- One word to describe yourself: Zen
- Alma Mater: Pennsylvania State University, University Park
- Favorite book: “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë
- Favorite TV show: “Friends”
- Favorite movie: “Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis”
- Favorite hobby(ies): Karaoke, Zumba and traveling
- Fun fact about yourself: Less than 1 percent of non-Chinese speakers pronounce her first name correctly the first try; many still can’t do it after knowing her for years.
- What is your favorite transit system (outside of the one you work for or have worked for!) and why?: Shanghai Metro – Clean, frequent, convenient to any point in the city, low-cost, fully enclosed platform screen doors that keep patrons safe near the tracks, in-car entertainment, state-of-the-art technologies, and most importantly, no upholstery or carpet in the cars!
A graduate of Penn State’s Industrial Relations Master’s Degree program, Wang knew she was going to start a career in a related field. She came to work for the Transportation Learning Center as a research associate in 2002. In her 15 years at the center, she has risen to the rank of deputy director and oversees, in addition to her research portfolio, projects on development of state of the art courseware for transit rail car technicians, outreach to veterans and to women seeking non-traditional jobs, the American Apprenticeship Initiative to develop more than 1,000 new apprentice positions in transit in five occupations by 2020 and the communications strategy for the center.
Wang has particularly distinguished herself as an expert on transit and transportation labor markets and training. Early on in her career with the center, she began collecting data to measure the effectiveness of the joint labor-management training initiatives the center promoted. Her research into the Keystone Transit Career Ladder Partnership at Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority went into great depth, and she secured the full cooperation of planning, operational and finance staff to examine the effectiveness of the Keystone training, particularly for bus mechanics. Carefully examining the data and considering factors other than training that contributed to SEPTA’s savings, the research demonstrated that over a four-year period, the joint training effort at SEPTA showed a return on investment of between 293 percent and 745 percent (depending on the estimate of how large a share of the gain should be attributed to training).
Expanding this research to encompass elsewhere in Pennsylvania and in upstate New York, she continued to find data supporting better training, including factors like spare bus ratio, mean distance between failures and work brought back in-house from contractors. The research was published as “Metrics of Success” in 2009. Wang made many presentations to APTA conferences and workforce committee meetings on this topic.
In 2014, Wang served as the lead researcher on a white paper on the future or the transportation workforce commissioned by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Office of Career Technical Education at the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor. She presented the data at the U.S. Department of Transportation in a major conference called by all three federal agencies and attended by hundreds of stakeholders. The dramatic findings about critical workforce shortages across transportation sectors continue to inform federal policy on transportation workforce development.
Wang is currently the staff lead for the National Rail Car Training Consortium. Led by the Transportation Learning Center, the National Rail Car Training Consortium started in late 2015 to develop standardized national training courseware for rail car technicians. The development team is composed of more than 40 rail car maintenance subject matter experts from 16 member agencies. The consortium has accomplished full courseware with participant guides, instructor guides, PowerPoints, quizzes and instructional videos for Overview of Rail Subsystems, HVAC, Auxiliary Power Systems, Propulsion and Dynamic Braking and is currently developing materials for Doors and Friction Brakes.
“The U.S. has fallen behind many developed and even developing countries for the quality of public transportation services. This has not only affected the quality of life of the citizens but also impeded the economic growth of American towns and cities. However, there are many exciting experiments of innovative ideas and a lot more learning and exchanges happening between the U.S. and “transit-rich” countries. Ultimately, I would like to see the U.S. providing world-class urban and intercity transit, cost-effective high-speed rail and seamless integration with traditional and new passenger transportation modes, accessible for all people. As envisioned by Enrique Peñalosa, the mayor of Bogotá, “An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport.”
“To meet the ends of providing safe, reliable and comfortable services, transit’s human capital needs to be treated as equally, if not more important as physical capital. With this in mind, I and my colleagues at the Transportation Learning Center will continue to leverage resources and expertise from across the industry to build the skills of the frontline transit workforce that constructs, operates, and maintains the nation’s vital public transportation network.”
“Workforce challenges, especially on the frontline are often overlooked in public transportation. Over a 10-year period, there is a need to hire, train and retain 126 percent of the current workforce in transit. Over 90 percent of them work in frontline operations and maintenance jobs. The transit workforce is older than the overall transportation workforce, and significantly older than the general working population, so retirements are hitting harder. High turnover in some jobs (e.g. bus drivers) aggravates the problem of how to hire and retain enough people."
“I have constantly found myself the only woman and only Asian in the room when I first started my career. My best advice for those in a similar situation is to always lean in, step up and find good mentors. There are many in the industry, men or women, who are very willing to help if only you ask. And don’t assume you are the only 'outsider.' Keep an open mind and empathize. You will find a lot more commonalities in our experiences than differences.”
