INDIANAPOLIS – Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) International announced IndyGo President and CEO Inez Evans as a champion of transportation equity by presenting her the International Woman of the Year Award May 19, during its 2022 Annual Conference. This award recognizes leaders in the transportation industry who represent the best and brightest in transportation innovation, effectiveness and leadership and have made an outstanding contribution to the industry.
Having won the WTS Indianapolis Chapter Woman of the Year award in 2021, Evans is the first transportation leader from Indianapolis to win this award at the international level.
“Equity in transit is important, and I don’t take being a woman leading a transit agency lightly,” said Evans at her acceptance. “I especially don’t take being a Black woman leading a transit agency lightly. I’m one of only nine Black women transit CEOs in the nation. That’s why WTS is so important and why the work we do is so critical in mentoring, supporting and guiding women in the field to build up our ranks in leadership and positively affect transit. There is still much work to do to advance women and to advance diversity in this industry. And it is with that mission in mind that I humbly accept this award.”
Evans was selected as IndyGo President and CEO in summer 2019, becoming the first Black woman President and CEO for the transit agency. Evans manages an agency of more than 800 employees and a fleet of more than 200 vehicles, averaging nine million trips annually. During Evans’ time at IndyGo, she has ushered in its first all-electric Bus Rapid Transit line, recruited emerging leaders to the executive team, maintained and innovated service during a pandemic, developed and executed the purchase of a new headquarters location to meet the growing needs of the agency, put new vehicles into service moving IndyGo towards its clean fleet goals, enforced vendor accountability, enhanced improvements with paratransit services and championed diversity and workforce development within the agency.
With more than 30 years of experience, Evans’ career has been rooted in her ability to build and nurture relationships, bring communities together and affect organizational change.
Evans serves on the Indianapolis Arts Council Board of Directors and on its diversity and inclusion committee. As co-chair for the American Heart Association’s Circle for Red Committee, she champions heart health to her community. Evans was appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett to the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee Board of Directors in 2019. She also serves as a board member for the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and committee member for Leadership APTA, a program that grooms transit professionals aspiring to become leaders within their organizations. In 2021, Evans was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Miz CEO, a local institution focused on uplifting women in the community.
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