Between Two Cones

Live from Boston! We sat down with HR, knowledge management, and employee development leaders from three state DOTs right after the 2026 AASHTO Agency Administration Management Committee conference (AAMC) for a quick after-action review.

Sunny Watson (Michigan DOT), Teresa Prochaska and Karina Dixon (Kansas DOT), and Craig Crick (Nevada DOT) share what they’re taking home, why DOTs see each other as collaborators instead of competitors, and how a session outside your lane can change your career.

Plus: tips for first-time attendees, turning conference energy into action, and why Knowledge Management Taboo stole the show.

Whether you’re heading to your first AASHTO conference or your fifteenth, this one’s for you.

"Discipline trumps talent, every time."Dan Ball didn't plan on engineering, a blown-out shoulder his senior year sent him to West Point instead. Decades later he's a retired Army officer and Professor of Practice running Texas A&M's Engineering Academy, a program that's grown enrollment 200% and opened engineering to students who never thought they had a shot.What we get into:

• Building access: how the Academy model reaches first-gen and Pell-eligible students
• Communication over GPA: the real predictor of engineering career success
• Transformational vs. servant leadership, and the young-commander story behind it
• Discipline, and why "life is not linear"

Show notes & resources: between2cones.com

"You've cracked the code on how to have data-driven vibes."

How does a state DOT rack up 18 million views on a Bigfoot webcam post, and back it up with real strategy instead of just luck? Ryan Overton (Director of Communications) and RB McKeon (Northwest Region Communications Manager) at Washington State Department of Transportation join Mandy and Trish to break down how good comms work actually happens: gut instinct first, data second.

What we get into:- The vibes-to-data pipeline: how WashDOT turns playful, viral-minded posts into decisions backed by real numbers- First responders you don't see: why maintenance crews deserve the same respect as fire and EMS- The tyranny of the urgent: what it costs to run comms for an entire state's roads- From news desk to DOT: Ryan's path from weather anchor to Director of Communications

Show notes & resources: between2cones.com

What happens when you throw away the corporate buzzwords and look at leadership through a purely human lens? In this episode of Between Two Cones, Trish and Amanda sit down with Brandye Hendrickson, Deputy Executive Director of Planning and Administration at TxDOT. Brandye takes us on her incredible career journey, starting from an entry-level HR position in Indiana to leading a massive highway district as its first female director, serving as the Acting Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration in Washington DC, and eventually landing in Texas. Brandye shares the exact moment her famous career mantra, "Work hard and be nice," was born out of an exhausting strategic planning session where the snacks had run out. We dive into why the best systems builders are the ones who focus on human connections, why you don't need an engineering degree to change a transportation culture, and why she never takes a working elevator for granted. It is an episode packed with real-talk leadership insights for everyone working upstream in state service.

TL;DR: What happens when an agency executive is dubbed the "Jiminy Cricket of the DOT"? You get 36 years of absolute integrity, systems-thinking victories, and a masterclass in workforce continuity. Lee Wilkinson strips away the "keynote speaker" polish to give us the raw operational blueprint for building a true learning organization. If you want to know how to protect your team, manage up without losing your soul, and embed continuous knowledge capture into everyday workflows, this is your episode.

Executive leadership polish is fine, but sometimes you just need to talk to a smart coworker who has spent 36 years stabilizing enterprise systems work.

This week, we sit down with former Iowa DOT executive Lee Wilkinson to unpack his concrete "rules of the road" for managing modern public sector workforces. Lee breaks down the critical mechanics of driving systemic changes, explaining why the Iowa DOT tied entire performance evaluations directly to core organizational values. He shares the direct operational logic behind mandating 10 hours of personal development for every single employee, why adult orientation needs to explicitly teach people how to learn, and what it actually means to have your team's back when taking measured operational risks.

It's a conversation packed with boots-on-the-ground builder energy, zero corporate fluff, and real talk on navigating organizational volatility with your moral compass intact. Hit play to learn why a learning organization is the only type of organization that survives.

TL;DR – BK Moody hooks up Space Invaders to defensive driving, revamps TxDOT safety programs, and spends his weekends dodging flying tires on the independent monster truck circuit. It’s a masterclass in high-stakes operations, real-world grit, and down-to-earth leadership.

What happens when your weekday safety instructor spends his Saturdays standing on the dirt floor of a stadium arena while 12,000-pound trucks fly through the air? You get incredible stories, no-nonsense leadership advice, and a completely different look at what it takes to keep people alive on the job.

