Thienan Nguyentan is District 10's Traffic Safety Branch Chief North Counties (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, and Mariposa), a role she said she enjoys and finds meaningful and impactful.
By Bob Highfill
District 10 public information officer
Thienan Nguyentan and her family emigrated from Vietnam to the United States when she was 14 years old.
She had mixed feelings. She was full of hope and excitement about the prospects of a brighter future in a country that offered more and better opportunities. However, naturally, she was concerned about adapting to a different culture and language in a new, strange land.
Thienan overcame many obstacles and drove herself to succeed. She joined Caltrans after a successful stint with San Joaquin County and has ascended to District 10 Traffic Safety Branch Chief North Counties (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, and Mariposa), a role she said she enjoys and finds meaningful and impactful.
“Traffic safety is our No. 1 priority, and we are such a people-first organization,” she said. “This is a really fulfilling and rewarding position for me. Any projects we do are to improve safety.”
Thienan is devoted to public service. It stems from her upbringing. The Nguyentan family had nothing when they arrived in Stockton in 1995. They lived with an uncle, who helped them get settled. Thienan was especially vulnerable at her school. She was an easy target and was bullied and harassed – one particularly mean classmate stole her backpack, an incident that brought her to tears.
But Thienan was tough and resilient like her parents, who emphasized education, hard work and self-development. Thienan worked two jobs while studying at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where she graduated with a degree in engineering management with an emphasis in civil engineering. Thienan was hired by San Joaquin County out of college and held several positions over 10-plus years in project management, design and construction.
In 2018, Thienan joined Caltrans as a traffic safety investigator, and traffic safety devices and traffic surveillance and analysis systems (TASAS) coordinator. She later accepted a temporary assignment as a project manager. She resumed her role as a traffic safety investigator before she was promoted in March 2021 to traffic safety branch chief.
Among her duties, Thienan approves traffic safety investigations and initiates traffic safety projects. She supervises eight employees and said her involvement with Caltrans’ Mentorship Program was especially valuable in her personal and professional growth.
“The supervisory role requires more of the soft skills including people skills and managing different personalities and having emotional intelligence,” said Thienan, whose mentor in the program was District 10 Director Dennis T. Agar. “That was very lacking for me. It’s just not part of what I grew up with. In my family, it was very academic, and ethics focused. Over the last two years, it has been a humbling experience for me to learn and to lead.”
Thienan said someday she would like to serve as a mentor in the program.
“That is something I really work on, not just being a good manager but being a good leader,” she said. “I really recommend the mentorship program to others who want to look into the future of their career advancement.”
Thienan said she looks forward to doing all she can to improve traffic safety and fulfill Caltrans’ mission to create a safe, reliable transportation network for all Californians in all modes of travel, as well as Vision Zero (zero fatalities and zero serious injuries on state highways) by 2050.
“Any projects we do are to improve safety and when we initiate a project, we want to make sure we address the safety concerns in those underserved communities and the vulnerable road users,” Thienan said. “Being in this position, I’m able to tell my team we can always do more.”