The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Monday approved the appointment of Tasha Higgins to lead the Program Management Division at the Port of Long Beach.

The Program Management Division, part of the Port’s Engineering Services Bureau, oversees improvements to waterways, wharfs, terminals, railroads, bridges, roadways and utilities.

Higgins started at the Port of Long Beach in October 2020 as Assistant Director of Program Management. She has made a significant impact to the division’s implementation of quantitative risk assessments and helped to improve small business participation on contracts within the Engineering Services Bureau.

Prior to joining the Port, Higgins had worked since 1993 on various transportation improvement programs for agencies including Long Beach Transit, Los Angeles World Airports, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the California Department of Transportation, in addition to privately held consulting companies.

She holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Cromwell School of Business at Biola University and a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. She is a board-certified civil engineer with the state of California and a certified Project Management Professional.

The appointment of Higgins is effective March 26, 2022.

The Port of Long Beach is one of the world’s premier seaports, a gateway for trans-Pacific trade and a trailblazer in goods movement and environmental stewardship. As the second-busiest container seaport in the United States, the Port handles trade valued at more than $200 billion annually and supports 2.6 million trade-related jobs across the nation, including 575,000 in Southern California.