Norma Ortega served as the Chief Financial Officer for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for nine years managing a $12 billion annual budget prior to retiring in 2018. Ms. Ortega was with Caltrans over 35 years and served in a number of increasingly responsible fiscal management positions including Acting, Chief Deputy Director during 2013 and 2014, bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise in transportation funding. During her career at Caltrans, Ms. Ortega led a number of fiscal strategies designed to keep funds flowing for transportation, including aggressive cash management of funds during very challenging fiscal times, allowing projects to continue through numerous years of stops and starts of funding; federal approval of almost $5 billion in federal toll credits; reduction of federal inactive obligations; and capturing over $1.5 billion of additional federal funds through the August Redistribution of funds. Ms. Ortega also served as lead on the California Road Charge Pilot Program, exploring an alternative to the traditional funding source for transportation.

Ms. Ortega now works as a strategic advisor with Gray-Bowen-Scott, a professional consulting firm specializing in the delivery of transportation projects in the Greater Bay Area.

Dawn Vettese serves as the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Chief Financial Officer and directs all contractual, financial, operational, programming and budgeting functions for SANDAG and the Commission. Dawn started her career at SANDAG in 2014, providing professional support for various regional, state, and local transportation funding programs and was responsible for managing the development of the Regional Transportation Improvement Program and providing expertise in the field of financial programming for regional projects. Dawn previously served over 20 years with the California Department of Transportation in both headquarters and San Diego District 11 in a variety of roles including transportation finance and program/project management. She has developed strategic partnerships between the region, Caltrans, the California Transportation Commission, and peer agencies to further the region's goals and priorities. She has decades of professional transportation finance experience and has managed innovative finance strategies for projects in the San Diego region, both with Caltrans and SANDAG, including the region's Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan for the $2 billion Mid-Coast Trolley project.