to develop policies for diverse business opportunities for D/M/W/SBEs. She also chairs the committee that created the MWBE policies for the Fort Worth Trinity River Vision Authority, and has served as a member of the NTTA’s Fair Share Committee.

Appointed as the at-large member is Paul Causey. Mr. Causey is the North Texas area manager for the Associated General Contractors of Texas, which requires interaction with different organizations to help resolve issues that may arise in the transportation industry such as Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Area Rapid Transit. He has worked with the Texas Engineering Extension Service at Texas A&M University, and his duties included management of the DBE Plan for TxDOT.  The objective of the program is to work with minority and DBE entities and supply plans for highway projects.

The council will immediately implement a new business diversity action plan, which will offer “go forward strategies” to be undertaken by NTTA and also lends itself for routine status checks. The council will not only receive frequent updates on the plan, but will also advise the Business Diversity Department on efforts to strengthen key focus areas, provide support in outreach efforts and serve as a sounding board for diversity efforts.  Business Diversity Department Director Anthony Coleman will serve as facilitator to the council.