Michele Torres views the airport as a place where minority and women owned businesses can see success in their business practices. Making those goals become reality drives her in her daily tasks.
“It’s really amazing talking with firms and being able to get feedback from them and how working at the airport has been successful for them and what they’ve been able to do with that success," she said. “It makes it very worthwhile because it’s a very tangible success.”
In her role at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Torres is responsible for the management, compliance, implementation and strategy for both its local and federal diversity programs (CBI, DBE & ACDBE), expansion of its civil rights programs to include Title VI initiatives and acting as a voice for small and minority business partners within the airport, at the city level and at an industry level.
During her time as manager of CLT’s Regulatory group she grew the team from one full-time employee to four and expanded it to include Davis Bacon compliance and the Title VI civil rights programs. Included in this growth is innovative new programs, like a small/ACDBE food truck program and entering into an agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to allow her team to certify ACDBEs directly and expanding airport training to included additional languages.
Torres led the citywide initiative to use a new diversity reporting tool to ensure the airport and the city was better able to understand and address diversity participation in city and airport-led projects. Her innovative use of reporting to support diversity and civil rights programs has also impacted the broader aviation industry.
“We know what the barriers are for minority and women owned firms, but sometimes it’s not easy to break them down or get around them,” Torres said. “Working with what we have, we’ve been able to address these concerns.
Torres worked with ACRP to develop ACRP’s diversity reporting tool that identify various initiates, their impacts and associated costs so that airports across the industry can review best practices in this arena. She also is an ACRP Champion helping to educate the broader aviation industry about the tools and support ARCP offers and acting as a subject matter expert for CLT.
She initiates and participates in outreach events around North Carolina to help open doors and remove barriers for work at the CLT. She even partnered with the local community college to present to their small business group.
Torres organized various key personnel, so that the businesses would understand every step of the process in order to do work at CLT, including registration as a small and/or minority business, drafting proposals and understanding the contractual requirements.
