Arlene Willis Named Role Models Coordinator

Arlene Willis has been tapped as the new coordinator for ITWomen’s Role Model Speakers program in Palm Beach and Broward counties. Arlene has a passion for youth development and is also involved in several non-profit programs geared towards education. She has served as a senior transit planner for Broward County’s Mass Transit Division, managing the Advanced Public Transportation System.

Arlene Willis has a passion for youth development and is also involved in several non-profit programs geared towards education. In June 2012, ITWomen, a nonprofit organization, appointed Arlene as its Program Coordinator. In this position she manages the “ITWomen’s Role Model Speakers Program” in Broward and Palm Beach Counties.

Arlene is also a Board Member of the Broward Gifted Advisory Council (BCPS), an advisory council of the Broward County Public Schools. She began her involvement with BCPS in 1995 as a classroom volunteer when she relocated to Florida from Washington D.C.  Since 1995 she has served BCPS in a variety of roles such as a Take Stock in Children mentor, classroom assistant, virtual school coach and certified health (vision & body mass index) specialist.

Arlene is the former Managing Director and founder of Willis Cox & Associates (WCA) a former transportation and project management consulting firm.  WCA conducted Florida Department of Transportation projects in liaison with Florida International University as well as University of South Florida.

Prior to consulting, she was a senior transit planner for Broward County’s Mass Transit Division responsible for managing the Advanced Public Transportation System.  Arlene played an integral role in creating meaningful inter-agency and vendor relationships. She coordinated the pre-purchase studies, purchase, installation and implementation of technologies including automatic passenger counters, automatic vehicle locator systems and transit signal priority. She also played a supervisory role for staff responsible for GIS and farebox revenue reconnaissance.

Arlene has participated in several business and civic organizations including Minority Economic Think Tank, Census 2010 as a speaker, and Election campaigns for local and state candidates and employed with the Supervisor of Elections for Broward County.

She spent 2 years in Washington D.C. as a Research Fellow assigned to the Federal Highway Administration conducting investigations in Congestion Management Systems.  A published researcher Arlene also held the position of Transit Ambassador (subject matter expert) for the Transit Cooperative Research Program an arm of the National Academy of Science.

Arlene was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica and holds a BS in Industrial Engineering and MS in Transportation from New Jersey Institute of Technology.  She currently lives in Broward County with her two children.