SHERIDAN, WYOMING - April 14, 2026 - The Women In Trucking Association (WIT), the nonprofit established in 2007 to advance gender inclusion across the trucking industry, has announced a series of concurrent program updates: the naming of Ingrid Brown as 2026 Driver of the Year, the opening of the Call for Speakers for the 12th annual Accelerate! Conference & Expo in Dallas, and the launch of data collection for the 2026-27 WIT Index. Together, these initiatives reflect WIT's role as both a recognition body and a data-driven resource for workforce planning in the freight and logistics sector.
2026 Driver of the Year: Ingrid Brown
Ingrid Brown, a 46-year trucking industry veteran, has been named WIT's 2026 Driver of the Year. Her career spans owner-operator operations, fleet leadership, and specialized freight, and she has received top industry honors throughout. Brown has collaborated with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as a safety advocate, mentored numerous drivers, and remains active behind the wheel while continuing to take on leadership roles. WIT cited this combination of operational longevity, regulatory engagement, and mentorship as defining characteristics of the award.
Business impact
Recognition programs like Driver of the Year and Member of the Month function as talent-market signals for carriers, fleet operators, and logistics companies tracking workforce development benchmarks. The April 2026 Member of the Month, Lisa Cook, was recognized for driving organizational alignment and delivering results by bringing people and ideas around a shared vision-a profile directly relevant to companies managing multi-site operations and team integration challenges. WIT's membership structure spans the driver seat through the C-suite, giving corporate members access to a cross-functional talent and peer network that can support both recruiting outreach and internal advancement pathways.
Accelerate! Conference & Expo: Dallas, October 2026
The 12th annual Accelerate! Conference & Expo is scheduled for October 25-28 in Dallas, Texas, offering four days of programming focused on learning, networking, and leadership development. WIT's Call for Speakers is currently open, inviting professionals with relevant industry expertise to submit presentation proposals. The conference is positioned around workplace inclusion, women's leadership, and how diverse operational perspectives can influence business performance-areas that fleet HR teams, logistics managers, and transportation executives increasingly address as strategic rather than peripheral concerns.
WIT Index: Sector Data Collection Underway
WIT has opened data collection for the 2026-27 edition of its annual WIT Index, the organization's primary benchmark for tracking women's representation across the trucking sector. The 2024-25 Index reported that women account for nearly 9.5% of professional drivers; a separate statistics page on the WIT site cites a more recent figure of nearly 12.1%. The index also measures women's share of C-suite roles, board seats, and functional positions industry-wide. The data, gathered from companies and individuals across the sector, is used by fleet operators, carriers, and industry researchers as a reference for workforce planning, diversity reporting, and peer benchmarking.
Key facts:
- Ingrid Brown named WIT 2026 Driver of the Year; 46-year career includes owner-operator, fleet leadership, specialized freight, and FMCSA safety collaboration.
- 12th annual Accelerate! Conference & Expo scheduled for October 25-28, 2026 in Dallas, TX; Call for Speakers is open.
- 2024-25 WIT Index reports women at nearly 9.5% of professional drivers; 2026-27 data collection now underway.
- WIT has operated since 2007, serving members from driver to executive level with recognition, mentoring, and industry data programs.
- April 2026 Member of the Month is Lisa Cook, recognized for organizational leadership and cross-functional alignment.