As she reflects on her career, Brewster sees both tremendous progress and opportunities that still lie ahead.
After graduating with an English degree during a recession in the early 1980s, Brewster accepted a temporary assignment with a private fleet. There, she audited driver logs, participated in driver quality meetings and analyzed data from early onboard trip recorders. The experience introduced her to an industry she had never considered, but one that would ultimately define her career.
Following several years in government affairs, Brewster joined the ATA Foundation in 1993 as a public policy analyst. When the organization evolved into ATRI in 2001 with a renewed emphasis on independent, data-driven research, she helped lead that transition before becoming president in 2002.
Throughout her tenure, Brewster credits ATRI's collaborative approach for much of its success. The organization's Research Advisory Committee, composed of trucking executives, professional drivers, suppliers, law enforcement and government officials, has ensured research priorities reflected the industry's most pressing needs rather than the interests of any single group.
That philosophy helped produce studies that influenced hours of service regulations, identified freight bottlenecks that guided infrastructure investments and provided data that shaped safety initiatives across the industry.
Over the course of three decades, Brewster watched trucking transform.
When she first entered the industry, technology inside commercial vehicles was limited to basic trip recorders that captured only a handful of performance metrics. Today, fleets rely on sophisticated technology to improve safety, efficiency and decision making.
Just as significant has been the industry's growing reliance on research to solve complex challenges.
According to Brewster, one of the most rewarding aspects of her career has been seeing research evolve from reports into meaningful change.
Whether improving hours of service regulations or providing data that helped states prioritize freight infrastructure improvements, she believes research is most valuable when it delivers practical solutions that improve daily operations for drivers and fleets alike.
Brewster's own experiences as one of the few women in trucking during the early years of her career shaped many of the issues she later championed through research.
When she joined her first fleet, she was the only woman in the office. The facility had no dedicated women's restroom, a story she now shares as a reminder of how dramatically the industry has changed.
Today, she says, women are visible throughout trucking in ways that simply did not exist when she first entered the profession. Yet she believes meaningful barriers remain.
Some of ATRI's most impactful research under Brewster's leadership focused specifically on understanding the experiences of women drivers.
One of the organization's crash predictor studies found that women truck drivers consistently demonstrate stronger safety performance than their male counterparts. Those findings reinforced what Brewster believes is both a safety and workforce opportunity for the industry.
"We found that women truck drivers are much safer than their male counterparts," Brewster explains. "That really gave us a launching point for driving home to the industry why there's such a strong safety rationale for why we want more women in driver seats."
Another recent study examined what attracts women to trucking and the obstacles that continue to affect recruitment and retention.
The research found that women value the independence, flexibility and financial stability trucking provides. Competitive pay and the opportunity for financial independence were among the profession's greatest strengths.
At the same time, participants consistently identified several challenges that continue to impact women on the road.
Safe truck parking ranked among the most significant concerns. Brewster notes that many women drivers hesitate to leave their trucks to exercise or even sleep comfortably when parking areas feel unsafe.
Restricted restroom access at customer facilities also emerged as a major issue. While often discussed anecdotally, ATRI's research documented the problem with data, helping bring greater attention to an issue that eventually contributed to legislative action in several states requiring restroom access for commercial drivers.
For Brewster, those outcomes represent exactly why research matters saying, "it is that opportunity to move the needle through our research. We identify issues through driver input, publish the research, disseminate the findings and move the needle for drivers to make it better for them on the road."
Although she is retiring, Brewster remains optimistic about the future of trucking.
She believes artificial intelligence and emerging technologies will create new opportunities to improve efficiency, planning and the driver experience. At the same time, she emphasizes that innovation should complement, not replace, efforts to solve fundamental workplace issues like truck parking and restroom access.
She also hopes the industry continues expanding opportunities for women by making female leaders more visible, investing in mentorship and creating workplaces where women can see long-term career paths.
For Brewster, those efforts are essential not only for women already working in trucking, but also for encouraging the next generation to consider careers across every corner of the industry.
As she steps away after 33 years, Brewster leaves behind more than influential research. She leaves an example of leadership grounded in collaboration, curiosity and a belief that listening to drivers can create meaningful change. Her career demonstrates that the strongest ideas often begin with asking the right questions and using the answers to make the industry better for everyone.
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