FHWA Works: Employee Spotlight - Terry Schumann

Full Name: Terry Schumann
Title: Environmental Protection Specialist
Division/Department: Federal Lands Highway, Office of Tribal Transportation
Location (City/State): Portland, OR

1. How long have you been in your role and how did you choose this transportation field?
   I’ve been with the Office of Tribal Transportation for 11 years. I began my career in archaeology, exploring artifacts and other remains left behind by past indigenous peoples inhabiting the lands now recognized as the United States. While approaches have been changing, at the time, there was very little integration of archaeological study with the traditional knowledge of present-day descendants of these groups. When the Office of Federal Lands started building a team to administer an evolving Tribal Transportation Program (TTP), which was then known as the Indian Reservation Roads Program, I was intrigued by the opportunity to work closely with our Tribal partners.

2. What do you find interesting about your job and what do you do on daily basis?
   My day to day work is centered around ensuring the environmental compliance of TTP-funded projects lead by Tribal governments. What is most interesting is working side by side with sovereign nations, each with unique visions of their communities’ futures, but each ultimately striving to improve what has been a historically neglected area of American transportation.

3. What has been your biggest accomplishment over the last year?
   Climate-related impacts to Tribes’ transportation infrastructure has steadily risen over recent decades. Compounding the problem is a lack of available information and funding to help understand, plan, prioritize, and ultimately address these effects. This past year, we initiated research to complete vulnerability assessments on the transportation systems of 6 Tribes using FHWA’s Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Framework, 3rd Edition. Once completed, a report will summarize the results of the assessments, and document the unique challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations to improve the development of future Tribal transportation climate vulnerability assessments.

4. Prior to working at FHWA, what was the most unusual or interesting job you've ever had?
   The archaeology work I did while employed with the Missouri Department of Transportation, while sometimes tedious and physically challenging, was endlessly fascinating when documenting the remains of a 1,200 year-old housing structure, or holding an object that no one has seen or touched in at least 6,000 years.

5. What are your hobbies in your spare time?
   I love running, hiking, disc golf, and indulging in Portland’s excellent restaurant scene.

6. What is one of the biggest lessons you have learned in your career to get you where you are today?
   Be flexible. It’s good to have a plan but let yourself wander too. Also, try to leave work at work, it’s much easier on your constitution.

7. Who do you admire in the transportation field and why?
   There are so many admirable people in transportation, but I’ll single out one, Casey Stevens, Transportation Director for the Stillaguamish Tribe in Arlington, WA. Casey is dedicated to improving transportation for Stillaguamish citizens and all users of the Stillaguamish transportation network. He collaborates regularly with those in Tribal transportation, the larger transportation community, and any discipline intersecting with transportation. A true professional, he freely shares and seeks knowledge to further the aims of the Stillaguamish Tribe.

8. Complete this sentence: "People would be surprised if they knew…"
   In high school, I was in a 5-member boy band started by friends from German class called “Ain’t We Got Fünf!”