This week on Between Two Cones, Trish and Amanda sit down with master-level safety instructor and motorsport announcer BK Moody. From a profound Navy aircraft carrier incident in 1994 to the actual metrics behind why TxDOT crews do a 12-exercise routine every morning, BK proves that keeping people safe is about changing habits, not filling out boring paperwork. We talk about the old-school grind of swapping massive stadium tires, using pit-crew backing techniques on public highways, and why a real safety mindset follows you straight home to the kitchen dishwasher.

It’s intelligent, a little feral, and completely unpolished. Perfect for your morning commute or your next warehouse shift. Press play and let's get into it.

"There’s a whole world happening behind the cones, cameras, and gantries we drive under every day."

Most of us treat toll roads like a "set it and forget it" utility. But for Fabiola Bowers, Traffic and Incident Manager at the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), the highway is a living, breathing system that requires 24/7 tactical management.

In this episode, Fabiola pulls back the curtain on the "invisible" workforce of transportation. From her roots in police telecommunications to managing high-stakes highway incidents, she shares why infrastructure is actually a human-centered business.

In this episode, we dig into:

• The "Boss Level" of Incident Management: Why a smooth commute is actually a feat of constant coordination.

• From Dispatch to Data: How Fabiola’s background in emergency comms shaped her approach to toll operations.

• Leading with Empathy: How her work with Meals on Wheels and The Caring Place informs her perspective on public service.

• Breaking the Industry Silo: Why we need diverse perspectives from programs like Leadership Women America to solve "unsolvable" problems.

Connect with the Show:🌐 Website: between2cones.com

Former transportation executive Marc Luiken joins Mandy and Trish to share his battle-tested strategy for turning "work obligations" into high-performance culture zones. If you’re tired of meetings that feel like a waste of time, this episode is your manual for change.

In this episode, we break down:

• The "Rank-Free" Zone: Why the best ideas happen when titles are left at the door.

• ELMO to the Rescue: How to use the "Enough, Let’s Move On" card to kill circular discussions.

• Healthy Conflict: Why trust is the secret ingredient to productive disagreement.

• The Parking Lot: A scrappy builder’s tool for keeping the main thing the main thing.

Bonus Resource: We’ve included a link in the show notes to Marc’s "Rules for Meetings" guide—a fully accessibility-compliant PDF you can download and drop into your team’s Slack or Teams channel today.

Stop surviving your meetings and start leading them. 🚀

TL;DR - Leadership is not just strategy and structure. It is showing up when life hits hard. Kelly Hutchinson shares what happens when public service becomes deeply personal, and why the most important leadership moments often happen off the org chart.In this episode, Kelly Hutchinson joins us to talk about what really happens when leadership stops being theoretical and starts getting personal.We explore the moments that don’t make it into performance reviews or press releases. Family emergencies. Teammates stepping up without being asked. The quiet, human decisions leaders make when policy meets real life.Kelly shares stories from her career in transportation that highlight resilience, trust, and the responsibility that comes with leading people, not just projects. We talk about what went right, what went wrong, and how perspective shifts when you realize that the work is important, but the people are everything.From big industry challenges to small acts of humanity, this conversation reminds us that transportation is not just infrastructure. It is community. It is service. It is showing up for each other.It’s a conversation about heart, leadership under pressure, and the real people behind the cones.

TL;DR: If you’re navigating constant change, supporting others through it, and still expected to keep things moving, this episode is for you.

This conversation offers a grounded take on leadership, resilience, and purpose in the space where real decisions get made.

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Most leadership doesn’t happen in big moments or bold declarations. It happens between strategy and delivery, between plans and pavement, where the pressure is steady and the work doesn’t slow down.

In this episode of Between Two Cones, we dig into what it takes to lead in that space with clarity and intention. Christine Hetzel from the Vermont Agency of Transportation brings a systems-level perspective shaped by her work in workforce planning and leadership development, sharing how strengths-based leadership and purposeful decision-making help teams stay steady through ongoing change.

This isn’t a conversation about having all the answers. It’s about making thoughtful tradeoffs, building real capacity, and staying grounded when expectations are high and certainty is in short supply.

If you’ve ever felt the weight of keeping things moving while navigating change yourself, you’ll recognize this terrain.

Because when the wind won’t stop blowing and the road keeps shifting, purpose is what keeps you in your lane.