Candidate Info MTAP Steering Committee 2017 Elections

Candidate Info MTAP Steering Committee 2017 Elections

Name: Andy (Andrea) Brush (Nominated by Sharon Edgar) Date: May 25, 2017 Position/Title: Unit Supervisor State Department of Transportation: Michigan Division: Office of Passenger Transportation Andy supervises the unit in MDOT which is responsible for delivery and oversight of all FTA formula and discretionary programs to transit agencies and other subrecipients, making her knowledgeable in all areas of federal-to-state relations; FTA regulations and polices and the challenges state DOTs face in managing federal programs. Her experience also includes being directly responsible for delivering state and federal transit funding to Michigan transit agencies, making her knowledgeable in local-to-state relations and the challenges transit agencies face in managing state and federal funds. She has worked in MDOT for 22 years, 16 of those in transit. communications, outreach, policy, federal/state regulations, technical assistance, procurement, budget, meeting planning and federal/state/local coordination. Andy is strongly committed to continuous learning and improvement - for herself as a transportation professional, for MDOT as a highly-respected state, for transit as an essential service and to the transit industry as service providers. She consistently develops and takes on special assignments within that will assist MDOT and its transit agency subrecipients be more effective and efficient. She would like to bring her commitment to learning and improvement and her strong service orientation to MTAP so that she can be of assistance to her peers in other State DOTs and so she can learn from them to help MDOT become even better. Andy has interest, experience and skills in all of the following areas - FTA regulations, including procurement - FTA Oversight processes - Transit Training - Transit Performance Management - Transit Planning and Research - Transit Asset Management

Name: Don Chartock (Current MTAP Steering Committee member) Date: 5/17/2017 Position/Title: Project Delivery Manager State Department of Transportation: Washington Division: Public Transportation Division Since joining WSDOT in 2000, I have helped Washington State and its communities develop public transportation solutions. In my current position I oversee project delivery for our federal grants, special needs, vanpool, regional mobility, rideshare, rural services, transportation demand management, and intercity bus programs. I administer the Agency Council on Coordinated Transportation and I actively participate with both state associations (Community Transportation Association of the NW and Washington State Transit Association). On the national level, I m currently serving on the MTAP steering committee. I serve as the vice chair the APTA state affairs committee, and I act as a liaison between the two groups. I also serve as the contact with the National RTAP program. communications, outreach, policy, federal/state regulations, technical assistance, procurement, budget, meeting planning and federal/state/local coordination. While active with MTAP, it has become obvious to me that these are my people. It is a group of my peers that focus on the same issues that I do. During my tenure at WSDOT, I ve had a chance to work on or oversee communications, outreach, policy, regulations, technical assistance, procurement, conference planning and coordinated transportation. I ve been invited to speak all over the country on project management, coordinated transportation and our innovative intercity bus program. I lead our agency s analysis and implementation of all FTA grant programs. I ve valued the opportunities to share (give and receive) with the other members of MTAP and with this nomination I seek to continue this relationship.

Name: Jamie A. Cochran, FAICP Date: May 24, 2017 Position/Title: Transit Program Manager State DOT: Georgia Division: Intermodal I have worked in the transportation and community planning arena in Florida and Georgia for over 35 years and much of that time has involved the planning, development, and/or management of public transit systems. With my career nearly evenly split between the public and private sectors, I believe I can help identify workable solutions across governmental levels and sectors. I joined the Georgia DOT on July 1, 2016 as the Transit Program Manager and have been very happy with the opportunity to return to work to plan and grow transit systems across Georgia. Shortly after I joined GDOT, I became aware of the MTAP Committee and assisted in the planning and logistics for the MTAP Winter meeting in Atlanta in December 2016. It was at that time where I learned how remarkably valuable MTAP was to State DOT Transit Programs. While I had worked in the Florida DOT transit programs early in my career, I do not remember having such a great resource for state DOT transit program professionals. With the benefit of having the MTAP conference in Atlanta last year, we had a tremendous opportunity to have several of our transit professionals, along with our division leader, attend the sessions. They were tremendously helpful to us, especially the ones related to transit asset management (TAM) and FTA operations. My staff followed up with several of the other state transit representatives which helped us a great deal in getting our TAM program underway. Without our involvement in MTAP last year, we would not have been nearly as successful in making progress this year in TAM. Since December 2017, I have participated in several of the MTAP Steering Committee conference calls and also responded to MTAP Alerts asking for information on how GDOT handles certain transit activities. I also suggested a session for the CTAA State Program Managers session on June 14, 2017 and will be presenting via webinar on that topic. communications, outreach, policy, federal/state regulations, technical assistance, procurement, budget, meeting planning and federal/state/local coordination.

