Ellen Voie is being honored as a Champion of Change for her effort to develop an innovative way to grow and expand the transportation industry to women.
Voie, president, CEO and founder of the Women In Trucking Association, was invited to the White House along with 12 other Champions to be recognized by the U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Every week, the White House honors “ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things” through its “Champions of Change” initiative. This week it recognized leaders in the area of transportation.
“When you hear the words ‘truck driver,’ you probably imagine a big, burly guy wearing a ball cap, with a tattoo below the sleeve of his t-shirt,” Voie writes on her blog. “While it is true that 95 percent of professional drivers are men, there are nearly 200,000 female big rig drivers in the United States.”
The Women In Trucking Scholarship Foundation was formed in 2011. Voie founded the Women In Trucking Association in 2007.