1989年，负责波士顿大桥的负责人，玛丽·简·奥梅拉（Mary Jane O’Meara）准备在她第一次参加国际桥梁，隧道和收费公路协会的大会上与世界各地的交通和基础设施同事见面时感到兴奋。奥梅拉说，她期待交换故事和工作场所的经验。但是，在电梯前往活动中，当男性参加者看到O’Meara以同样的方式行驶时，她得到了一些事情，并问一位同事“妻子的巡回演出还已经结束了吗？”

奥梅拉（O’Meara）进入会议宴会厅，看到了200名男子，那里只有另外两名女性。但是，奥梅拉（O’Meara）迅速从最初的惊喜中恢复过来，跌入了她的同事们。电梯的两个人后来寻求她的道歉。奥梅拉（O’Meara）在马萨诸塞州的斯通勒（Stoneham）长大，有四个兄弟和一个姐姐，他说她学会了应对唯一的女性之一。但是她从不忘记那些和其他早期的职业经历，并成为新一代女性运输领导者的导师。

现在，波士顿HNTB的副总裁和设计公司的国家收费集团的成员，O’Meara自豪地勾选了现在由妇女担任的著名运输和基础设施部门工作，包括在州运输机构，联邦政府和大型公司中的最高职位。她说：“即使在10年前，您也没有。”

Featured in a 2015 book about women trailblazers in transportation—“Boots on the Ground, Flats in the Boardroom: Transportation Women Tell Their Stories”—O’Meara notes that while progress was slow at first, the momentum propelling women into the field has been growing in recent years. “The best decisions get made if your table is mixed,” she says. “You don’t get your best decisions if it’s all women, or all men. You need to have the mix.”

由于她在运输管理领域的开创性妇女中的作用以及在漫长而持续的职业中的其他成就中，新英格兰选择了玛丽·简·奥梅拉（Mary Jane O’Meara）获得其2021年遗产奖。新利luck

从政治开始

奥梅拉（O’Meara）的第一个重大突破是通过政治而不是运输的。在家里花了几年的时间养育了两个女儿，她寻求一种方法来回到劳动力和职业阶梯上。那是1982年，她的丈夫格雷戈里（Gregory）听到了已故众议员约瑟夫·莫克利（Joseph Moakley）的竞选经理，他的地区包括南波士顿，需要帮助。O’Meara找到了经营竞选经理办公室的工作。

她与莫克利（Moakley）的合作于1983年领导，在马萨诸塞州湾运输管理局（Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority）担任工作。第二年，打断了她的学业抚养孩子的奥梅拉（O’Meara）获得了马萨诸塞大学的计划学位。“我喜欢计划，”她说。“您必须计划，然后才能继续前进。这是我的思想运作的方式，并且在这种类型的工作中派上用场。”

O’Meara’s first transportation job was to help plan expanded commuter rail service to Fitchburg, an old industrial city some 50 miles north Boston. From there, she moved into the transportation agency’s construction planning unit and worked on the Orange Line. A high point came when O’Meara was put in charge of overseeing $100,000 in federal funding that MBTA obtained in 1986 to erect a statue to noted Black civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph in Back Bay Station, one of Boston’s busiest subway and rail hubs. Randolph unionized Black railroad sleeping car porters in the 1920s. “It was fun,” O’Meara says. “I had not done anything in the arts.”

From Planning to Tolls

奥梅拉（O’Meara）的下一个职业举动是在她从未考虑过的领域。她在马萨诸塞州港口管理局的一位女同事接触她，她有兴趣接任莫里斯·J·托宾·桥（Maurice J. Tobin Bridge）的运营经理，莫里斯·J·托宾桥（Maurice J. Tobin Bridge）是一座悬臂的桁架收费桥，将波士顿连接到1950年开放的北岸的通勤者。

O’Meara decided to take the leap, despite what she jokingly described as a harrowing first day on the job. Walking into the cafeteria to greet toll workers on break, O’Meara had just spotted the “wet floor” sign when she went flying. “As I looked, one shoe went one way, my pocketbook went another,” she recalled.

奥梅拉（O’Meara）也熟悉她的办公室，藏在254英尺高的桥下，九个故事。“这就像摇晃和烘烤一样，” O’Meara说。“你知道何时16轮往返。”后来，进入电梯，驾驶室停止在地板之间移动。她的两名助手冲着扫帚手柄撬开门，将她从电梯上拖下来，后者停滞了3英尺。她说：“这是我第一天后回到的奇迹 - 除了任何地方，它都不能走到任何地方。”

奥梅拉（O’Meara）不仅回来了，而且两年后被晋升为托宾桥的董事。作为桥梁及其通行费的负责人，她负责一支100人的团队，还塞进了桥下的一个盒子，从工程师到收费人员，审计员，机械师，电工和维护人员。奥梅拉（O’Meara）处理了资本项目以外的所有事情，但她仍然负责保持桥梁运行。18luck官网

But there was also construction, including a redecking of the bridge’s upper and lower sections done in phases between 1991 and 1995, an expansion of the deck and toll plaza and other structural repairs. Once O’Meara got an ominous sounding call in the middle of the night. “Something has shifted, you had better get in here,” she was told. The bridge had indeed shifted, but under O’Meara’s direction, it was ready to be reopened in time for rush hour, with staff working wonders using a steel plate.

