 |
COUNTDOWN TO 2015 ANNUAL MEETING |
|
|
| CLASSIFIEDS |
| » The Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority seeks a chief executive officer. [More] |
| » The College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago, is looking for an executive director for its Urban Transportation Center. [More] |
| » The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority requests proposals for bus lease financing. [More] |
| View more Classified Ads » |
| TO PLACE AN AD: E-mail the requested date(s) of publication to: ptads@apta.com. Mailing address is: Passenger Transport, 1666 K Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006.
Ad copy is not accepted by phone. DEADLINE: 3 p.m. EST, Friday, one week prior to publication date. INFORMATION: Phone (202) 496-4877. |
APTA's 2015 Awards Honor Exemplary Leaders, Organizations
BY ERIN CARTWRIGHT, Communications and Marketing Specialist In celebration of the “best of the best” in public transportation, the newly named 2015 APTA Award winners are outstanding role models of leadership, dedication and commitment whose accomplishments have greatly advanced the industry.
The winners will be recognized for their achievements at an Oct. 6 luncheon during the APTA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Summaries of winners follow.
Two public transportation agencies will receive the Outstanding Public Transportation System Achievement Award: Connect Transit, Normal, IL, in the category of agencies with fewer than four million annual passenger trips, and Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO), Houston, in the category of 20 million or more annual passenger trips.
At Connect Transit, public transit safety extends to the entire community and is a top priority of the agency. Operators go through an initial six-week training period with the majority of that time focused on defensive driving, customer interaction, system safety and emergency response. With participation in the Illinois Terrorism Task Force’s Infrastructure Subcommittee, Connect Transit has a strong presence in disaster planning at the state level.
The system has also embraced technology as a way to increase efficiency for operations and maintenance and enhance the passenger experience. A new CAD/AVL system allows greater supervisory control over on-street operations and convenient real-time bus tracking for customers. The result is increased on-time performance, fewer instances of overcrowding and more overall boardings per hour. Paratransit operations have also significantly increased efficiency with better scheduling that reduces the number of vehicles required to satisfy demand. Houston METRO, the Houston region’s largest public transit provider, serves a 1,303-square-mile area with buses, light rail, paratransit services, vanpools and nearly 100 miles of HOV/HOT lanes.
METRO has achieved great success in recent years. The agency has expanded its light rail system from 7.5 miles to nearly 23 miles and recently redesigned and launched its local bus system. System-wide ridership has also increased each year for the past three years, with annual total trips topping 110 million across all modes.
METRO has implemented numerous initiatives to ensure that its workforce is prepared for the future. This includes creating an organizational development division charged with providing training and development programs; as a result, METRO now has a comprehensive learning curriculum. Classes focus on communications, interpersonal behaviors, management and supervisory techniques, computer applications and federally mandated/compliance.
With more than three decades in the public and private sector, Jeff Morales will receive APTA’s Distinguished Service Award. Morales’s career started in the early 1980s on Capitol Hill with Sen. Frank Lautenberg (R-NJ) (now deceased), where he was a principal drafter of the landmark Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. Morales then became executive vice president of the Chicago Transit Authority, the nation’s second largest public transit system. He subsequently became the director of Caltrans, where he managed a $10 billion program and more than 23,000 employees working to build, maintain and operate the largest state transportation system in the U.S.
Morales moved to the private sector when he was named a senior vice president at Parsons Brinckerhoff, where he worked with transportation agencies to develop and implement major capital programs. Currently, Morales is the chief executive officer of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the state agency that oversees planning, designing and building the nation’s first high-speed rail system.
John Spychalski, chairman of the Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) Board of Directors, State College, PA, for the past 13 years, will receive the Outstanding Public Transportation Board Member Award. Spychalski has been a member of the CATA board for more than three decades, beginning in 1980 when public confidence in the agency was low. Subsequently he helped rebuild and strengthen the agency. In addition, Spychalski has represented CATA on the Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordinating Committee for the past 20 years. Under his leadership, and in collaboration with his fellow board members and the CATA staff, CATA has grown in size, reputation and sophistication. Additional proof of this success was when CATA won APTA’s Outstanding Public Transit System Award in 2001.
The Outstanding Public Transportation Manager Award goes to Keith Parker, general manager and chief executive officer, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). Parker has spent 20 years of his 22-year career at the executive level. In December 2012, Parker took the top job at MARTA and shortly after he reorganized the management team, resulting in cost savings exceeding $1 million per year. He and the MARTA board have made transit-oriented development (TOD) the cornerstone of the agency’s business model. MARTA’s TOD initiatives are designed to increase ridership, improve neighborhoods and generate revenue. Parker currently serves on APTA’s Executive Committee, chairs the Rail Transit Committee and is a member of the Leadership APTA Committee.
Angela Iannuzziello, vice president and Canada national transit market sector lead for AECOM, will receive the Outstanding Public Transportation Business Member Award. Iannuzziello has more than 35 years of extensive and diverse experience in public transit and transportation planning. She provides strategic direction on public transit pursuits across the country, engages in business development and coordinates transit team engagement. Iannuzziello is a member of the APTA Executive Committee, immediate past chair of the Business Member Board of Governors, a past co-chair of the Governance Review Task Force and has held numerous other volunteer leadership positions with APTA.
APTA will induct two individuals into its Hall of Fame who have more than 90 years of combined experience in the public transit industry. They are Elonzo “Lonnie” Hill, deceased, and Jerome “Jerry” Premo, principal, Premo Partnerships, Orange, CA. Hill’s career at the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) began as a bus operator in 1961. During his 35-year-plus career at CTA, Hill held numerous positions with the agency; in 1991 he was promoted to executive vice president/service delivery.
From 1987-1989, Hill chaired APTA’s International Bus Roadeo Committee and in this position helped develop the Rail Rodeo, which has expanded to rail cities throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Further, Hill mentored hundreds of public transit professionals locally and nationally through his professional affiliations with numerous transit systems, APTA, COMTO, DOT, businesses and individuals. From 2003-2009, Hill served on the Metra Board of Directors.
In a career that spans nearly 50 years in the public and private sectors, Premo joined the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, the predecessor organization to FTA, as one of its first dozen employees. He then became the first executive director of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and the first executive director of New Jersey Transit Corporation, resulting in APTA’s recognition of that agency as the outstanding large transit system of 1983.
Premo moved on to the private sector when he joined Frederic R. Harris, becoming part of what is now AECOM, where he was recognized by APTA as Outstanding Public Transportation Business Member in 2008.
Premo’s association with APTA spans decades, including service as vice chair of its Executive Committee, Legislative Committee chair and membership on the Leadership APTA Committee and Business Member Board of Governors, to name a few.
|
