Chief Transit & Field Operations Officer

Ellen Smyth is the Chief Transit and Fields Operations Officer for the City of El Paso and has over 35 years’ environmental and management experience in “for-profit” fortune 100 firms as well as in public service. 

Before returning to El Paso Ellen worked for Eastman Kodak, Waste Management, TXDOT, and the City of Las Cruces. Ellen holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Texas
A & M University and a Master of Public Administration from New Mexico State University.  She also holds a Master of Pastoral Studies in Theology from Loyola University, New Orleans. She is a registered Professional Engineer in the States of Texas and New Mexico.

In her current position she oversees two large departments with a combined total of nearly 800 employees and a $140 million budget that includes Mass Transit (Streetcar, Fixed Route buses and Paratransit services), Solid Waste Management (trash, recycle, landfills), Code Enforcement (nuisances, environmental health, vector control), and Environmental Engineering (mold, asbestos, ESAs, methane gas, leachate).

She is a member of the American Public Works Association, Solid Waste Association of North America, National Recycling Coalition, American Society of Civil Engineers, National Society of Professional Engineers and the Texas Association of Environmental Professionals. 

Ellen is a native El Pasoan and one of nine children.  She is a proud graduate of Austin High School. And she has a twin.   Her hobbies include hiking, sewing, and handwriting analysis.  She is married to Frank and they have one daughter, Ann Marie who holds an MBA from Texas Tech University.