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.

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.

Bio coming soon

Emily Poladian is the President of North American Fleet Sales & Customer Success Bridgestone Mobility Solutions – Americas. In this role, strategy development, go-to-market planning, sales, and customer success teams who engage with fleets and other partners to develop deep relationships that enable new forms of value co-creation and co-sharing by providing tire-centric and fleet management integrated solutions that drive efficient, cost-beneficial, and sustainable operations.  In addition to directly managing a cross-function team that focuses on solutions delivery, she works across the enterprise to ensure alignment with all Bridgestone business units in the Americas and Europe. 

Emily joined Bridgestone in June 1995 after graduating from Purdue University.  She began her career as a Product Engineer with Firestone Industrial Products Company, LLC (FSIP).  She progressed through a variety of sales and sales leadership roles within FSIP.  In December 2012, she was appointed Global Manager of Strategic Planning, responsible for developing multi-year global business plans.  She was named Managing Director of Asia SBU in September 2014, and in that position, she was responsible for all FSIP sales and operations throughout Asia.  In November 2016, she was appointed Executive Director of Sales at Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations. In this position, her primary function was to lead the sales, strategy, and operations for TBR strategic accounts, national accounts, truck stops, and government sales teams.  She moved back to Firestone Industrial Products as President in April 2019.  In that role, she oversaw all aspects of the FSIP business, including managing over 1,500 employees in 11 locations globally.  During this time, she guided the company into the Tier 1 automotive supply, including the expansion of the team and the manufacturing footprint to support significant business growth. 

Emily's professional journey is not just about her achievements but also about her commitment to developing others. She finds joy in mentoring and actively participates in internal and external organizations where she can coach and develop others.

Emily's professional journey is complemented by her personal life. She lives in Nashville, TN, with her husband, Alex, and their two children, Elizabeth (20) and Jack (17).

Ingrid Brown, a native of Boone, NC/Mountain City, TN and lives by "Nothing in life is simple, it takes hard work and in the end it's a positive journey to success". Ingrid's four decade career as a Professional Truck Driver of diversity as an Independent Owner, CEO and as a Company driver. As well as being an Operations Manager of specialized refrigerated freight brings her experience of diversity to the trucking industry in all areas.

Ingrid has been a Women in Trucking Association charter member since 2007 and an Inaugural Image Team member since 2015. Ingrid serves on the Advisory Committee and was a panelist speaker at the 2023 WIT Accelerate Conference.

Beginning November, 2023 Ingrid became the host of 'Life on 18 Wheels' presented by WLA, Inc Trucking, of Mount Airy, NC. A video/audio podcast, Ingrid will be providing 'Life on 18 Wheels' to the transportation industry and to those interested in entering as a  professional truck driver.

Ingrid has dedicated her driving career toward CMV Safety and the safety of the general motoring public. Ingrid continues to work directly with FMCSA in D.C. for safer highways. In 2019 Ingrid was chosen as FMCSA's CMV Voice of Safety Our Roads, Our Safety campaign. Ingrid can be seen and heard on billboards, television commercials, SiriusXM and major media as the FMCSA safety advocate. Brown also was a speaker in FMCSA 2020 Trucking Safety Summit. 2015 she was selected on NASTC America’s Road Team and NASTC Woman Driver of the Year. In 2018, Ingrid was a TA/Petro Citizen Driver Honoree and the Oklahoma City Petro was rebranded as Ingrid R. Brown OKC PETRO. In 2021, Ingrid was named to the St. Christopher’s Fund driver council and one of 21 on the 50th Anniversary Wall of Fame of the Mid America Trucking Show.

Ingrid continues to be an advocate for driver awareness and safety through her involvement within the industry and can be seen in numerous major magazines, radio, TV news specials, social media, podcasts and speaking engagements.  

In March 2019 Ingrid was the cover of USA TODAY MONEY and the feature video of Females in Trucking. 

Ingrid Brown's passion is mentoring women and others in the trucking industry by paying it forward.

Bio coming soon.

As Vice President of Transportation at UPS, Michael leads teams that manage the long-haul middle mile transportation networks in the U.S. Her teams include the U.S. Carrier Management Group in charge of contract carriers and UPS Brown sleeper teams, Carrier Direct and DirectShip operations at UPS customer locations, Sleeper Team Fleet Management, and Railroad relationships. She is responsible for daily decisions to minimize costs, improve service reliability and on time performance, and optimize network capacity while managing labor flexibilities in a dynamically changing business environment. Her teams implement and optimize complex customer solutions, while managing dynamic real time contingency plans to deliver best in class industry service for small package products in North America. 

Michael is driven by a passion for people, possibility, and continuous learning. She believes that empowered capable people working collaboratively can achieve “new possibilities” through transformational process improvements while exceeding customer expectations. She believes in the power of advanced analytics, machine learning, optimization, and the application of generative AI technologies to provide insights, to enable better outcomes, and to make quicker adjustments.  Bonnie focuses on making people more effective and mentoring next generation leaders to be prepared to take on additional responsibilities when opportunities arise. She actively champions diversity and inclusion through Women’s Leadership activities, executive sponsorships, mentoring, and engagement with business resource groups. 

She started out as a part-time package handler in Louisville while attending the University of Louisville and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in biology and an entrepreneurial MBA. She rose through the ranks at UPS through numerous rotations in air and ground operations, engineering, and planning roles. 

Michele Rodgers is the Senior Engineering Manager for Peterbilt Motors, a PACCAR Company. 

Previously, Rodgers was Director of Business & Product Development for Dynacraft.  She has over 25 years of experience  at Peterbilt Motors on the engineering and program management teams and has held several positions of increasing responsibility which included the Director of Program Management.  Rodgers has served as a member of the Peterbilt Women’s Initiative Group (PBWIN) steering committee as well as the PACCAR Women’s Association (PWA) governance committee.  She currently serves on the Women in Trucking Board of Directors.

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 camping with her family.

Sarah Smith is the Senior Vice President of HR for Penske Transportation Solutions. In this role, Sarah leads teams responsible for Total Rewards, Corporate and Field HR, Diversity and Inclusion, Recruiting and HRIS. Sarah began working for Penske in 2010 and has held this role since 2019.   Prior to that, she held several roles in HR including Vice President of HR Operations and Director of Labor Relations.

Prior to coming to Penske, Sarah worked in private practice as an Attorney, was in-house counsel, led the Human Resources function, and worked in Operations and Labor Relations for a privately held company.  She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in French from Wilkes University and has her Juris Doctor degree from John Marshall Law School in Chicago.  Sarah has four (4) children and lives in the Reading, Pennsylvania area.  In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, cooking and spin class. 

Domenica Farmer has 30+ years of experience, entrepreneurship, and driving execution in the comprehensive waste and environmental services industry. As area vice president of WM, Farmer is responsible for all profit and loss aspects of the company’s operations in Texas and Oklahoma to include collections, disposal, recycling, and landfill. Farmer is skilled in Operations Management, Sales, Sustainable Business and Environmental Awareness. She has a strong passion relative to mentoring others, ensuring inclusivity, and empowering people to be their best self.

She began her career with WM in April 1992 in sales and transitioned into the organization’s operations through holding a variety of senior level positions.

Farmer is fluent in Italian and speaks conversational Spanish. She received her MBA and bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of West Florida. Farmer has served as the chairman of the board for the Niceville-Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce and is currently serving as a board member of Columbia Southern University. She was recently appointed as a board of director to the Women In Trucking (WIT) Association and continues to educate groups on benefits of recycling and creating sustainable solutions.