As I mentioned previously, I am very happy to return to public service at GDOT in the area of public transit. I believe my diverse background would be useful to the group, most especially my interest in program management and growing transit systems of all sizes. I received my Master s degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1989 and since that time have been very interested in finding more efficient and effective ways for the public and private sectors to collaborate in the public interest. I have a strong interest in policy and technical assistance and believe my background as an adjunct instructor in City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech could help the group work on finding effective ways to communicate to decision-makers and the public about the value of transit to states and communities. I would welcome the opportunity to contribute to the MTAP organization as a member of the MTAP Steering Committee.

Name: Carrie Cooper Date: 5/24/2017 Position/Title: Deputy Director of Transit State Department of Transportation: Illinois Division: Office of Intermodal Project Implementation I have recently joined IDOT as the Deputy Director of Transit where I work with a team of transit professionals who are administering transit grant funds and technical assistance to local transit providers. Prior to this position, I worked at the consulting firm of AECOM in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I managed the Milwaukee Planning Services group and worked on intermodal and Bus Rapid Transit projects in Wisconsin and Michigan. Prior to working at AECOM, I served the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for over 19 years as a Project Manager and Planner for High-Speed Rail projects, and as an Environmental Planner for the Southeast Wisconsin Freeways Reconstruction team. communications, outreach, policy, federal/state regulations, technical assistance, procurement, budget, meeting planning and federal/state/local coordination. To expand on my new role as the Deputy Director of Transit at IDOT, I would like to serve on the MTAP Steering Committee so that I can assist with providing policy, budget and regulation updates to the transit community and professionals. I think my experience and perspective of working with three State DOTs on transit and intermodal projects would be an asset to the Committee. I also view participation on the Committee as a great benefit to my organization and staff considering I will be able to keep our Transit group updated on the latest and emerging developments. I am particularly interested in serving the Committee in the areas of policy, communications, federal/state regulations, and budget. However, I have experience in meeting planning, newsletter writing and email communications to large organizations and would be happy to serve where most needed.

Name: Tom Gottfried Date: May 19, 2017 Position/Title: Program Director State Department of Transportation: Minnesota Division: Office of Transit I have been with the Minnesota DOT since 1990 (27 years) and in my career have moved from Greater Mn Project Manager (Section 5311 program and state funding) to Program Director for Section 5307, 5310, 5311, ICB, 5339 and state public transit programs. This includes program planning to program development such as the ARRA program, JARC and New Freedom to recent development of the statewide deployment of Regional Transportation Coordinating Councils, and establishment of Mobility Management projects through Section 5310 program both in the Large Urban and Rural regions of the state. communications, outreach, policy, federal/state regulations, technical assistance, procurement, budget, meeting planning and federal/state/local coordination. I feel I bring professional strengths in the areas of outreach, policy, technical assistance, budget, and federal/state/local coordination, with special skills in federal/state/local coordination and budgeting. I have many years of developing transit systems from nothing to robust transit systems with local governance and full funding projects with state, federal and local resources.

Name: Kimberly McGourty Date: 5-23-2017 Position/Title: Grants & Contracts Officer State Department of Transportation: Idaho Division: Public Transportation Office As a Grants & Contracts office for the Idaho Transportation Department I oversee the FTA funding that comes to the state of Idaho for the 5311 and 5310 rural and small urban programs. My job responsibilities include the implementation of our competitive subrecipient application cycle, the budget forecasting and awarding of the funding, contract development and oversight of federal and state program compliance. Through these efforts I have and continue to work alongside, and in conjunction with, local jurisdictions, municipalities and organizations to promote and enhance sustainable rural and urbanized public transportation. I also oversee two working groups for the department; the Interagency Working Group and the Public Transportation Advisory Council, both outlined in Idaho Code 40-514. In addition to these functions, I help guide our office s Economic Development Program, which is aimed at increasing the connectivity between the public and private sectors, and helping bridge the gap between transportation and the many economic impacts it has throughout the state. Since being hired at ITD, I have had experience spearheading and incorporating innovative initiatives focused on bring greater efficiencies to our processes, such as our one-time grant application. This has allowed our office to pool remaining unspent or unobligated funding and award them in meaningful and timely manner for capital related projects, which has put FTA dollars directly back into the hands of the providers. Examples like this, in addition to many other concerted efforts to enhance communication and collaboration, have led to reestablish trust, consistency, and cooperation between the department and our grantees, stakeholders, and state and federal partners. Public Transportation has many moving pieces, making partnerships the lifeblood of a successful system. communications, outreach, policy, federal/state regulations, technical assistance, procurement, budget, meeting planning and federal/state/local coordination.

