Prince George's County names Oluseyi Olugbenle acting public works director

Prince George’s County will hand its public works and transportation department to Oluseyi Olugbenle on Friday, July 3, putting a longtime internal manager at the center of daily service failures and infrastructure delivery that affect neighborhoods from Upper Marlboro to Oxon Hill.

County Executive Aisha N. Braveboy announced the move as a continuity step after Michael D. Johnson, P.E. had been serving as the department’s director. Olugbenle has been deputy director since 2022, and the county says she brings more than 15 years of experience in transportation planning, infrastructure development, public works operations and capital program management.

The job carries outsized weight. Prince George’s County says the Department of Public Works and Transportation has more than 450 employees across six divisions and offices, and is responsible for almost 2,000 miles of county-maintained roads and 900 bridges. In snow emergencies, the department must keep more than 2,000 miles of roadway passable. It also handles roadway repairs, traffic signals, street lights, stormwater management and transit services, while the TRIP Center monitors traffic safety in high-volume areas and shares transportation information with the public, transit operators, emergency services, schools and businesses.

The appointment lands in a new administration that is still taking shape. Braveboy was elected in a special election on June 3, 2025, and sworn in on June 19, 2025. She said Olugbenle has shown leadership, strategic vision and commitment to residents, and tied transportation directly to opportunity, neighborhood strength, quality of life and future growth.

Olugbenle comes to the role with large-scale state experience. Before joining county government, she worked at the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Transit Administration, where professional profiles say she directed enterprise-wide capital planning for a system described as the nation’s 13th-largest multimodal transit network. Those profiles also say she oversaw a $12.6 billion asset management program and a $4 billion six-year capital budget.

The county’s own filings underscore how much money and attention flow through DPW&T. Its FY 2023 approved budget was $45,971,500, a 16.5% increase from the prior year. County materials also show Olugbenle had already been visible in the department, including work tied to PGC311 improvements and a County Council transportation committee briefing on WMATA’s Better Bus update.

For residents, the test now is concrete: fewer potholes, cleaner storm drains, faster road repairs, stronger snow response and better day-to-day transit reliability. In a county where service gaps are felt block by block, Olugbenle’s performance will be measured in the condition of streets, the pace of repairs and whether the department can keep pace with the county’s growth.