VIA Board Chair Recognized with Russell H. Perry Award

VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Board Chair Hope Andrade was recently awarded the 2016 Russell H. Perry Award at the 90th Annual Transportation Short Course in College Station. This award, co-sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), and the Texas Good Roads Transportation Association, recognizes individuals for their significant contribution to the field of transportation. Honorees are selected based on their leadership in advocating and gaining awareness for the need for, and benefits of, transportation facilities in the State of Texas.

Andrade has been a long-time champion for transportation and the role it plays in connecting communities and maintaining our state’s economic competitiveness and continued quality of life. 

In 2004, she became the second woman in the history of the Texas Department of Transportation to serve on the Texas Transportation Commission. During her Commission tenure, Andrade also became the first woman chair in 2008.

While on the Commission, Andrade led statewide efforts to coordinate the delivery of public transportation, an initiative that ultimately won a national United We Ride Award. Andrade was also instrumental in early efforts to expand TTI’s Teens in the Driver Seat Program – a program that grew from a two-high school pilot in San Antonio to what is now a national program, reaching almost a million teens. 

After her tenure on the Transportation Commission, she was appointed by then Gov. Rick Perry as Texas’ first Latina secretary of state – a post she held for more than four years. She has also served as a Texas Workforce Commissioner, and been a leader in the San Antonio business community for more than three decades.