National Highway Institute

Maintenance Leadership Academy Pilot Features Updated Modules

NHI’s MLA was recently updated through a successful collaborative effort with the Resource Center and other NHI partners. Source: Shutterstock

The National Highway Institute's (NHI's) Maintenance Leadership Academy (MLA) is an intensive multi-week training event that supports workforce and succession planning by providing State, district, and county maintenance supervisors and managers with the tools they need to take the next steps in their career. Participants acquire an understanding of the various processes, methods, and materials that are applied to maintain and preserve their organization's bridge and highway systems. They also develop a knowledge base of planning, scheduling, quality control, customer focus, program presentation, asset management, pavement and bridge preservation, contract management, and performance improvement.

The MLA course combines instructor-led classroom training, web conferences, and self-paced independent study over a 12-week period. The course modules were updated over the past year through a collaborative effort with NHI’s partners, including the Resource Center, HQ program offices, and State DOTs, who reviewed the diverse subject matter and provided insight to ensure the material met State maintenance workforce development needs. The structure of the course, technical subject matter, and diverse stakeholder group made the course revision process quite complex, but the results made the collaborative effort worthwhile.

Graduates of NHI’s Maintenance Leadership Academy (MLA) course display their certificates of completion. Source: FHWA

The first three MLA modules were successfully piloted over the last year and the remaining three modules will be piloted in March of 2020. NHI’s State partners continue to support efforts to host regional conferences, which serve to introduce the academy to more States and will result in increasing the technical competency of maintenance professionals across the country.

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Public Involvement Course Launched as Web-based Training

The National Highway Institute’s (NHI’s) newly released Basics of Public Involvement in Transportation Decision Making web-based training (WBT) course (NHI-142077) provides transportation practitioners with the knowledge and tools needed to better engage the public in transportation decisions, as well as meet Federal requirements for public involvement. The target audience for this WBT course includes transportation practitioners from Federal, State, regional, and local agencies, particularly data analysts, planners, engineers, project development specialists, environmental specialists, civil rights specialists, consultants, and other professionals whose job function may require knowledge of public involvement to support transportation decision making. It presents participants with an overview of Federal public involvement regulations and directives for transportation planning, programming, and project development, as well as a framework for engaging the public using a variety of approaches.

NHI’s new Public Involvement in Transportation Decision Making web-based training (WBT) course allows participants to learn at their own pace and location at no cost. Source: NHI and Shutterstock

The WBT was based on NHI’s instructor-led training (ILT), Public Involvement in Transportation Decision Making course (NHI-142036). However, to be more responsible to participant needs, and to address cost, course duration, and accessibility concerns, NHI developed the 4-hour web-based version of the course and began offering it free of charge in mid-2019. As a result, the WBT version reached more than three times the number of participants as its in-person counterpart, with 180 WBT participants in FY19.

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3-Year Investment Plan to Update Training

NHI Federal and contractor staff are committed to improving the performance of the transportation industry through the update, development, and delivery of their trainings. Source: FHWA

In 2019, NHI committed to a 3-year, $14.4 million investment plan to develop new and updated training materials.  Work is being coordinated with FHWA program offices, State DOTs, and contractors to assess all trainings that require updates to incorporate new guidance and technologies and discontinue any trainings that are no longer relevant.  Efforts have begun to front load materials for WBT courses and prerequisite components, due to the need to move from Flash-based to HTML5 formats. NHI is also standardizing ILT delivery formats to align with the current NHI style and standards guide.

The table below details the planned number of course updates and developments by program area over the next three fiscal years, based on NHI’s assessment of existing courses:

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Instructor of Excellence Award Acknowledges Exceptional Trainers

NHI reinstituted their Instructor of Excellence Award to recognize instructors that continually provide quality instruction. Source: Shutterstock

NHI strives to ensure that surface transportation professionals are at the forefront of their discipline by equipping them with the knowledge necessary to keep America’s infrastructure a safe and reliable national asset. NHI’s success is directly attributed to highly-talented educators whose professional delivery and adherence to NHI’s adult learning philosophy reflects favorably on FHWA and contributes greatly to the effectiveness of the agency.

Only instructors with a 4.7 overall satisfaction rating or higher are eligible for NHI’s Instructor of Excellence award. Source: Shutterstock

In late 2019, NHI ran an Instructor Performance Report that identified each course session taught during Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19), as well as each instructor’s average overall session satisfaction rankings. If an instructor successfully completed the Instructor Development Course (IDC), achieved the NHI Instructor Certification, was endorsed by a Training Program Manager/Instructor Liaison, earned a 4.7 or higher on a 5-point scale in overall satisfaction ratings, and taught at least two NHI sessions during the fiscal year, s/he qualified for an Instructor of Excellence award.

NHI recognizes that nearly 100 instructors have qualified as Instructors of Excellence in 2019, which includes the following FHWA instructors. The full list of 2019 Instructors of Excellence can be viewed at bit.ly/NHI_FY19Instructors.

The following FHWA employees were recognized as Instructors of Excellence for 2019.

• Sonny Jadun, P.E., M.S.
• David Kopacz, P.E.
• Elliott Moore, P.E.
• Thomas Saad, P.E.
• Jeffery Shaw, P.E., P.T.O.E.
• K. Craig Allred, B.S.
• Hillary Isebrands, P.E.
• Doug Atkin, P.E.
• Theodore Burch, P.E.
• Eric Purkiss
• Mark Leonard, P.E.
• Derek Soden, P.E.
• Gilberto DeLeon
• Mark Doctor, P.E.
• Daniel Fodera
• Michele Palicka
• Marshall Wainwright
• Eric Brown, PH.D.
• Keith Sinclair
• Laura Girard, P.E.
• Scott Hogan, M.S., P.E.
• Victoria Brinkly, B.S., P.E.
• Sandy Zimmer
• Justin Clarke, AICP
• Derek Torrey
• Ronald Vaughn
• Thomas Elliott, M.ED.

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