AASHTO president names 2 vice chairs

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) President John Cox said Friday that Joyce Taylor will become vice chair of the association's Highways Subcommittee for Design and Thomas Byron will become vice chair of the AASHTO Innovation Initiative.

The executive committee must approve the appointments at its next meeting. If approved Byron and Taylor would hold the positions until the end of the 2017 AASHTO annual meeting.

Taylor currently serves as the chief engineer at the Maine Department of Transportation. Byron is chief engineer at the Florida Department of Transportation.

The directors of both state's transportation departments were notified of the appointments, as were the chairs of the affected AASHTO panels. Utah Department of Transportation Executive Director Carlos Braceras chairs the AASHTO Highways Subcommittee for Design. Vermont Agency of Transportation Highway Division Director Richard Tetrault, chairs the AASHTO Innovation Initiative.

Taylor began working at the Maine DOT in 1999 as an environmental engineer in the construction division. She most recently served as the director of the Bureau of Project Development and became chief engineer in 2013. She also was the first president of the newly formed Women in Transportation chapter in the state and has been active in AASHTO's Standing Committee on Highways.

Byron has been Florida DOT's chief engineer since December 2011. He also serves as the chairman for the Transportation Curriculum Coordination Council. He started with the Florida DOT in 1995 holding various positions. He served in the Marine Corps as a colonel and was deployed twice to the Middle East participating in aviation command and control activities in Afghanistan and Iraq.