ITD honors Heather McDaniel with Vanguard Award for leadership

Clear road updates can matter as much as pavement when crashes, closures and construction hit North Idaho, and the Idaho Transportation Department has singled out Heather McDaniel for the communications work that helps keep that information moving.

McDaniel received ITD’s Vanguard Award for work ethic, team-first attitude and leadership on the agency’s communications team. The honor is part of ITD’s Impact Awards program, which recognizes employees in categories that include Trailblazer, maintenance, safety, engineering, professional excellence, Ideal Workplace and the Kimbol Allen Excellence in Innovation awards.

McDaniel has been ITD’s public information officer for the Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston regions since August 2023, when she replaced Megan Jahns. ITD said McDaniel handles external and internal communications for District 1, putting her in the middle of the public questions that come with roadwork, weather events, crash response and long-range planning in Kootenai County and the rest of North Idaho.

That role has also carried public-safety responsibilities. ITD said McDaniel retained her communications work on the North Idaho DUI Task Force during her first two years with the department. The task force was created in 2019 by leaders from the Idaho State Police, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office and four city police departments. ITD said the task force received a $28,750 grant in June 2024 to combat multi-substance impaired driving and conducted 12 joint operations in 2023 during suspected DUI peak events and hours.

McDaniel’s work has also touched some of the region’s most closely watched transportation updates. ITD used her in announcements about the Rathdrum Prairie transportation study, hazard-tree removal along a five-mile stretch of State Highway 5 near Heyburn State Park, and a draft seven-year Idaho Transportation Investment Program that looked ahead through 2031. ITD also said McDaniel helped communicate about Operation Clean Sweep as it returned to North Idaho for a second year in 2026, while the department announced that annual bridge maintenance projects across North Idaho would begin after Memorial Day.

For drivers in Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Rathdrum and across the Idaho Panhandle, the award points to a basic but essential truth: transportation is not just about engineers and crews. It also depends on the people who can explain what is happening, why it matters and when the next closure, detour or safety effort will affect the road.