Helen A. Brohl

Helen A. Brohl
Principal U.S. Delegate to the PIANC Promotion Commission

Ms. Brohl was recently appointed to serve on PIANC ProCom as Principal Delegate of the US Section of the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure. Before retiring in January 2023, Ms. Brohl was appointed as the first Executive Director of the US Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS). She managed the CMTS partnership created under Presidential Directive that joins over 25 Federal agencies to address our Nation’s waterways, ports, and intermodal connections. Working with senior political, military and civilian leaders in the Federal government, Ms. Brohl directed the development and Cabinet-level approval of the first-ever National Strategy for the Marine Transportation System to improve the MTS for capacity, safety and security, environmental stewardship, resiliency and financing.

During her tenure at CMTS,  she has engaged in a number of dynamic issues including Federal infrastructure financing and investment; system performance measures; navigation technology integration and coordination; and integration of marine transportation issues into the President’s Arctic and Ocean Policies, National Export and Build America initiatives. Ms. Brohl led development of the CMTS Strategic Action Plan for Research and Development in the MTS; the CMTS response to the National Ocean Policy; the CMTS National Strategy for E-Navigation; the CMTS US Arctic MTS Priorities Report; the Federal MTS Funding Handbook; a compendium of Federal maritime energy programs; and the recent Ten-Year Projection of Maritime Activity in the US Arctic report to the White House.

Before joining the Federal government, Ms. Brohl served with two Federal Advisory Committees: the Great Lakes Pilotage Advisory Committee as appointed by the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and as Deputy Chair of the Hydrographic Services Review Panel as appointed by the Administrator of NOAA. Other associations have included the Great Lakes Panel on Aquatic Nuisance Species, the Great Lakes Waterways Management Forum, and the Great Lakes Observation System board.

Ms. Brohl has a Bachelor of Science degree in Coastal Geology from Florida Atlantic University and a Masters in Science in Ohio in Great Lakes Land and Water Use Policy from Ohio State University in Columbus. She is currently an alumni mentor with the John Glenn School of Public Affairs and sits on the board of the Women’s Aquatic Network which she co-founded in Washington, DC 30 years ago. Helen is a Tier Two Member of the Senior Executive Service.