U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater Signs MOU With Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority

Topics:  Rodney E. Slater

U.S. Department of Transportation
April 22, 1999

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 22, 1999
Contact: Lorie Dankers
Tel.: 202-366-5565
DOT 61-99

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with representatives of the nation’s first Black sorority to promote the "Buckle Up, America" campaign and promote careers in transportation.

Secretary Slater and Norma White, International President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA) signed the MOU during a Women’s History Month and Take Your Daughter to Work program hosted by the Department of Transportation.

"Alpha Kappa Alpha has already proven to be a strong partner of this department through its support for our seat belt initiative and through its commitment to the Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Program" said Secretary Slater. "We are delighted to formally welcome AKA into the family."

AKA will join in a formal partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation to promote equal opportunity in transportation-related careers, to advance transportation safety awareness programs, to improve job access and to provide job and transportation-related educational opportunitities for those in economically disadvantaged communities.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Program has three goals: to build a bridge between America's youth and the transportation community; to support the development of improved educational technology that provides better ways for people to acquire new skills; and to ensure that America's transportation work force for the 21st century is technologically literate and internationally competitive.