Bay Area

COMTO Holiday Dinner and Scholarship Awards

Published

5 years ago

December 12, 2019

The Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) of Northern California held its 16th Annual Holiday Dinner and Scholarship Awards at the Marriott City Center in downtown Oakland on December 6.

A VIP reception followed by dinner brought together individuals and organizations making outstanding contributions in transportation who seek to advance the careers of young people of color in the industry.

Senior executives from major transportation agencies representing BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), SFMTA (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency), AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit), VTA (Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and MTC (Metropolitan Transportation Commission) among others were in attendance. Organizational board members and elected officials also networked and celebrated excellence in the community.

“We are proud to award scholarships to this year’s outstanding students that will be at the forefront of our transforming transportation industry,” said COMTO president, Beverly Greene. “Solutions to the industry’s current challenges and strategies to capitalize on potential opportunities on the horizon are being developed and implemented by this year’s COMTO Industry award winners,” Greene is also the External Affairs, Marketing & Communications representative for AC Transit.

Scholarship recipients included Giovanni Smith, Sacramento State University; Aitran Doan, Stanford University and Miguel Rodriguez, University of Pacific who received the Charter Merit Award. The Sharon Banks Scholarship was presented to Zaid Anwar, Sacramento State University and Yuritzi Zurate, UC Davis, received the Curtis Green Scholarship. The Rosa Parks Scholarship was presented to David Parsons, San Francisco State University.

According to Greene, the organization has awarded over $250,000 to deserving students of color.

“Our awardees have pursued higher education at colleges such as Stanford, Cal Berkeley, Mills College, Morehouse, Howard University, U.C. Davis and others,” said Greene. “The scholarship represents different cultural and socioeconomic experiences that will enrich the transportation industry. A number of past scholarship awardees are now employed as professionals in both public and private sector organizations.”

COMTO Industry honorees included Chief Executive Officer Chris Iglesias of The Unity Council, who was presented the Advocacy Award for his dedication to improving the quality of life for residents in the largest Latino neighborhood in the Bay Area, Oakland’s Fruitvale District through an economic and intergenerational equity agenda.

The Minority Business Enterprise Award was presented to Laura Luster, founder president of L. Luster and Associates, for her management and outreach programs designed to enhance the utilization of minority and women-owned, disadvantaged, disabled veteran, local and small business enterprises.

The Emerging Young Leader Award went to Justin Montgomery, assistant resident engineer of The Allen Group. The North Carolina A&T graduate served as the office engineer on a $143 million design-build project, the Long-Term Parking Garage for the San Francisco International Airport.

The Innovation Award was presented to Sahar Shirazi, a policy, and planning expert with extensive experience working with governments and planning organizations to bring about equitable outcomes for communities through transportation.

The President’s Leadership Award was presented to Dana Lang, owner of Dana Lang & Associates, for her more than 20 year of experience with government and transportation agencies. Lang initiated COMTO’s chapter scholarship program in 2004 and the chapter’s internship program, funded by the FTA (Federal Transit Administration) in 2005.

Carla Thomas

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Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 3, 2025

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1 week ago

May 30, 2025

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

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2 weeks ago

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

3 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.