Event Overview
Lan Zhou is a 20+-year veteran of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). She currently serves as the Caltrans District 12 Director, where she previously served as Deputy Director of Planning and Local Assistance for eleven years, and before that as the Corridor System Management Program Manager and Regional Planning and Local Development Review Branch Chief. She began her Caltrans career in District 4 (Bay Area) as a lead engineer in Maintenance and Toll Bridge Engineering. Zhou has a long history in strategic planning, organizational excellence, and partnership building, and has a wide breadth of experience including working for universities, a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), local government and multiple State Departments of Transportation. As the District 12 Director, Zhou leads
nearly 1,000 employees and serves 3.2 million residents.
Dina El-Tawansy has 23 years of service with Caltrans and her leadership experience spans three Districts and multiple Divisions. She is currently the District Director, Caltrans, District 4, Bay Area. Prior, she served as Chief Deputy District Director for Caltrans District 4. While much of her career has been in District 4 and District 7, Dina also served in District 12, Orange County, as the Deputy District Director of Operations and Maintenance. In her current capacity, Ms. El-Tawansy manages a $2 Billion budget of inhouse and oversight investments and leading nearly 3,500 staff. As Director of District 4, she implements the Department’s new Mission, Vision and Goals, builds and strengthens partnerships, and continues the work towards multimodal, safe and reliable transportation solutions that serve all people of the Bay Area. Dina possesses a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona and an M.S. degree from Long Beach State University in Construction Management. She is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) and Project Management Professional (PMP)
