WofA Conversations to Lead & Inspire: A Trailblazing Career in Asphalt Technology and Advocacy 

November 8, 2-3:00 PM ET | Register now for free!>>

Speaker bio:

Rita B. Leahy, PhD, P.E., is a technical consultant and former Technical Director for the California Asphalt Pavement Association. Dr. Leahy has been actively involved in the transportation industry on pavement related issues at the national, regional and state levels for thirty years in various capacities: Project Manager and Principal with engineering consulting firms; Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Oregon State University; Senior Staff Engineer with the Strategic Highway Research Program; and Principal Engineer with the Asphalt Institute. She has authored 50+ publications on asphalt technology, materials characterization and pavement design and analysis. She has served as Chair or Member of several NCHRP panels addressing mechanical properties of hot mix asphalt and performance of warm mix asphalt. Dr. Leahy served on the Transportation Research Board’s committee for quality assurance for 18 years, and as Chair of the committee for six years. While on the faculty of Oregon State University Dr. Leahy was invited to lecture in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. In 2015 Dr Leahy was the keynote speaker for the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association’s Workshop Series, which was held in the five mainland territories and Tasmania. Dr. Leahy is the first woman elected to serve as President of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT). She is a registered civil engineer in California and Texas. Dr. Leahy has directed the work of engineers, scientists, geologists, and technicians supporting various government and private sector clients: state DOTS (Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Oregon, Texas and Washington); Department of Justice; DuPont, Pacific Gas and Electric, CH2MHill, Chevron, Bechtel, Koch Materials, Parsons-Brinkerhoff, HNTB; and numerous construction firms (DeSilva Gates, Gallagher & Burke, Granite, Peter Kiewit, Shimmick, Skanska, Sully-Miller and Teichert). Dr. Leahy frequently served as an expert witness on pavement materials and construction issues for user agencies, civil engineering firms, general contractors, and private industry. She worked closely with user-agencies and industry to implement new technology and concepts: Superpave, performance-related specifications, statistically based quality control/assurance systems, and design-build-maintain strategies. In addition to consulting she was active in technology transfer by teaching construction materials classes for the University of California-Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies. Dr. Leahy served as a technical consultant to Bechtel for airports in the Middle East (Hamid International Airport in Qatar, Muscat International Airport in Oman) and Central America ( San Jose Costa Rica). Most recently Dr. Leahy served as a quality management consultant to the California High Speed Rail Authority. Dr Leahy earned a BA from St Louis University, a BS and ME from the University of South Carolina, and a PhD from the University of Maryland.