玛莎Bembry

玛莎Bembry had been awake for several hours when the sun rose over Jersey City, 它的光芒照亮了志愿者, vendors and police officers preparing for the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH)’s annual safety fair at Journal Square. 在21年前那个明媚的周二早晨, 本布里看着安全眼镜, vests and flashlights were laid out on tables for PATH employees alongside information on various safety topics. 她接受给参与者送去的食物. 那天早上的某个时候, she would need to cross the Hudson River to pick up T-shirts from a World Trade Center storeroom, 误送到那里.

活动开始活跃起来, and Bembry – who was overseeing the event – worried she wouldn’t make it to Manhattan on time. 刚过早上7点.m.一位仓库主管告诉她，他会派人来送货.

早上8:46刚过.m., Bembry’s police officer colleagues stopped setting up a Jaws of Life demonstration and ran from the event. Her boss, striding through the lobby, told Bembry that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. 本布里和她的同事们走到屋顶上看得更清楚.

“当我们到那里的时候, 我们看到一座塔倒塌了,本布里回忆道, 然后是PATH的安全专家. “我很震惊. 我知道有人在那栋楼里工作. 我不知道他们会怎么样. 我取消了展览会. 我让在场的人都回家. And I started distributing the food to the departments that I knew were going to be there all night.”

9·11事件发生时，本布里的家人一开始往最坏的方面想. 2001年11月11日，因为他们联系不到她. 她不能回家. 她丈夫当时出城出差去了. 在某一时刻, 本布里终于联系上了她的妹妹, 是谁接孩子放学并陪着他们. 本布里在半夜回到家.

在接下来的日子里, 本布里在新泽西州95号州际公路上开车去上班, with state police waving her through once they knew she was an essential worker. 救援行动已经在交易广场展开, 就在前世界贸易中心遗址的南面, and Bembry helped colleagues who took part in this work and volunteered to venture into PATH’s tunnels beneath the river between New York and New Jersey. 她安装了气体监测器，提醒工程师注意危险. Crews were gone five minutes before they had to abort the operation from the New Jersey side.

“那是一种经历，”本布里回忆起那段时期时说. “过了很长时间，我才能够谈论这件事.她说，她看待工作、看待生活的方式“都变了。.”

本布里现在是RTD的高级安全经理, 安全与合规——几年后搬到了科罗拉多州, 她丈夫在那里做工程顾问. 他们的四个孩子都在上大学或已经成年. 她决定看看还有没有其他的工作机会, 她自己做了几年安全培训. 2007年，当RTD有一个安全职位空缺时，她申请了. 本布里首先被分配到公共汽车运营部门, 她设计了一个数据库来追踪每月的事故. 我在新泽西和火车一起工作过, Bembry had to learn and adjust to a different set of federal regulations pertaining to buses.

When she learned that RTD would be opening the then-University of Colorado A Line, B线和G线作为通勤铁路运营, 本布里很兴奋. She applied for and was placed in a role focused on ensuring that the contractor complied with safety-related Federal Railroad Administration regulations. Bembry develops safety programs for RTD’s rail operations that meet FRA and RTD expectations. She investigates accidents and incidents, including deaths, that occur along RTD’s rail lines. 由于她的经历，本布里认真对待安全问题.

“当人们抱怨火车喇叭声时, 还有站台和车站的钟声, 我不明白,”她说。. “The reason why the bells ring and the lights flash is to warn the public that a train is coming. 我们的路权上必须有这些警告.”

本布里会不高兴的, 在一次消防安全演习中, 员工无视他们听到的声音，继续打电话. 这就是9月11日人们失去生命的原因. 11，她说. “他们无视火警，因为他们不知道发生了什么, and they waited until it was too late to leave the building – and they got caught and killed. That's why it's important to make sure that you have these emergency procedures in place and that your employees know what to do, 这样他们就可以在任何情况下帮助自己.”

30多年来，本布里一直关注安全问题, 自从她30多岁开始为PATH工作以来. 她一开始是在车站当售票员，在高峰时段指挥顾客. 从那里, she put in to be a train conductor and got that job – making her the Port Authority’s third female in that position. She was also one of only three African American engineers or conductors at that time. The other two “had been doing it for a few years prior to me and kept me encouraged,本布里说. “这是一份艰苦的工作. 如果有人朝你吐口水或者叫你最难听的名字, you have to maintain your composure because you're representing the organization.

“It takes a special person to be out there in the forefront and keep that smile on their face despite what's thrown at them. I have a lot of respect for operators in a transit system because I was one myself.”

获得工业工程学位的, Bembry knew that working as a conductor would help her understand how machines and people work together, 更好地解决安全问题. 当机会出现时，她申请成为适宜卫生技术组织的安全专家. Bembry earned the respect of her colleagues by seeing issues from their perspective and advocating for them.

When engineers complained that the non-ergonomic wooden seats they had to sit on often dropped in place – leading to back pain – Bembry wrote a paper convincing the management department to refurbish all of the trains with better seats. After her Maintenance of Way colleagues complained that the tunnels they worked in filled with diesel fumes, Bembry used a meter to take readings and argue that PATH should use ventilation fans – already in place to remove smoke in case of emergency – to remove these carcinogens from the space. 能够在更健康的环境中工作, 球队给了本布里一件“隧道老鼠”t恤，她至今仍引以为豪, 考虑到他们不经常发这些, 对他们组外的任何人都不行,”她说。.

本布里在民权运动时期出生在新泽西州的纽瓦克. 她的家庭来自阿拉巴马州, 当她去那里看望她的祖父母时, 她回忆起一些她的家人不能去的地方，因为那里不受欢迎. “你无法改变你的长相，所以你只能接受它，”她说. She recalls being aware of “having to stay where you are, and not being allowed to go any further.”

想想她的事业成就, Bembry说, “我从来没有想过我会达到现在的水平, 因为我认为这不会被接受. 我是成功的，我承认这一点. 但在某些情况下，它没有得到承认.”

Studying industrial engineering at Newark College of Engineering – now New Jersey Institute of Technology – “was hard,本布里说. While Newark is a predominantly African American city, no one in the college looked like her. “我的教授告诉我，我不属于这里. 我周围的人都说我不属于这里. 当你把这个常数写下来的时候，你永远不会成功, 你哪儿也去不了, 是很困难的. 但我还是完成了.” Bembry did so while tending to her young children, sometimes bringing them to class. “我坚持了下来，终于毕业了，”她说. “我可以诚实地说，我获得了那个学位.”

Bembry has taught her children “to not allow people’s negativity to affect you mentally. 这是我多年来学到的.她为自己的三个女儿和儿子感到骄傲.

本布里在听了丈夫的话后开始了她的交通事业, 一位交通部门的同事, 谈谈他在火车和隧道上的经历. “I thought it would be interesting, and once I got into it, I loved it,”她说。. “运输的很大一部分是培训，我觉得知识是关键. If you know what can harm you, then you make the decision to best protect yourself.”

当她明年春天退休的时候, Bembry looks forward to spending more time talking with people about the experience of being a Jehovah’s Witness. 她认为是上帝和圣经让她在精神和身体上保持专注.

“不要放弃，”本布里相信. “不要让任何人因为你的外表或说话方式而贬低你.

“你的头脑能想到的，你的身体就能实现。.”