Nearly 30-year Caltrans veteran John Bulinski is now the Caltrans District 7 Director, covering Los Angeles and Ventura counties. He was previously the District 8 Director, responsible for state transportation assets within Riverside and San Bernardino counties. This included 52 cities, two counties and 15 tribal governments. As District 8 Director, Bulinski oversaw a staff of more than 1,400 and the budget needed to plan, design, construct, maintain and operate the state transportation facilities within the two counties. During his tenure as District 8 Director, Bulinski placed a high priority on collaboration, community and employee engagement.
Bulinski began his career in District 1 in northwest California and served as the Caltrans District 2 Director in northeast California between 2008 and 2015. He is a graduate of California State University, Humboldt, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental engineering.
He and his wife, Jan, have three children and six grandchildren. Outside the office he enjoys woodworking, racquetball, softball, fishing, bicycling and camping.
Clark Paulsen is the new Division of Budgets Chief. Paulsen is a 25-year veteran of Caltrans and has been Chief of the Division of Accounting since 2005. In this capacity, Paulsen had overseen the functions that provide accurate and timely financial services and information vital to Caltrans’ mission.
Paulsen has also provided leadership for several Caltrans’ information technology projects. These efforts included introducing electronic toll collection to state-owned toll bridges and using an enterprise-wide financial management system.
Before he came to work at Caltrans, Paulsen worked for the California Legislative Audit Office for seven years. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science in accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Tony Tavares is the new Caltrans District 4 Director, responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the state highway system in the nine Bay Area counties, covering 6,500 lane miles of highways, with more than 3,000 employees, an annual budget of $500 million, and a current construction program of more than $2 billion.
Tavares is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering and is a Professional Engineer and Project Management Professional. He has an extensive and a diverse history of leadership from more than 28 years of public service with Caltrans. Tavares has held increasingly complex leadership assignments, including managing statewide and local operations in Design, Construction, Project Management, Structures and Local Assistance. He has held executive leadership assignments as statewide Division Chief for Right of Way and Land Surveys and District 10 Director. Most recently, Tavares served as statewide Maintenance Division Chief, where he was responsible for maintaining 50,000 lane miles of state highways and had the overall fiscal responsibility for the department's Maintenance budget of more than $2 billion and 7,000 employees.
Tavares serves on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area regional planning organization representing the California State Transportation Agency. He also serves on the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. He is an ex-officio member of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority board of directors, a member of the Policy Steering Committee, and he’s a member of the Bay Area Joint Policy Committee.
Larry Wooster is the new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Program Manager.
Wooster worked as a geotechnical engineer in the private sector before starting his 31-year Caltrans career in 1987 as a junior civil engineer in District 10. He has worked in Central Design, Districts 3, 10, 11, the Translab, and Headquarters. He worked in the divisions of Design, Construction, Structures Construction, Traffic Operations, the Office of Business and Economic Opportunities, and in 2012 he was designated the Caltrans lead for the Federal Highway Administration’s second Strategic Highway Research Program Traffic Incident Management Responder training.
Wooster enlisted in the U.S. Navy reserves as a Seabee in 1986 and was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy, Civil Engineer Corps in 1989. In his 29-year career, he received eight commendations for meritorious service and achievements.
Wooster lives in Roseville with his wife, Monica Kress. They enjoy scuba diving, kayaking, swimming, traveling and dancing together.
