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Small DBE president thanks diversity office, describes mentoring that led to first plans on Tollway project
Summary
Leah Castagir, president of Care Engineering, thanked the Toll Highway Authority diversity office and described how P4G mentoring and inclusion on a systemwide project helped her firm obtain prequalification in location design study and rehabilitation work.
Leah Castagir, president of Care Engineering, used the meeting’s public-comment period to thank the Toll Highway Authority diversity office and describe how the Authority’s P4G mentoring programs helped the small firm win a subconsultant role and earn prequalification for future design work.
Castagir, who identified her firm as a four-year-old DBE/MPEW firm, said she was selected as a subconsultant on DSP 23-3, item 3, a systemwide processing-point assignment that began last June. She told the board the schedule was aggressive but that the team assignment and mentoring allowed her staff to learn project software and planning procedures.
“We are a small DBE, MPEW firm that is 4 years old,” Castagir said. She said the mentoring included instruction in MicroStation and OpenRoads and assistance assembling contract plans. She described having a plan that bears her firm’s logo as “a great milestone for Care Engineering because it's our first plan that has our logo and our stamp,” and credited the mentorship and the Tollway’s diversity office for helping the firm obtain prequalification for location design study and rehabilitation work.
Castagir thanked Eleanor Toway and the diversity department and praised the P4G programs by name. She said the experience led to subsequent opportunities on a bulletin-design project (referenced in the comment as bulletin 25-1 on 17) and expressed gratitude for mentors and the chance to build capacity.
Her remarks were delivered during the meeting’s public-comment period and were personal testimony rather than a board action; no formal board decision or staff response is recorded in the transcript during the public-comment segment.
