The list of Arizona women making history is growing as Maricopa County’s Department of Transportation Engineer/Director Jennifer Toth, as well as the City of Mesa’s Engineer Beth Huning, have been awarded the prestigious American Public Works Association’s (APWA) Top Ten Public Works Leader of the Year for 2019.
Arizona has benefited from both their leadership with large engineering projects. Toth has a couple of big firsts under her belt as she was not only the first female State Engineer for ADOT, but is currently recognized as the first female County Engineer for Maricopa County. Thanks to Toth’s leadership, those who use Bell Road to travel from the west valley to the east save time because of the Bell Road Adaptive Signal Technology project.
Huning is known for knocking it out of the park as the lead engineer on the team that built the Cubs Training facility. That multi-million dollar project encompassed a 125-acre site which includes 20-acres of community parks and five acres of urban fishing. The facility had over a quarter of a million visitors this year alone!
These are just a couple of significant Arizona projects these engineers have lead in their respective careers.
Both women are believers in inspiring the next generation of female engineers. Recently, Toth invited a group of aspiring pre-teen girls to learn about careers in engineering with an exclusive behind the scenes tour of MCDOT.
In observance of National Engineers Week, Beth Huning and her team host “Engineering Week” at one of the local elementary schools. Every year they help grade school students discover the exciting world of engineering and technology. The students break into teams and design and build their bridges out of popsicle sticks. At the end of the week the bridges are “tested” for their load capacity and awards are given to the winning teams.
