Anne Ferro received the 2024 James J. Howard Highway Safety Trailblazer Award for more than three decades of leadership and advocacy for safer roads.
Ferro held a variety of prominent leadership roles throughout her career: Administrator of the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Administration; President and CEO of the Maryland Motor Truck Association; Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration; and President and CEO of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
In each of those roles, she used her vision, leadership and deep understanding of safety issues to achieve numerous policy and program improvements affecting a wide range of safety concerns. Ferro has also appeared multiple times in front of Congressional committees, offering testimony on topics from school bus safety to the critical need to fund surface transportation safety projects.
Ferro's dedication to serving others was evident at an early age, when she spent time in Africa volunteering in the Peace Corps. She began her professional career as fiscal counsel to the Maryland General Assembly before joining the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration. In 1997, she become the MVA’s first ever female Administrator – just one of many barriers she would break during a distinguished career.
In 2009, she was nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Administrator of FMCSA, becoming only the second woman in the agency’s history. Under her leadership at FMCSA, the agency launched a new rating system for carriers to help improve safety, implemented a regulatory ban on the use of hand-held devices by commercial drivers, and improved hours-of-service requirements to combat commercial driver fatigue – just to name of a few of her many safety impacts. Ferro spent five years leading FMCSA, making her the longest-serving Administrator in the agency’s history.
Ferro joined AAMVA in 2014, where she saw the need to break down silos and bring together all stakeholders involved in Commercial Driver License information systems. She sprung into action, convening a working group of representatives from the courts, law enforcement, motor vehicle administrators, and non-government organizations to produce an entirely new CDL training resource that prioritized safety.
She retired from AAMVA in 2023, but that hasn’t meant the end of her dedication to safety. Ferro has attended hearings in Maryland on a bill to strengthen ignition interlock laws – not to testify or get media coverage, but to support victims’ families.
Ferro’s strong leadership, in a traditionally male-dominated industry, serves as a model for all aspiring to move up the ranks and make a lasting impact in highway safety. Throughout her career, she has put safety first by fostering collaboration, focusing on problem-solving and implementing the changes needed to make our roads safer for everyone.