Please join us for lunch!

For our meeting Monday, August 21st, 2023, we welcome
Justin Powell is the Chief of Staff for the South Carolina Department of Transportation

Justin Powell is the Chief of Staff for the South Carolina Department of Transportation where he manages strategic initiatives on behalf of the Secretary of Transportation. Powell joined the Department in 2019, when he was appointed the Deputy Secretary for Finance and Administration. As Deputy Secretary, he managed a $2.7 billion budget to support the construction and maintenance of the fourth-largest state-owned highway system in the United States.

Before working for the Department, he served as Assistant County Administrator in Horry County where he provided financial leadership to the County’s $500 million roads sales tax program, doubled local funding for transit, and managed a project to restore freight rail service to a three-county region. In addition, Powell has also worked at other local government agencies including the City of Greenville, Dorchester County, and Fairfax County, VA. He holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor’s degree from Wofford College.