Tawny Olore speaks about her journey to develop NeoCity

By Christa Yates, Staff Writer

 

Tawny Olore, CEO of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Engines: Central Florida Semiconductor Innovation Engine (the Engine), spoke at the “Coffee & Conversation” event at NeoCity, April 22.

 

In her discussion, Olore described her career journey, detailing how she began as a geotechnical engineer but later found herself in the transportation sector.

 

“I always felt every opportunity was a good opportunity, so I would volunteer for things that were harder. When people said it couldn’t be done, I sort of just said, ‘well, watch me,’ and I think that was always my mentality.”

 

That mentality eventually led Olore to Tampa, Florida, and away from her geotechnical engineering roots.

 

“My first job out of my bachelor’s was a lot of soil exploration, geotech, and environmental-type work, which wasn’t exciting,” Olore said. “I was getting my master’s in West Virginia, and I started putting resumes up. I got a call right away from a company and they said, ‘we want you to come to Tampa,’ and I thought ‘oh, that’s fun.’ But [in Tampa] I was looking at soil samples again, which I wasn’t thrilled about. It was just a way to get me to Florida, and I quickly switched over to transportation.”

 

When speaking about the early stages in her career journey, Olore explained that in the late 1990s, [her employer] the engineering firm, CH2M (now Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.), was working on a project that would become the interstate 4 (I-4) alternate. While she was initially needed for her expertise as a geotechnical engineer, she quickly transitioned to rail and rerouted her career to one in transit.

 

Olore added that her love of travel and her husband’s career as a pilot led her down that path.

 

“[Transit is] so important to everything that we do. Transportation, whether it’s roads, communal rail, bridges… it’s the movement of people, and that’s what I like. I like moving people, and anybody that knows me knows I’m all about moving forward.”

 

“Florida is blessed with a wonderful Department of Transportation (DoT), which I’ve worked with for many, many years in my career,” Olore said. “Our infrastructure in this state is second to none, and our DoT here is so progressive, which helps a lot of our local governments and our local roads. I’ve only seen a few other states that are really as good as [Florida’s DoT.]”

 

Olore also discussed the duration of transportation projects.

 

“These legacy projects take a long time. You have to continually work them, and you will have setbacks. A few steps forward, a few steps back,” Olore said. “It takes vision. It takes consistency. […] I started working on the I-4 alternate in 1996, but it opened in 2017 or 2018. Around that time, I saw a map of the city of Orlando that showed the SunRail corridor with the same locations and stops that we have today, and [SunRail] opened in 2014.”

 

The vision and consistency that Olore noted has been pivotal in the planning and development of the Engine and NeoCity. “The first two years [of development] were really busy, and we’re implementing a plan for years three, four, and five.”

 

Olore continued by describing the foundation is being placed for development in NeoCity and will continue to advance research and development in the coming years. “We have great leadership in place, a great founding board, stakeholder advisory board, regional prosperity board, and we are funding some really cool research on advanced packaging space,” said Olore.