City Hires Susan Habina-Woolard as Transportation Department Director
Published on May 29, 2026
The City of Wilmington announces Susan Habina-Woolard, P.E., as its new Department of Transportation Director, beginning June 1.
Habina-Woolard brings more than 25 years of engineering, transportation, stormwater, and municipal leadership experience to the role. She joins the City from the Town of Matthews, where she most recently served as the Town Engineer, leading transportation infrastructure, stormwater management, multimodal transportation initiatives, and development review efforts.
In her role as the City’s Department of Transportation Director, Habina-Woolard will oversee the department’s traffic engineering, development design review, streets, stormwater, and Vision Zero programs. She will also help guide the City’s long-term transportation and infrastructure strategy, capital maintenance planning, and stormwater management initiatives.
“Susan is an exceptional leader and exactly the right person to lead this new department,” said City Manager Becky Hawke. “I had the privilege of working directly with Susan for nine years in Matthews and saw firsthand her tenacity, leadership, and determination to move important transportation projects from concept to reality. She has a unique ability to right-size projects to maximize their impact and is unwavering in her focus on delivering practical, long-term solutions for her community. The Department of Transportation will play a critical role in how people safely and efficiently move through Wilmington every day. Susan brings decades of technical expertise, deep knowledge of transportation systems, and a collaborative leadership style that will help unify these functions under one coordinated department. I am confident her leadership will help position Wilmington to meet both current and future transportation needs.”
Prior to her work in Matthews, Habina-Woolard served in engineering roles with the City of Charlotte, the Town of Indian Trail, the City of New Bern, and the City of Kettering, Ohio.
Habina-Woolard is a licensed Professional Engineer in North Carolina and has been recognized nationally and statewide for her leadership within the engineering profession. Her recent honors include the 2025 National Society of Professional Engineers Fellows Designation, the 2025 National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying Distinguished Examination Service Award, and the 2025 Society of Women Engineers Charlotte-Metro Chapter Distinguished Engineering Service Award.
Habina-Woolard helped develop the Leadership Institute for the Professional Engineers of North Carolina, the Women's Leadership Program for the National Society of Professional Engineers, and cofounded the NC Women in Engineering Conference.
She holds a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from the University of Dayton.