Candice Traeger served as a public policy expert for 25 years at United Parcel Service (“UPS”), a company admired worldwide for its effectiveness, integrity, and efficiency. Traeger has been named “Best Public Affairs Director in the U.S.” by UPS, and the success of her program contributed to recognition by the U.S. Business Roundtable, which recognized that UPS developed the “Best Grass Roots Program” in the nation. Her leadership and achievements in public policy development, implementation, strategic vision, education, and communication have made her a highly sought-after consultant, trainer, and speaker.
Traeger was born in Pasadena, California, in 1955 and grew up in Southern California. She attended Valencia High School in Placentia, California, and graduated in 1973. She attended Fullerton Community College and achieved an Associate of Arts equivalency. She continued her education in 1984, attending Western State University-College of Law in Fullerton. She earned a Bachelor of Science in law from Western in 1986 and went on to achieve a Juris Doctor degree in 1987, while working at UPS. In 1991, the Supreme Court of California recognized her as Attorney and Counselor of Law.
Traeger began her career at UPS in 1979, as a part-time clerk. In 1988, Traeger went into management at UPS as an industrial engineer and spent three years designing job set-up, creating workplace efficiencies, and studying time in motion. Traeger worked in the UPS corporate legal department in 1991 and created a nation-wide system for service of process at UPS. She also spent a year in Washington, D.C. developing and implementing federal public policy for UPS.
Upon return from Washington, D.C., Traeger was asked to manage an operations center with 75 UPS Teamster drivers. Traeger served as acting “Division Manager” for over 1,500 employees on numerous occasions. Upon successful completion of that assignment, she was promoted in 1994 to public affairs manager for California and the Southwestern states. In order to round out her education she served in the tax, health & safety, and workers' compensation areas before being promoted to director of public affairs for California and the Northwestern states. In that capacity, Traeger was the media spokesperson for UPS during the 1997 strike and held several press conferences in major media markets in California and the surrounding states.
Traeger has developed and implemented public policy positions on a wide array of health and safety, transportation, environmental, human resource, and labor issues at both the state and federal level. She has been responsible for educating business leaders in several states on their roles in the political process. She has been a guest speaker in Washington D.C. at the National Transportation Research Board and served as a panelist for the Clinton White House’s Summit on Empowerment Zones.
Traeger has had vast experience on OSHA issues, at both the federal and state
level, and enthusiastically embraces the board’s goals of timely resolution
of appeals and guidance to the general public as critical in promoting workplace
safety.