Kevin Dow
Program Manager-Technical Services
Member Services Department

What are the top job elements you focus on the most (your primary responsibilities)?
One primary responsibility is working with the public transit community to develop standards and recommended practices. Within the Standards Development Program, I support work groups that develop physical and cyber security standards through a consensus process based on the American National Standards Institute model. I’ve also worked with rail transit, technology procurement, and software standards groups.

It’s exciting to work with the best and brightest minds in public transit to document best practices that can be applied throughout the industry to improve safety and security; reduce procurement, operating, and maintenance costs; share risk; reduce liability; and reduce the need for regulation.

When I’m not working with standards development, you’ll likely find me planning for conferences. I manage content for Intelligent Transportation Systems Transit Best Practices workshops, Multimodal Operations Planning workshops, and significant portions of the Rail Conference. Of course, the credit for pulling the expertise into these conference panels most often goes to the great committees that I work with: the Automated Transit, Multimodal Operations Planning, and Capital Projects subcommittees. They are the experts in the public transit community, and they never fail to provide great speakers with cutting-edge content.

I’m also responsible for maintaining relationships with several partner organizations. We often share interests with these organizations, and we work together to mutually benefit our stakeholders. Our partners include FTA, the ITS Joint Program Office at the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, the Transportation Security Administration, ITS America, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the Transportation Research Board.

Do you have direct contact with APTA members? If so, please talk about recent times you’ve helped out a member.
Occasionally we’ll get requests for information on publications that have been out of print for awhile. Recently I talked with a few members about a particular security feature that had been listed as a requirement in a procurement Request for Proposals, but no one knew where to find the feature’s specifications. After a brief conversation with APTA’s unofficial chief historian, John Neff, we found the document in our reference library. I was able to scan the relevant chapter and fulfill the request by e-mail. This led to our scanning the whole document so we’d have an electronic copy on file for the next time the information is needed.

What initiatives, projects, or programs have you worked on at APTA that you have taken particular pride in completing?
One of the most notable deliverables I’ve had a part in was the Security and Emergency Preparedness Plan template, produced by the Security Risk Management Standards Work Group. This Recommended Practice was the first document completed by the work group, and probably the one we’ve received the most feedback on.

For public transit agencies that are required to have such a plan in place but don’t have the staffing to do the necessary research on how to build one, this document provides a complete template, customizable to an agency’s needs.

The group has recently completed and published its first revision of the document. It is available free, along with all the other APTA Standards, online.

How did you “land” at APTA? How long have you worked here?
I’ve worked at APTA nearly eight years. Like many of my colleagues in transportation, I simply fell into it.

Have you held other jobs in the public transportation industry?
APTA was my first affiliation with public transportation. The closest tie I had to APTA before I came to work here was in experience working with other nonprofits.

What professional affiliations do you have?
I’m a Project Management Professional certified through the Project Management Institute.

Could you tell us something about yourself that might surprise us?
In my early career I was a high school science and math teacher. Loved it!

Make sure you see Kevin Dow's video, now that you've read this!