Friends of Tide to Town is excited to announce that Ambria M. Berksteiner has joined the board of directors.

Ambria is currently a Service Planner in Chatham Area Transit‘s Planning, Infrastructure and Development Department.

Ambria Berksteiner is a Savannah native who graduated from The Savannah Arts Academy in 2013. While attending Savannah Arts Academy as a Visual Arts major,  she had the opportunity to participate in the Engineering Explorer Post Program. It was during this experience with the Thomas & Hutton firm that she developed her passion for engineering. Following high school, she attended Spelman College where she majored in Mathematics and was a participant in the Dual-Degree Engineering program. She went on to attend Auburn University where she studied Industrial and Systems engineering completing her dual degree. In 2017, she won the Miss Savannah USA Pageant, gaining the opportunity to compete at Miss Georgia USA. While fulfilling the duties of this prestigious title, she decided to empower young Women of Color in the STEM fields as her pageant platform, launching ‘Operation One STEM at a Time’.

Operation One STEM at a Time is an initiative she solidified on her platform as Miss Savannah USA 2017-2018. The organization educates, enlightens, and empowers young women to pursue STEM-related careers, and Ambria is affectionately considered its mentor-in-chief.  Over the past 6 years, she has worked and partnered with The Live Oak Public Libraries, Georgia Tech’s CEISMC program, the Society of Women Engineers, and The Creative Coast. Recently she was appointed to the Live Oak Public Library’s Board of Trustees helping to further cultivate spaces of limitless learning in Savannah. In 2018, Ambria Advocated to local lawmakers the need to recognize women in STEM-related careers in our local community. Due to this lobbying, she was ultimately granted a proclamation for the first Women In STEM Day for the Savannah-Chatham County area. Through her  STEM advocacy, she has received numerous awards and honors. Most recently she was recognized by Savannah Magazine as a 2021 New Guard honoree and recognized by the 100 Black Men of Savannah, receiving the organization’s 2021 Leadership Service Award. She was appointed to the Live Oak Public Library’s Board of Trustees and serves on the Woodville Tompkins Technical High School Engineering Advisory Board.  Ambria believes that exposure leads to expansion and that she is helping to launch each child closer to their dreams #oneSTEMatatime.