INDIANA, Pa. (EYT) – Deborah Casadei recently announced her retirement as the public information officer for PennDOT District 10.
Oil City native Deborah Casadei is an alumna of Clarion University where she completed her undergraduate degree in marketing. She went on to complete a master’s degree in technology management from Phoenix University and has also completed some post-graduate work in leadership, a pursuit that she may revisit following her retirement.
Her tenure with PennDOT began in February of 2000 in District 1, which covers Crawford, Erie, Forest, Mercer, Venango, and Warren Counties. Casadei had been working in Harrisburg, first as a district administrator for one state senator, and then as a legislative assistant for another state senator, when she decided to apply for a position with PennDOT.
“PennDOT was an innovative and extremely creative organization, and very customer-focused, just like a really well-run business,” Casadei said. “They were on the cusp of technology, using technology in so many ways. It just sounded like a lot of fun.”
Working as a public information officer in District 1, Casadei enjoyed working closely with many news and media sources and particularly enjoyed doing radio spots.
“Radio is a medium that reaches the people in their vehicles, and as a transportation professional, that’s who you want to reach. You have to communicate in the manner in which customers want to receive communication, and that was radio.”
Although Casadei said she still enjoys doing radio on occasion, since moving to a position in District 10 – which covers Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson Counties – she hasn’t done many radio spots because there are fewer radio stations in District 10 than in District 1.
In addition, Casadei noted that changes in how people choose to get information has shifted over the years.
“Things have changed and social media is bigger and more powerful than ever,” Casadei said. “We use a lot of social media and have a lot of campaigns that have a large impact via Twitter and Facebook.”
Even though advances in technology have made sweeping changes in communication over the nearly two decades she’s been with PennDOT, Casadei has found keeping up with the changes a positive experience, utilizing the internet and social media to reach out to Pennsylvania drivers.
PennDOT’s online surveys are one particular advancement she believes has made a very positive impact on how they operate.
“Through the surveys, we’ve found out things we might not have found out any other way, and that’s what great customer service is like. You can’t just guess at what customers want, you have to ask them.”
She noted that PennDOT does still utilize public meetings and other ways of reaching out, as well; however, the volume and variety of information the online surveys provide is of a completely different magnitude.
“We have public meetings, but then you only get the people interested in one thing. With the surveys, we even get people from outside the district who drive the roadways in the district, and we wouldn’t have gotten that feedback otherwise.”
Feedback and gathering data have been an integral part of her position.
“I’m an analytical person, I love data. And one thing I’ve always loved about PennDOT is they’ll let you try a creative or innovative idea if you might pick up more data. We’re data-driven and that feeds back into all of our processes.”
While she has been preparing to end her time at PennDOT, her passion for the work she’s done there was still evident when she began sharing some of the many ways PennDOT is reaching out to area residents to improve their driving experiences and try to keep our roads as safe as possible.
“We use technology in so many ways. One of the newest and most fabulous is 511, and it is such a great tech improvement. You know pretty much real-time what is going on when a road closes if there’s a crash or a detour, and you can prepare ahead of time, which is really awesome. We partner with WAZE which is user-driven, so people can report issues. 511 is fed by WAZE, the state police, 9-1-1, and emergency management with real-time data, which is a fabulous thing making communication easier.”
Safety is one of her – and PennDOT’s – primary focuses.
“Helping people and making a difference in lives made it an awesome job, and I really want everyone to have information to be able to travel safely. We have a lot of focus areas, but I spend a lot of time on that.”
In fact, one of her last few events as District 10’s public information officer was the Pedestrian Safety event held in Clarion last week.
“In my time working with all of the media, they’ve been so great and so willing to help get the message out, especially the safety message. That’s something I’ve really appreciated. It’s just been the umbrella over my career all this time. It made me feel like I was making a difference.”
“I genuinely care about people and genuinely want to help. If you have that affinity and that love and want to keep people safe, you can’t beat the media for getting that message out. I’ve really enjoyed every moment of that.”
Not all of the parts of her job are always so pleasant, though. While working in District 1, she had the experience of dealing with the aftermath of several multi-vehicle pileups, functioning as the commander of an incident command center.
“You have to try to get up to the moment communication out. A big thing is trying to keep the public safe and outside of where things are happening. You don’t want other cars to come up on something like that or for it to cause secondary crashes.”
“We are just lucky we have such exceptional partners in the Pennsylvania State Police, the Emergency Management Agencies, and local police, fire departments, and EMS. Everyone works together, and it’s a great team, whatever part of the state you’re in. The people are all just fabulous; they know their business and are good at it.”
Casadei’s final day at PennDOT was Friday, October 19. Though she plans to take some time off, spend some quality time with two young pups she recently adopted, as well as some time with family, she’s still keeping her options open for the future.
“My time here has been a great ride. I’ve made great friends and learned a lot. I will really miss the people: they’re a great bunch of professionals, and we work well together. They really do understand what the team concept is all about, and that’s such a great thing. A job shouldn’t just be work, and it hasn’t been here, but I just needed a break.”
“I have some things I want to deal with and get organized, and I want to take a little time to just decompress a bit, but I’m a Type A person, so it probably won’t last long. I’d like to find something else I want to do that will make a difference and mean something to someone.”
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