In the absence of the Public Transportation Manager, I have stepped into the role of being the MTAP contact for our state. As a participant of MTAP, I have appreciated the networking and information sharing platform that this organization has established. Not only have I been on the receiving end of invaluable information shared from other states, but I have also had the opportunity to share best practices from Idaho. If selected to be an MTAP Steering Committee Representative I would be very interested in continuing to assist with and build upon the national network. More specifically, to help enhance and facilitate the technical assistance that is available to direct recipients of federal funding, as well as the technical assistance that can be offered to subrecipients. Each state has unique geographical, political, budgetary, and organizational characteristics, which often create transportation barriers. Specifically, the issue of sufficient local match is a continual struggle for our urban and rural providers, as we do not receive any state funding for public transportation. I am very interested in seeking creative ways to assist our providers in maintaining adequate funding in order to keep operations going. Through increased technical assistance efforts provided by MTAP, innovative strategies and best practices can help mitigate many of the same issues that each state faces. Idaho in particular has a huge interest in reducing the burden of procurements for our subrecipients. As a very rural state, it is up to the providers to conduct their own procurements and ensure the proper FTA and state requirements are being followed. This is extremely cumbersome and difficult, particularly for those entities receiving funding on a very infrequent basis, with limited knowledge on FTA and federal procurement processes. Our office is in the preliminary stages of researching ways to alleviate this burden and offer a more efficient method of procuring on a local level. This topic is one that many states are dealing with, not to mention a hot button issue closely monitored by the FTA regional offices. I would love to see and be a part of the MTAP Steering Committee exploring this issue and bring about potential stop gaps and solutions.

Name: Andrew Riddle, AICP (Nominated by Jennifer DeBruhl) Date: May 31, 2017 Position/Title: Transit Project Manager State Department of Transportation: Virginia Department of Rail & Public Transportation Division: Transit Office 1. Andrew Riddle s experience includes over 12 years as a professional planner, with a focus on land use and mobility. His background of work includes site impact analyses and mitigation plans, corridor planning, multimodal quality / level of service analysis, performance metrics and targets, TOD planning and design code, premium transit network plans, equity analyses, plan integration for the transportation disadvantaged, NTD and American Bus Benchmarking Group reporting, TDP development, transit strategic planning, and market assessments. Andrew is currently the Project Manager for the FTA Sections 5307 and 5311 programs and is the state s Program Manager for the Human Service Transportation program, which includes the FTA Section 5310 program. Education: Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, University of Florida Master of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Colorado 2. communications, outreach, policy, federal/state regulations, technical assistance, procurement, budget, meeting planning and federal/state/local coordination. As a MTAP Steering Committee representative, Andrew will be able to actively participate in the development and implementation of the MTAP Work Plan and share with the committee and transit community the various initiatives that Virginia is developing and implementing, such as TransAM (a new Transit Asset Management system to help the state meet its TAM Plan targets), subrecipient compliance review program, performance-based funding, and other innovative approaches to transit programs and oversight. Additionally, this will be an excellent opportunity for Andrew to network with other members, exchange resources and best practices, professional development, and learn how to better navigate the complex and obscure regulations and guidance at the federal level.

Andrew s interests include procurement, TAM Plan, RTAP, Human Service Mobility (integration), Safety Management System, mobility best practices, research, and innovation.

Name: Mike Spadafore Date: May 19, 2017 Position/Title: Manager, Public Transportation Program State Department of Transportation: Kansas (KDOT) Division: Comprehensive Transportation Planning Unit Hailing from Chicago, I am a classically trained urban planner with practical exposure to a variety of non-profit, commercial, municipal, and civic organizations. In addition to the time I spent working in Chicago during and after grad school (Metropolitan Planning Council) I also have 5 years of experience in Kansas working at the city, region, MPO, and state levels. I have managed Kansas Public Transit and Paratransit programs for 1.5 years. In that short time, I ve reengaged our service providers across the state to develop an open and friendly relationship between KDOT and the 148 agencies that provide service across the state, worked with my team to complete a very successful SMR, completely redesigned the application process for funding, guided an overhaul of our Manager s Handbook for Transit Agencies, hosted Transit Day at the Capitol, and am currently working on overhauling our Program Guidance manual and developing our TAM Group Plan. I have also been a panelist for two of the past 5310-5311 webcast conference calls. communications, outreach, policy, federal/state regulations, technical assistance, procurement, budget, meeting planning and federal/state/local coordination. As is true for all of us, I ve worn many hats in my transportation career. I would like to play a more active role in MTAP because I can see the collective effectiveness the group has when we share our knowledge, work together towards commonly shared goals, and promote public transportation to those who may not know the extent to which we can work together to keep people thriving in their communities as long as possible. I have experience in public and municipal outreach efforts, non-profit administration, large scale meeting and fundraising planning, and facility in collaborating with federal, state, and local partners to reach our shared goals and desired outcomes.