Cory Binns is the new Caltrans District 11 Director. Binns is a 19-year veteran of Caltrans. For the past six years, he has been the District 11 Chief Deputy District Director. He served as Acting District 11 Director from October 2017 until March 2018, and he has also been the District 11 Maintenance Division Chief.
Binns earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Irvine, in 1991, and worked in the public and private sector for the next eight years. He also served as an U.S. Navy Reserves Civil Engineer Corps officer.
Binns joined Caltrans as a Range D Engineer in 1999. During his Caltrans career he has held positions in the divisions of Design, Environmental Engineering, Construction, Maintenance and Traffic Operations before promoting to the position of District Chief Deputy in 2012. In 2016, he served on a special assignment in Sacramento as the Interim Engineering Services Deputy Division Chief.
Among his honors, Binns earned the 2017 Honorable Ray LaHood Award from the Women in Transportation San Diego Chapter. The award recognizes men who are not only leaders in transportation, but seek opportunities to advance women and minorities. In addition, in 2018 the San Diego County Engineering Council awarded Binns the Dr. Thomas Avolt Kanneman Outstanding Service Award for advancing the engineering profession in southern California.
Steven Keck became the new Chief Financial Officer for Caltrans in April. Keck has worked for Caltrans for 18 years. Since 2009, he has been the Chief Budget Officer, responsible for overseeing the Department’s more than $13 billion budget, as well as cash management policy and revenue forecasting.
Keck started at Caltrans in 2000 when he began working on funding for the state’s extensive Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program. He has held various roles in finance at Caltrans, including more than a year acting as the Chief Financial Officer. Keck began his civil service career at the California Department Forestry and Fire Protection (now CalFire), managing the capital outlay program for fire station replacement.
Keck earned his degree in resource management from California State University, Humboldt, in 1997 before beginning his civil service career with the state of California. In his free time, he enjoys striving for “continuous improvement” at golf, and tinkering with electronics and vintage watches.
Lori Kirkendoll is the new Human Resources Assistant Division Chief in the Office of Transactions Services. She has more than 17 years of civil service experience in human resources, organizational initiatives, and workers’ compensation. Kirkendoll returned to the Division of Human Resources (DHR) in 2016 after serving as the Enterprise Risk Management Office Chief from 2013 to 2016. In that position, Kirkendoll oversaw the implementation of the Department’s ethics helpline, served as the conflict of interest coordinator, and participated in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program to develop a cross-trained workforce.
Kirkendoll’s previous work in Human Resources included management assignments over the Department’s Workers’ Compensation and Reasonable Accommodation Programs, Transactions Services, Workforce Planning, the Equal Employment Opportunity Program, and Classification and Hiring Services. Kirkendoll was an active team member on the Department’s 2012 Strategic Priority teams, focused on employee motivation and succession planning. In this role, she reached out to other states to learn about their succession planning efforts and helped to develop Caltrans guidebooks highlighting best practices. Since 2014, Kirkendoll has been a team member on the Administration Program’s zero-based budget team, working to create efficiencies and streamline processes.
Prior to joining Caltrans in 2007, Kirkendoll worked for State Fund Insurance. She started as a claims adjuster and was later promoted to assistant claims manager in the Stockton office. Kirkendoll earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from California State University, Sacramento.
