Debbie Smith, P.E., leads the Charlotte Department of Transportation, overseeing and supporting a department of one of the 20 most-populated cities in the nation.

Smith oversees more than 400 employees in a transportation system that includes more than 5,400 lame miles of streets, 2,250 miles of sidewalk, nearly 190 miles of bikeways, 900 traffic signals, 350 miles of fiber communications and nearly 500 traffic cameras.

Smith and her team are leaders in innovation and established Charlotte’s first Strategic Mobility plan — adopted in 2022 — which shapes a safe and equitable transportation future. Smith and her staff developed the first Vision Zero Action plan in 2018, the first railroad Quiet Zone in 2017 and the first of many green bicycles lanes in 2014, North Carolina’s first pedestrian hybrid beacon in 2007, and the first road diets and street conversions in 2013.

Smith’s has worked in city and state government. She earned a B.S. of Civil Engineering at UNC-Charlotte and has spent the last 23 years serving CDOT. She is a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, a retired member of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices including 10 years on the Railroad & Light Rail Technical Committee.