Irene Rico

Associate Administrator for Civil Rights
Federal Highway Administration

On September 8, 2015, Irene Rico was assigned by Executive Director, Jeff Paniati to serve as the Acting Associate Administrator for Civil Rights on a 90-day rotational assignment. In this capacity, Ms. Rico will provide the day-to-day management, leadership, oversight and guidance to the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) National Civil Rights programs. This includes the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program, Title VI program, Americans with Disabilities Act/Section 504 program, Contractor Compliance program, State Internal Equal Employment Opportunity and the Internal Equal Employment Opportunity programs as well as the Special Emphasis program.

Ms. Rico is the Division Administrator for the FHWA Virginia Division where she leads the delivery of the $1 billion annual Federal-aid highway program. Under her leadership, the Virginia Division in partnership with VDOT and other transportation program partners continuously looked for ways to improve the delivery of the Federal-aid program. Additionally, Ms. Rico has brought focus to program areas of Safety, Finance, Major Projects, Locally Administered Program, Structures, and Implementation of Technologies under the umbrella of Every Day Counts, and Streamlining Project Delivery.

Prior to that, Ms. Rico held the positon of the Special Assistant to FHWA's Executive Director in Washington D.C. She was responsible for supporting the Executive Director in every aspect of the internal operations of the agency.

From 2002-2007, Ms. Rico served as the Assistant Division Administrator in the Virginia Division. As Chief Operating Officer in the Virginia Division, she managed a team of 29 transportation professionals and assisted the Division Administrator in the delivery of key initiatives.

Ms. Rico's experience also includes serving as an Area Engineer in the FHWA New Mexico Division for more than 8 years where she oversaw the design, construction and operations of transportation projects.

Ms. Rico has 30 years of experience with FHWA. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso, and obtained a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM.