Our Community
Recognizing Accomplishments
Our Community
Recognizing Accomplishments
Women make a positive difference in the trucking industry every day. We salute these women by recognizing those who make or influence key decisions in a corporate, manufacturing, supplier, owner-operator, driver, sales or dealership setting.
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WIT presented Trina Norman, Southern California Feeder Operations Manager, UPS, with the 2022 Influential Woman in Trucking award during the 2022 Accelerate! Conference & Expo in Dallas, Texas. Norman stood out due to her passion in giving back to her community, supporting her team, and leading her company toward success. The announcement came after the panel discussion, “When Remarkable Women Do Remarkable Things.” Panelists consisted of the finalists for the 2022 award: Jill Quinn, President, Centerline Drivers, Mari Roberts, Vice President of Transportation, Frito-Lay, and Lindsey Trent, President & Co-Founder, Next Generation in Trucking Association. The panel discussion was facilitated by Kelley Martin, Director of Strategic Pricing, Daimler Truck North America.
The award was developed in 2010 as a way to honor female leaders in trucking and to attract and advance women within the industry.
Freightliner Trucks and the Women In Trucking Association presented the eleventh annual Influential Woman in Trucking award to Lily Ley, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, PACCAR.
Lily Ley is an experienced Technology and IT executive, mentor to aspiring students, and passionate advocate for more inclusive workplaces for women.
In her role as Vice President and CIO for PACCAR, a global automotive truck and engine company, Ley leads the Information Technology (IT) division and the modernization of IT for the Digital Age. She brings a customer-first mindset, a focus on applying innovation to deliver tangible business benefits, and a relentless pursuit of enhanced business efficiencies.
Ley is a member of the MSIS Board of Advisors at the University of Washington. She is the Executive Sponsor for the PACCAR Women’s Association (PWA) where she advocates for inclusion of women in the workplace. She is also involved in SeattleCIO, as an Advisory Board Member. In 2016, The Washington Diversity Council recognized her as “2016 Washington Most Powerful and Influential Women.”
Freightliner Trucks and the Women In Trucking Association presented the tenth annual Influential Woman in Trucking award to Kristy Knichel, president of Knichel Logistics, and Jodie Teuton, co-founder of Kenworth of Louisiana.
Knichel
Kristy Knichel, a lifelong Pittsburgh native, is a second-generation logistics executive. Since taking over as president of Knichel Logistics in 2007, Knichel has been the driving force behind their yearly growth and reputation as one of the top service providers within the IMC community. As of 2019, Knichel Logistics has grown to $83 million in revenue.
Knichel’s proudest accomplishments are winning the inaugural Distinguished Woman in Logistics Award from WIT and her appointment as the Intermodal Logistics Conference Chair on the TIA Board of Directors. She has recently been featured in Pittsburgh Magazine for Women in Business. For the second year in a row, she has received an award for the top 50 fastest growing companies in Pittsburgh.
Teuton
Jodie Teuton is the co-founder of Kenworth of Louisiana, a heavy-duty truck dealership group representing both Kenworth and Hino truck brands with seven Louisiana locations. Before devoting her professional career to the retail auto and truck business in 1997, she practiced law locally in South Louisiana. Teuton is a native of Terrebonne Parish where she currently lives with her husband and business partner, Scott Oliphant. She is also “Wonder Woman” to their daughter, Victoria, a Junior at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.
Teuton received her B.S. in Business from Nicholls State University in 1987 and her J.D. from Loyola University in 1990. She is passionate about business and proud to carry on her family’s legacy. She is a past President of American Truck Dealers – ATD (a division of the National Auto Dealers Association) and currently represents Kenworth Dealers on the Board of Directors at ATD.
Freightliner Trucks and the Women In Trucking Association presented the ninth annual Influential Woman in Trucking award to Ruth Lopez, director, transportation management, Ryder System, Inc.
Lopez’s career with Ryder System, Inc. spans 20 years. She currently serves as director of transportation management, leading teams in the U.S. and in Mexico. Lopez has served as a co-chair for Ryder’s Women’s Leadership Forum, whose mission is to support the attraction, retention and development of women. She also was named a Supply Chain Excellence Award recipient for work recognized within the Supply Chain Solutions (SCS) division, which has over 8,000 employees. Lopez also received a Ryder Outstanding Award Recognition (ROAR) award. It is given each quarter to an employee or team who consistently goes above and beyond in their duties and truly exemplifies the Ryder guiding principles. “The greatest recognition is when people say I have changed their lives,” she said.
The finalists of the 2019 Influential Woman in Trucking award also included Niki Bolton, senior truck auditor & executive projects officer, American Truck & Rail Audits, Inc.; Kristy Knichel, CEO, Knichel Logistics; Kellylynn McLaughlin, OTR training engineer & professional driver, Schneider National Inc.; Jodie Teuton, chairwoman, ATD/vice president, Kenworth of Louisiana; Lidia Yan, CEO and co-founder, NEXT Trucking.
Freightliner Trucks and the Women In Trucking Association presented the eighth annual Influential Woman in Trucking award to Angela Eliacostas, Founder and CEO, AGT Global Logistics.
With more than 30 years in transportation, Eliacostas has worked her way from the ground up. In 2005, Eliacostas formed All Girls Transportation and Logistics, Inc. As offerings and services grew, a name change was required to fit their expansion and AGT Global Logistics was born. In addition to raising four boys, and now being an active loving grandmother, Eliacostas has been recognized for making AGT Global Logistics one of the top 50 in Illinois and top 1000 woman-owned businesses in the United States.
The finalists of the 2018 Influential Woman in Trucking award also included Nozuko Mayeza, Managing Director, Tulsawiz Logistics and Brooke Willey, Vice President – Human Resources, CRST International.
Freightliner Trucks and the Women In Trucking Association presented the seventh annual Influential Woman in Trucking award to Daphne Jefferson, Deputy Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
“We are truly honored to have such a positive relationship with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration through Daphne Jefferson. She took the time and made the effort to spend two days in the truck with two of our female drivers in order to better understand the industry from the driver’s perspective, and this helped her lead the agency. She is one of the most influential women in the trucking industry and we are pleased to recognize her with this award,” said Ellen Voie, President and CEO, WIT.
The finalists of the 2017 Influential Woman in Trucking award also included Tana Greene, CEO and Founder, Blue Bloodhound and Traci Crane, Sr. Manager Fleet Services, Contract Freighters, Inc.
