Dawn Oie has been at MnDOT for more than 30 years in a variety of jobs in District 8. She has seen a lot of changes in her time at the agency and decided to make a change of her own in 2021 by joining the Maintenance Office as a transportation program specialist. Her job includes coordinating snow fences, which trap snow and prevent it from blowing across roads or other targeted areas. Snow fences come in three varieties: structural, living (trees/shrubs) and vegetative (corn rows or hay bales). (The MnDOT website has more information about the snow fence program.)

What has been your career path?
I started out as a student worker while going to college. I helped with data entry of training records and mechanic shop repairs. After college, I got a permanent job as a clerk typist and later became District 8’s Adopt A Highway coordinator.

The district needed some help with human resources, so I started helping them out and eventually moved to HR fulltime. Our supervisor took a mobility as District 8’s administrative manager so I filled in as the HR supervisor during her absence. After two years, our HR supervisor moved into the admin manager position permanently and I was offered the HR supervisor position.

I later took a mobility as a transportation program specialist for six months and now have been in the role permanently for nine months.

What do you do in your job?
I do a variety of things in my current job. I track materials and run reports. I coordinate the bidding and invoicing process for snow loading and street sweeping.

I am also the snow fence coordinator for all living and non-living snow fences in District 8. I guide the payment process for the rental agreements. I prepare Negotiated Maintenance and Construction Contract quote packages related to snow fence projects, collect and award bids, and serve as the project manager on the snow fence projects.

What’s an average day like for you?
Every day is different. It varies depending on the season.

What’s your favorite part about what you do?
There are lots of things that I like about this job. It is rewarding to be able to rejuvenate the FEMA snow fences that have been in place for 20 years and to install new snow fences to help ensure the safety of the traveling public.

What are the biggest challenges?
Contacting the landowners from whom we bought easement rights for our FEMA snow fence sites back in 2000 or 2001.

What kind of changes have you seen during your time at MnDOT?
Change has always been a constant. However, it seems to happen more frequently over the last five to eight years as more and more things become electronic. Drug and alcohol testing started in the late 1990s. When I started, we had many desks sitting in a large open room, but now we have cubicles. Office space has really changed over time.

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Recent employee profiles:

• Ralph Adair keeps agency connected through fiber optic lines
• Sam Brown oversees agency's operating budget
• Stephanie Clark drives thousands of miles to collect pavement data each year

For many years, MnDOT staff have interacted with unsheltered populations, typically when individuals are encamped on or near rights of way.

MnDOT has been working to approach these encounters with awareness, resilience and safety for both the traveling public and those Minnesotans seeking shelter. Recently, the agency earned national recognition for these efforts through its selection as a 2022 Innovation Initiative by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
MnDOT’s innovations in this area include:

• Mobile mapping & camp data entry: This app-based solution allows MnDOT staff to enter encampment location information and activity details while in the field and analyze camp size and cleanup costs over time.
• Encampment procedures guide: This document details when and how encampment removal and clean-up should occur and how staff should operate in and around encampments.
• Training for field staff: This seven-module video series for field staff helps them navigate the complexities of encountering unsheltered individuals.

AASHTO’s Innovation Initiative seeks out proven advancements in transportation technology to accelerate their adoption nationwide.

Each year, the program selects highly valuable technologies, processes, software or other innovations that have been successfully adopted by at least one agency and offer significant benefit to other agencies.

Ready-to-use technologies from other DOTs recognized this year include Steel Press-Brake-Formed Tub Girder, On-Demand Microtransit, and Beam End Repair Using Ultra-High Performance Concrete.

For the complete list of focus technologies, visit AASHTO.

With more than 5,000 employees, MnDOT is a large, sprawling team with people of many backgrounds, identities and interests. This diversity and breadth of lived experiences help foster a strong, vibrant workplace built on an array of perspectives and skill sets that go beyond the bullet points listed in a job description. 

Employee Resource Groups are a key component in MnDOT’s efforts to recognize, affirm and support diversity, equity and inclusion within the agency, and support employees from traditionally underrepresented communities. Employees from across the agency—in all districts and all types of jobs—currently belong to these groups. The active ERGs include:

• African American Employee Resource Group, for employees who identify as Black, African, African-American, West Indian or of any African descent.
• FUEL - Fully Utilizing Employees without Labeling, which focuses on questions and concerns related to disability issues at MnDOT and in the community.
• Indigenous Employee Resource Group, for employees who identify as Indigenous.
• Q & A –LGBTQQIA2S & Allies, for employees who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, or Two Spirit.
• Asian Employee Resource Group, for employees of Asian origin and heritage and from Asian countries.
• Strategic Women Advancing Transportation, a group dedicated to overcoming barriers for women at MnDOT. 
• Spectrum, for employees on the autism spectrum and those with family or friends on the autism spectrum.
• Latino-American Employee Resource Group, for employees of Latino heritage.
• Veterans Employee Resource Group, for current military members, veterans and their families.

Employees who identify as allies—people who are not part of the specified background or identity but wish to show their support—are also welcome to join any of the ERGs.

Group members can spend up to six hours per month on ERG-related activities, including a monthly meeting (during the workday) along with professional development, community outreach and other activities. Each ERG works with the Office of Equity & Diversity to develop a specific work plan.

Employees who aren’t in an ERG but are interested in learning more should visit the Employee Resource Groups page on iHUB, which has links to specific information about each group, contacts, upcoming events and frequently asked questions. While some employees may be interested in multiple groups, the Office of Equity & Diversity encourages people to join no more than two, to ensure focused, intentional interaction.

“It’s never too late—or too early—for someone to join an ERG,” said Frida Alvarez, diversity and inclusion organizational development specialist in the Office of Equity & Diversity. “Employee Resource Groups are a place to go to learn (and critique) the work culture, meet new colleagues and be a part of an innovative community committed to diversity, equity and inclusion at MnDOT.”

By Joseph Palmersheim