One word to describe yourself: Versatile
Alma Mater: Temple University
Favorite hobby: Running
Fun fact about yourself: I initially wanted to go into the medical field, but then I realized that I can’t stand the sight of blood.
Favorite station or stop that you have ever visited or frequent: DC Union Station. I love the architecture in the Main Hall.
Favorite route you have ever ridden or frequent: The Bernina Express through the Swiss Alps. Breathtaking views, and you get to experience spring/summer and winter in a matter of hours.
Tamara N. Nicholson, PMP, has more than 13 years of experience involving the oversight of multimillion-dollar transportation projects and currently works in project management oversight at Burns Engineering, Inc. She has worked as an oversight consultant across four federal transit regions and has performed project management oversight for more than 20 projects in various stages of engineering and construction.
Nicholson began her career in 2006 working at an engineering company as a project administrator. She started out performing QA/QC on status reports for major capital transportation projects. This experience turned into a passion for managing large transportation projects and led her to become a certified associate in project management in 2009.
She then reached out to multiple professional engineers within the company and explained how systematically applying project management principles would benefit the projects that they were working on. As a result, she began to work closely with senior engineers to assist with projects. She developed a risk assessment and tracking tool to record and track budgets, schedules and deliverables for 15 projects. Successful implementation of this tool resulted in zero project overruns over an eight-year period.
Nicholson also developed a cost and schedule performance metrics for 10 projects using project management metrics/methodology, which allowed project managers to quickly assess the performance of multiple projects and helped decrease the amount of time it took to develop project status reports.
In 2014, she performed an initial scope, schedule and budget review at the beginning of a $19-million station rehabilitation project. She identified a cost risk due to the project budget having very little contingency and recommended an increase in funding. Accordingly, additional funds were added to the project budget and prevented a cost overrun of approximately $1 million.
In 2016, she began overseeing a station rehabilitation project when the project was halfway into construction and behind schedule. She assessed the 5000-activity project schedule and identified the project was lacking enough manpower to be completed on time. She recommended adding manpower to accelerate the work which resulted in the project being completed on time.
Nicholson further contributes to the transportation industry through her volunteer work with professional organizations. She joined the Women Transportation Seminar (WTS), Philadelphia Chapter, in 2014, where she started as a mentor for the WTS Transportation YOU Program and later joined the board of directors. She became the chair of the Transportation YOU Committee in 2016, and then the chair of the Membership Committee for the 2017 and 2018 term. As the membership chair, she conducted an analysis of weaknesses and opportunities and presented the findings and an action plan for improvement to the board. As a part of the plan, she developed and led the organization’s very first committee expo, which resulted in more than 100 attendees and increased the local volunteer participation.
Nicholson also led the creation of a membership brochure and other informational graphics to promote the organization. As a result, the organization’s membership increased by 33 percent in a two-year period. She was promoted to director of chapter relations and is now serving on the executive board of directors of WTS Philadelphia as treasurer. She was also accepted into the WTS International Mid-Career Leadership Program, class of 2018 cohort.
She has also focused efforts on international philanthropy work. In 2015, she performed pro-bono project management consulting services for a project team in Zambia, Africa. The team was in the beginning stages of a project to build shelters for pregnant mothers waiting to give birth in rural areas. She evaluated the status and struggles of project and identified the need to primarily focus on stakeholder management to reduce the risk of project failure. She provided training on project management best practices, with a focus on stakeholder management. The knowledge provided in training has been applied to the research and construction of 20 shelters to date. She is currently involved in the Philadelphia Chapter Engineers Without Boarders’ international project team which is in the preliminary planning stage for a project to design and construct a conduction line to provide access to treated water for a community of 647 households in Lagunas Cuaches, Guatemala.
“I am very analytical by nature, so identifying risks, making recommendations and then seeing the impact is very enjoyable. I also really enjoy working with the project teams and other stakeholders. Even though I’m in an oversight role, I approach it as a collaborative effort with the ultimate goal of successful project execution and completion, and it has been great.”
“The most challenging part of my job is also the most rewarding and that is managing multiple priorities. I am overseeing projects of varying complexity; this means I am constantly switching gears and every day is different. Each call, deliverable, meeting helps me dig deeper into project status/issues and collaborate with stakeholders to advance the project.”
“[The accomplishment I’m most proud of is] being nominated and selected for Mass Transit Magazine’s 40 Under 40! I am very much a doer and sometimes achievements get overshadowed by moving on to the next thing. I am very proud to have my achievements recognized with this selection.”
