The National Association of County Engineers recently awarded Susan G. Miller with the prestigious David P. Brand Safety Award. Sue was the first female president of the National Association of County Engineers and the long-time Freeborn County (MN) Engineer. Sue was also a close personal friend of David Brand and collaborated with him on initiatives to make local roads safer and advocated for safety on a national basis — David and Sue shared a passion for preventing the devastation of life-changing crashes on local roads. A tireless safety advocate, Sue’s work on safety programs, policies, and practices includes leading pilot programs on initiatives like safety edge (the first in the country) and road safety audits/county highway safety plans, initiating federal legislative language for high-risk rural roads, and streamlining federal low-cost safety improvement projects.
“Keeping with the Minnesota tradition of being a leader in traffic safety, I’m thrilled that NACE recognized Sue for her passion and leadership. Talking safety is one thing: championing safety efforts saves lives. Thank you Sue for leading by example!”
Wayne Sandberg, PE – NACE North Central Regional Vice President
While serving as the President of NACE, she focused on local road safety and encouraged NACE members to collaborate with their state and federal partners to invest vital federal safety dollars proportionally to the crash rates on local roads using low-cost, proven safety measures. Additional safety highlights of Sue’s career include:
- Serving as a founding member and chair of the inaugural Minnesota County Engineer’s Safety Committee.
- Participated and chaired the NACE Safety Committee.
- Participated as a local representative on various National Cooperative Highway Research Program research projects and scan tours and on Minnesota’s Local Road Research Board safety research projects.
- Received the Congressional Transportation Safety award from Chairman Congressman Oberstar and Minnesota TZD Excellence in Engineering award for her activism in advancing safety.