Dede Smith Joins Inland Rivers, Ports & Terminals Team
Inland Rivers, Ports & Terminals, Inc. (IRPT) is excited to welcome Dede Smith to the IRPT staff as the new Deputy Director of IRPT. Ms. Smith began working for the association on January 2nd of 2020.
Before joining the IRPT team, Dede held the position of Director of the Arkansas Waterways Commission for 2 ½ years, and as Waterways Manager for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation for the last six of her 32 years with ODOT.
Dede has served as Vice-Chair on the American Association of State Highway Transportation Official’s Counsel on Water Transportation, the Board of Directors for IRPT, the Maritime Transportation Research and Education Center Board with the University of Arkansas, the Executive Committee for the National Waterways Conference; the Governor’s Levee Task Force for the State of Arkansas, and Metroplan’s Transportation Committee for the City of Little Rock, AR.
Deputy Director Smith brings many years of experience representing multiple rivers, including the Arkansas, White, Red, Ouachita and Mississippi Rivers. She has been a strong advocate for public ports and private terminals alike. Her strong focus and advocacy for tonnage reporting, infrastructure funding and economic development aligns well with the mission of Inland Rivers, Ports & Terminals. We are so very excited to have her not only on the IRPT team, but to have her advocacy working for the entirety of the IRPT Membership.
As Inland Rivers, Ports & Terminals expands the benefits and resources to its Members, Ms. Smith will truly be an asset to our association and to the companies to which we serve. Tapping into Dede’s knowledge and experience, it is the vision to play a larger role in IRPT Basins on a monthly schedule (except in disaster events to which the updates will be weekly), to update our stakeholders on river related issues, including current and future construction at locks and dams and channel improvements.
Please help me welcome Dede to our staff family! Welcome aboard Dede!