Rising Stars 2024: Akanksha Bode

Akanksha Bode, 37
Senior director of train management
Union Pacific Railroad

Nominator’s quote: “Akanksha Bode is paving the way for others in an industry where 15% of the transportation workforce, and 5.5% of the company’s current workforce, is female. Akanksha has the responsibility of dispatching over 70 trains, at any given time, across parts of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. She navigates the daily challenges and embraces cross-departmental collaboration with ease.” — Polly Harris, Union Pacific Railroad

Education: Bachelor of science in health policy, Creighton University.

Job responsibilities: Responsible for the safe and efficient dispatching of freight and some passenger trains through the Texoma Service Unit, which covers most of Texas and Oklahoma within UP’s network.

Career path: I started as a claims analyst in the UP legal department for two years. I then applied for the operating management training program because I wanted to learn more about how the railroad functions from the front lines. I did my training in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and then was assigned as a manager of yard operations in Mason City, Iowa. I spent a year and a half in Mason City, then was promoted to corridor manager in the Harriman Dispatching Center (HDC). I have been at the HDC since then, and have held various positions in bulk, locomotive, network operations, and then back to train management.

How did you get into the rail industry? After graduating from college, I spent two years in the insurance industry and quickly realized that it was not my calling. As I looked through job postings at nearly every large employer in Omaha, I came across an open position as a claims analyst at Union Pacific. This was in fall 2010, and I have not looked back since.

What’s the best advice that you’ve received so far in your career? Your success is defined by your team’s success. When someone is promoted from your team, it’s a reflection of not just that person’s hard work, but also of the results you achieved together.

What advice would you share with someone early in their railroad career? First, go see where the core work is done to help you understand how much it takes to build and run a railroad. Second, often the responsibilities or tasks that make you the most uncomfortable are the ones that help you grow the most.

What was your very first job? Cashier at Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Share a fun fact about yourself. I am afraid of heights but went skydiving a few months ago. I will not be doing it again.

If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be and why? Dolly Parton. Every time I hear of her, it is almost always associated with something philanthropic that she has done and has not publicized. I don’t think any of us know or realize the amount of good this one woman has done for the world. She’s also witty and fabulous.

Who has had the most important influence on your career and why? Dean Hagelstein was the first general superintendent I worked for when I came to the Harriman Dispatching Center as a corridor manager. I will never forget him telling me, “My career is in its last phase and yours is just starting. My job now is to make sure you are on a path that sets you up for success.” He did this not only for me, but for so many people who I today consider mentors. He passed away recently, and I wish I could have told him how much those words meant to me.

Describe a major obstacle in your career and how you surmounted it. When I became the yard manager at Mason City, I was expected to move there, and I did. However, my husband remained four hours away in Omaha. We were newly married and both trying to build our careers. We lived apart for nearly one and a half years and it was one of the hardest things I have had to do.

I was in a place where I knew no one, I was managing employees who all knew more about rail operations than I, and I was one of two women in a terminal that had 60 to 80 people go through it daily. That was the hardest job I have ever had, but it taught me so much. The knowledge I gained from that experience and those crews is something I use daily. It has been instrumental in my success at the Union Pacific and made me a much stronger person overall.

What is the biggest challenge facing the rail industry today??How we embrace technology and implement it is our biggest challenge, and yet will be the driving factor in how successful we are as an industry in the future.