Then she went on to study economics and anthropology at Duke University in North Carolina where she graduated in 1975. She spent a semester studying anthropology at the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico, where she met her husband, Horacio Soberón.

Afterward she worked in Mexico for a rural development bank.

Returning to the United States, in the 1980s she enrolled at Clemson University obtaining a master’s in urban and regional planning and also completing course work for a master’s program in civil engineering.

These studies put Llort firmly on a path to a transportation career.

Her first job linked to transportation was with the Virginia Department of Transportation in 1985 where she went on to become assistant district engineer for planning and operations and resident engineer in Farfax County.

In 1994, she moved to Tallahassee to join the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) after seeing an ad for the job in a newspaper. By 2003, Llort had reached the highest executive levels at FDOT then under the stewardship of José Abreu, the first Hispanic Florida transportation secretary.

“I had a dream team in Tallahassee and Ysela was one of the stars,” said Abreu who now is director of the county’s aviation department, which operates Miami International Airport (MIA). “Intellectually, she is superb and without her I would not have been able to make in Tallahassee.”

Llort worked in Tallahassee with FDOT until 2007 when she moved to Miami to become assistant Miami-Dade County manager for transportation, overseeing transit, the airport, seaport and public works.

On Aug. 5, Gimenez appointed Llort interim director and since then she has been trying to resolve differences with FTA, the agency that suspended MDT’s grants. FTA has since restored a significant amount of funds and the crisis has eased, but has not been totally resolved.

“We have to restore full faith of the federal government,” she said.