Board of Directors

Laura Roan Hays has been in the transportation industry for more than 30 years. She began her career in 1989 as an administrative assistant and worked her way up to Branch Manager, leading the Great Dane Tampa and Miami branches.

Along with her extensive sales and customer service experience, Laura also has comprehensive knowledge of the trucking industry’s aftermarket sector. 

She has been a member of WIT since early 2012, and most recently, she was appointed to the Women in Trucking Board of Directors. She is excited to take on this role and further assist in fulfilling the WIT mission to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments, and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the industry.

Rachel Christensen is responsible for managing intermodal capacity needs and service performance throughout the entire J.B. Hunt Intermodal network, consisting of 5,500 trucks and 85,000 company owned containers.

She started her career with J.B. Hunt in 2008 and has held various positions in the Intermodal division managing a variety of local and regional fleets.  Prior to relocating to the corporate office in 2016, she was the Director of Intermodal Operations in Chicago, IL where she oversaw the day to day operations of the largest local fleet in J.B. Hunt’s intermodal segment with more than 700 drivers servicing the Chicago metro area.  She currently serves as an advisor to J.B. Hunt’s Women Employee Resource Group, GROW.  In her free time she enjoys staying active, traveling and as a Chicago native, rooting on her home teams from afar.

Marie has been in the transportation industry for over 20 years. She joined Amazon in 2015, during this time she has held multiple leadership roles in Operations. Currently she is the Director of Transportation for the West Coast, overseeing 200+ yard operations within the Amazon network focusing on; Safety, Recruiting and Career advancement for Amazon Drivers. Prior to Amazon, Marie spent 8 years with UPS and 9 years with FedEx leading multiple teams.

Outside of work, Marie enjoys spending time with her 3 children; Chloe, Kaylee and Aiden who keep her very busy.

LaBree became a professional truck driver in 2006. She is an independent owner-operator of Castle Transport LLC, and has been leased to Landstar since June of 2014. She has been a team driver with her husband, Del, for all of her career. They run JIT (just in time) freight and are able to be home most weekends.

LaBree has been instrumental in growing and managing the WIT Facebook group that has over 11,000 active members. In 2016, she became a member of the WIT Image Team, a group comprised of individuals who represent the WIT mission and participate in ride-along events for legislators, regulators, and industry leaders to provide a deeper understanding of the obstacles they face on the road. They also speak to the media and other industry professionals at public events and industry trade shows.

Delores Lail is the Senior Vice President of Sales for Ryder, Fleet Management Solutions, East Region. She is responsible for all aspects of sales and sales leadership in the East with 150 Directors and Sales professionals on her team. Delores has held a series of increasingly expanding positions in sales and operations during her 35 year career. She was inducted into Ryder Rental Masters in 1991 and recently served as a Board Member.

Delores is active in Ryder’s Women Leadership Association and serves as an executive sponsor. She is a member of Ryder’s Diversity Council. In 2016 she was a recipient of the Florida Diversity Council’s Most Powerful and Influential Women’s Award.

Karen Schwartz is currently the Vice President of Marketing, B2B for Michelin North America.  Prior to starting this role, she served as the Global Managing Director for the Digital Services Platform Group at Michelin, housed within the Services and Solutions Global Business Line, where she was responsible for leading a SaaS “Start-up” team.  She began her career with Michelin in 2018 as the North American B2B Marketing Director for Michelin’s On-Road Business, including Line Haul, Regional and Urban Delivery and Commercial Vehicle Services.  Prior to coming to Michelin, Karen spent 15 years at Procter & Gamble, holding several Brand Management Positions, including Senior Brand Manager for Global Head & Shoulders Innovation, Senior Brand Manager for Secret North America, and Brand Manager for Downy/Lenor Global Innovation.  She began her career at P&G as an engineer, designing manufacturing systems for the Liquid Laundry Detergent Business and managing logistics for Clairol North America.

Karen received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2003.  In 2009, she earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

She currently resides in Greenville, South Carolina with her husband, Pete, and daughter.

Michele Rodgers is the Director of Business & Product Development for Dynacraft, a diversified global manufacturer of PACCAR medium and heavy-duty truck parts.

Previously, Rodgers was Director of Program Management for Peterbilt, where she had more than twenty years of experience at Peterbilt on the engineering and program management teams and has held several positions of increasing responsibility. She also served as a member of the Peterbilt Women’s Initiative Group (PBWIN) steering committee. PBWIN’s mission is to serve as champions for the empowerment of women at Peterbilt. 

Rodgers holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of North Texas, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Additionally, she is a licensed professional engineer. Rodgers lives in the Dallas area with her husband and two children and enjoys spending her free time with her family.

Kelly Rooney is the Senior Vice President, Chief People Officer at WM. Kelly is a second-generation waste & recycling industry executive with more than thirty years of immersive experience. Her career includes progressive leadership responsibility across all business functions including Operations, Fleet, Sales, Customer Experience and M&A.

In her current role, Kelly reports to the Chief People Officer and is responsible for the execution of frontline employee retention, driving culture, change management, strategic coaching, talent assessment and development, succession planning, performance management and organizational design strategy to support field operations.

Prior roles at WM include Area General Manager and Area Director of Collection Operations for the Heartland Area. Kelly started her career in the industry in 1990 and prior to working at WM, held several positions at Advanced Disposal including Corporate Director of Recycling and Regional General Manager with multi-state responsibility.

A strong supporter for innovation and inclusion, Rooney represents WM on the board of the Women in Trucking Association and the Women in Trucking Foundation. She advocates for mentoring, equity and access and is a passionate promoter of sustainability.

Kelly earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Roanoke College, a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University and a certificate in strategic planning from Wharton.

Kary Schaefer is the General Manager of Marketing and Strategy for Freightliner and Detroit Brands, as well as overall vehicle platform strategy at Daimler Trucks North America.  Schaefer joined Daimler Trucks North America in 1995 after holding engineering positions at Pacific Testing Laboratories and Boeing Aerospace in Seattle, Washington. During her career at Daimler Trucks, Kary has filled the roles of design engineer, project planning engineer, engineering project manager, director of engineering services and chief engineer. Between 2012 and 2015, she led an engineering group within United Technology Corporation responsible for the development of autonomous flight controls and stabilized camera systems used in commercial unmanned aerial vehicles.

In late 2015, she returned to Daimler Trucks as the General Manager of Marketing and Strategy for Freightliner and Detroit Brands.  In this role, she is responsible for market analysis, product planning, brand management, and marketing operations. She leads the organization in the creation and execution of product roadmaps from evaluation of customer needs and market trends to early business case development to new product launch and on-going product management.

Kary earned her Associate in Arts & Engineering Science degree from Bellevue Collegeand her Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Washington State University.