​The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Secretary Yassmin Gramian today recognized 29 PennDOT employees for their outstanding performance with the Star of Excellence Award, PennDOT’s highest recognition. Two employees from PennDOT’s District 9, which represents Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon and Somerset counties were among the honorees. 

“These employees exemplify the care and concern needed to serve the state of Pennsylvania,” Gramian said. “Each puts effective and efficient transportation services at the top of their list daily, while demonstrating a strong commitment to the agency and roughly 12 million state residents.”  

Gramian and other department executives honored winners Bonnie Emigh, of Johnstown, and Dustin Ohler, of Stoystown, during an online ceremony. 

“It is such an honor to recognize these two outstanding employees. The extra efforts they put into their work, daily, does not go unnoticed. It is a pleasure to have them as part of our PennDOT family,” said Thomas A. Prestash PennDOT District 9-0 Executive.

Bonnie is the Cambria County Roadway Programs Coordinator. In 2019, she added Acting Assistant County Manager to her role and brought outstanding leadership and built a culture of productivity.

Bonnie’s ability to be efficient, create effective partnerships through detailed coordination of vendors, foremen, crews and public partners, and build regular communication channels among these groups, created opportunities for her team to learn, grow and accomplish more every day; setting up future success for the County.

She is highly regarded by colleagues as a supervisor. She’s quickly earned their respect by treating them with integrity, while giving them constructive feedback.

Whether by becoming the county’s go-to person for IT issues or by asking to manage the County Sign Crew, she demonstrated hands-on leadership. Her initiative saved IT staff countless hours, production time for crews to keep working, and improved control of sign inventory.

As a young woman who’s spent most of her career in an office setting, Bonnie stepped into a field role, supervising a primarily male workforce that was older than she and created a diverse work environment. Her new perspective showed how workforce diversity helps PennDOT flourish with a new, innovative approach to how we’ve always done business.

Dustin is a Sr. Civil Engineer Supervisor whose colleagues in the Bridge Unit describe as dependable, competent, exemplary and a team player.

In 2019, he demonstrated those qualities, taking on two important, local bridge rehabilitation projects with tight deadlines, on top of his already established workload of state bridge projects.

The Coleridge Avenue project in Altoona and the Cambria County Local Non-Composite Adjacent Beam project were under strict time constraints due to funding availability. As design progressed, unexpected let date changes further tightened deadlines.

Dustin worked with local owners to maximize funds applied to actual construction improvements by reducing pre-construction design costs and not using consultants, which resulted in the significant extension of service life to bridges that serve those local communities.

Additionally, he volunteers on the district's Design Quality Improvement team and helps evaluate Bentley's OpenBridge Designer (OBD) software package; an integral part of the Department's "Digital Delivery Directive 2025" initiative. He has modeled several sample bridge replacement projects to document OBD strengths and weaknesses, which Bentley uses in program fixes and enhancements.

Dustin chose to learn advanced CAD and GIS techniques, happily sharing that knowledge with other members of the bridge unit. He is definitely a Department asset.

The Star of Excellence Awards are presented annually to employees who represent the department’s values of service, performance and integrity. The recipients represent a variety of organizational positions, spanning from highway maintenance and driver and vehicle services workers, to traffic control specialists, communications staff and design and engineering specialists.

For more information on PennDOT activities in Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon and Somerset counties visit http://www.penndot.gov/District9.  

MEDIA CONTACT: Tara M. Callahan-Henry, 814-696-7101