自从桥梁跨越波士顿和切尔西以来，有时也有政治问题要处理，市长和其他官员准备撤消挫败感，如果桥梁上发生交通事故，造成了挫败感。奥梅拉说：“这比我想象的要大。”“它打开了许多不同的门。”暴风雪意味着24小时的职责。她说：“如果有一场糟糕的暴风雨，我会带着一个袋子拿起一个袋子，有时我几天都不会回家。”

她还认为这座桥的吸引力是自杀的当地人，在有人跳下甲板进入下面的神秘河之后，有一个以上的中间通话。查尔斯·斯图尔特（Charles Stuart）在1990年初枪杀了怀孕的妻子并将谋杀罪归咎于一个黑人后，其中包括臭名昭著的跳线。O’Meara说：“发生这种情况时，我正在上班的路上 - 这只是在我打电话时发生的。”“每个媒体都在那里 - 他们只是在桥上停下来。”

During her two-decade-long stint running the Tobin, O’Meara also became heavily involved in bridge, transportation and toll industry organizations, eventually becoming president of the International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association, while also serving as a board member and on numerous committees.

奥梅拉（O’Meara）是妇女运输研讨会公司的长期成员，是波士顿分会的前任主席，并在分会委员会上度过了一段时间。她还曾担任WTS国际总裁。

O’Meara launched the New England Toll Association to help regional authorities unify electronic toll collection systems and then chaired the group for two decades. She recently was cited for lifetime achievement by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, which noted her “40-plus-year commitment to the transportation industry, including the advancement of female leadership.”

O’Meara说：“我喜欢公平 - 我希望一切对每个人都公平。另外，如果您加入协会，您可以通过参与其中获得更多的收益。希望您可以帮助下一代。”

Along with playing a major industry leadership role, O’Meara also put countless hours into mentoring younger colleagues. “I never say no to anyone who asks me for my help,” she says. Overall, engineers “tend to be more introverted—if they reach out, you need to reach back and help them find their voices.”

Some of her mentoring involves helping talented younger women gain “the confidence to do the job they want to do,” she says. That can also involve “encouraging them and working with them through issues and problems they may be having.” Helping someone find his or her voice—and ask for what they want—is key, she says, even if it doesn’t produce immediate results. “The next time the supervisor is going to remember who you are,” she notes. Over the years, O’Meara says she has kept a close eye on the careers of her mentees. “I feel like a mother,” she says.

去年，波士顿WTS分会重命名为O'Meara的名字奖学金，这是一项$ 4,000的高等教育研究生奖，该奖项是有资格获得全职员工的女性成员资格的高等教育奖。

Keville Enterprises Inc.总裁兼首席执行官Christine Keville从在行业组织共同努力的情况下认识了O’Meara。Keville称她为“我最受尊敬的导师之一”。她补充说：“玛丽·简（Mary Jane）一直向我灌输的一条建议是指导和回馈行业的重要性。”

Keville, ENR New England’s Legacy Award winner last year, also praises O’Meara’s leadership skills, calling them “one of her most notable traits.” According to Keville, O’Meara “recognizes the value of others and is very much a team player. She doesn’t care who gets the credit as long as the job gets done.”

私营部门

After decades in public service, O’Meara moved into the private sector in 2011, going to work for HNTB. The firm’s national tolling group, in which she is a part, provides specialized consulting in tolling system financial, engineering feasibility and design aspects as well as in priced managed lanes and all-electronic toll conversion, interoperability and operation.

她说，她以与团队合作的悠久记录和一系列通电部门联系人来到了工作。她的重点是业务发展，并能够增加RFP响应，以了解公共部门决策者在特定合同或项目中可能正在思考或寻求什么。“我能够与人联系，”奥梅拉说。“我非常擅长‘当我在公共部门时，这就是我想要的。’”尽管不是工程师，但O’Meara说她立即在HNTB上被“带着小组的聪明人”。

O’Meara brought to the private sector her dedication to mentoring employees, who seek “her out for guidance and counsel on what they should do in thinking about their career and engaging in leadership,” says Phil Brake, president of HNTB’s Northeast division.Brake credits O’Meara with giving him and other executives at the company a better understanding of the concerns and ambitions of all employees, with a keen understanding of where they are coming from. “She has really improved our working environment,” Brake says. “Mary Jane is a down-to-earth person who people go to and trust and feel as though she is really interested, as a person and as a professional, in the development of their career.”