The American Trucking Associations’ Women’s Activity Committee is one of the trucking industry’s longest-running formal spaces for women’s advocacy, networking, and policy influence. It is also one of the least visible resources for women in the industry outside the ATA’s existing membership. That gap between what the committee does and how widely it’s known is exactly why it deserves a closer look.
What the Women’s Activity Committee Actually Does
The ATA’s Women’s Activity Committee brings together women from across the trucking industry — carriers, suppliers, and service providers — to advance women’s participation through advocacy, programming, and influence within the ATA’s broader policy infrastructure. The people involved are operators, executives, and transportation professionals who understand the industry from the inside and use that position to shape how the ATA addresses issues relevant to women across the workforce. It’s a working committee, not a networking club, and its positioning inside one of the industry’s most influential associations gives it reach that external programs can’t replicate.
Why It Matters More Than Its Profile Suggests
One of the persistent challenges facing women in trucking is the absence of formal advocacy that operates inside the rooms where industry policy actually gets made. Events and conferences for women in trucking are valuable — but they exist largely outside those rooms. The Women’s Activity Committee operates inside them. That matters. ATA membership and committee involvement shape how the trucking industry approaches workforce issues, regulations, and standards at a level that filters down to individual operators and drivers.
What Lisa Steed’s Involvement Has Taught Her
Lisa Steed, who has volunteered with the Women’s Activity Committee, brings to that work the same perspective she brought to building Linked Delivery Inc. and Linked Again Inc.: that results matter more than presence, and that showing up in advocacy spaces with operational experience rather than just good intentions makes the argument for women in trucking a concrete one. Her companies’ safety records, retention rates, and service performance aren’t just business achievements — in an advocacy context, they’re evidence that women-led operations produce measurable, industry-recognized results.
How Women in Transportation Can Get More Involved
For women working in trucking and logistics at any level, the Women’s Activity Committee is worth knowing about and worth engaging with. Involvement in ATA programming — through state trucking associations, the ATA Management Conference and Exhibition, and direct committee participation — is one of the most direct ways to contribute to how the industry evolves on issues that matter to women in the workforce. Lisa Steed’s view on this is the same as her view on mentorship: show up, bring what you know, and take the advocacy work as seriously as you take the operational work. The industry reflects who is in the room.
About Lisa Steed
Lisa Steed is a Utah-based transportation leader, ATA stepvan champion, and FedEx Humanitarian Award recipient with a career built on safety-first operations and people-centered leadership. As a volunteer with the ATA’s Women’s Activity Committee and founder of two successful FedEx contracting companies, she brings both operational credibility and a long-standing commitment to building stronger pathways for women across the trucking and logistics industry.