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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Who's Doing What in the Industry

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, WA—Lake Stevens City Council member Kim Daughtry and Sultan City Council member Joe Neigel have joined the Community Transit Board of Directors for two-year terms.


DENVER—The Regional Transportation District Board of Directors elected Doug Tisdale its chair for 2018, succeeding Larry Hoy. Tisdale is a former mayor of Cherry Hills Village and president of the law firm Tisdale & Associates LLC.
The other officers are Natalie Menten, first vice chair; Barbara Deadwyler, second vice chair; Claudia Folska, secretary; and Judy Lubow, treasurer.


ITHACA, NY—Michael Smith has been named operations manager of Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT), a position vacated by Scot ­Vanderpool when he became general manager in August 2017. Previously the position was filled by Nancy Oltz, who retired after nearly four decades of service at TCAT and its predecessor agency, Ithaca Transit.

Smith became a bus operator in 2011 and was promoted to transit supervisor in 2014.


NEW YORK CITY—WSP USA announced the following appointments:

Fred Tallarico was named national director for alternative delivery, based in New York City. He joined the firm in January 2017 as director of alternative delivery for the northeast and central regions. Tallarico has nearly three decades of experience with alternative delivery, program, project and operational management, working most recently as east region design-build principal at a major engineering firm.

David Warner was named Northwest Pacific district manager, Seattle office area manager and vice president, based in Seattle. He joined WSP after serving as Southern California infrastructure leader with a large international engineering organization and has 15 years of transportation experience.

In the Boston office, Dennis Baker was named Northern New England area manager for transportation and infrastructure and Caroline Downing was named New England operations manager for transportation. Baker has more than 30 years of transportation experience. Downing comes to WSP with 30 years of program and project management experience, most recently as a vice president with an international engineering company.


WASHINGTON, DC—Operation Lifesaver Inc. named three new state program leaders: Steve Kreins in Oregon, Brock Kerchner in Pennsylvania and Jessica Devorsky in Texas.

Kreins, a Union Pacific locomotive engineer with 13 years of experience and an instructor in the Rail Workers Hazardous Materials Training Program, has worked with Operation Lifesaver for five years. He succeeds Claudia Howells, who retired after leading the state program since 2005.

Kerchner, a senior account director for iHeart Radio and an employee of the Mechanicsburg Area School District, succeeds Thomas Algatt, who remains on the organization’s board.

Devorsky is a community manager with skills in nonprofit organization management, most recently working as a development manager for the American Cancer Society in Waco. She succeeds Dal Tingle, who retired Feb. 1 after 17 years as assistant state coordinator working with his wife Sally Tingle, the former state coordinator.


WASHINGTON, DC—Kimberly A. Howell has joined the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) as assistant inspector general for investigations. She succeeds Isabel Cumming, who is becoming inspector general for the city of Baltimore.

Howell comes to WMATA from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where she was director of the Office of Investigations. She began her federal law enforcement career as a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service in 1993 and, in 2011, was named deputy assistant inspector general for investigations with the Office of Personnel Management Office of the Inspector General.


PHILADELPHIA—Urban Engineers announced the promotion of Andrew Chakmakjian to vice president and director of corporate development. He has been with the firm for more than six years, previously serving as proposal manager, and has more than 10 years of work experience.

 
HUDSON, OH—Todd Hawks has joined AMF-Bruns of America as territory account manager. Hawks joins the company with extensive experience in commercial automotive and mobility markets.


PAINESVILLE, OH—The Laketran Board of Trustees unanimously ­re-elected Brian Falkowski of Concord to a fourth one-year term as its president and Paul E. Miller of Mentor to a third one-year term as vice president. Falkowski joined the board in 2011 and Miller has served on the board since 2012.


LEWISVILLE, TX—The Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) has named Lindsey Baker director of strategic partnerships. She joins DCTA after serving as intergovernmental relations and public information officer for the city of Denton.


PHOENIX—Valley Metro announced the hiring of Brad Cummings as chief procurement officer and Phil Ozlin as manager, information technology. Cummings previously was director of procurement for the Utah State Board of Education. Ozlin joins the agency after serving as director of information technology for The Zippertubing Company.


MIDDLEBURY, IN—Jen Rodriguez has joined ARBOC Specialty Vehicles, a subsidiary of New Flyer Industries Inc., as regional sales manager. Earlier she worked in sales and accounting at Glaval and in sales at Forest River’s Class C division.


DAYTON, OH—The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (RTA) announced the appointments of Roland Caldwell as director of transportation and Arthur (Skip) Dunkle as director of security and safety.

Caldwell has more than 30 years of experience and spent the last 10 years of his career at the Central Ohio Transit Authority in Columbus, beginning as a bus operator and ultimately serving as interim director of transportation.

Dunkle comes to RTA after six years as public transit manager for Ohio DOT. His career of more than 20 years also includes a tenure as senior director of operations for the Fairfax County (VA) DOT. He serves on the APTA Risk Management Committee.


CLEVELAND—The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) announced the retirement of two longtime employees with a combined total of more than 78 years of experience: Loretta Kirk and Frank Polivka.

Kirk worked 38 years for GCRTA, beginning as director of accounting and serving the past 18 years as chief financial officer and deputy general manager of finance and administration. For APTA, she is a member of the Financial Management, Information Technology and Procurement and Materials Management committees. Kirk also is a past national chair of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials.

Polivka was a 15-year GCRTA employee, spending 11 years as director of procurement, following his retirement from Laketran, Painesville, OH, which he joined at its creation in 1979 and ran as general manager for 24 years. He is a former president of the Ohio Public Transit Association and a past member of various APTA committees.


KANSAS CITY, MO—The Board of Commissioners of the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) re-elected Daniel Serda, representing Wyandotte County, KS, its chairman for 2018.

Other officials elected were David Bower, representing Jackson County, MO, vice chairman; Michael Short, representing Platte County, MO, treasurer; and Melissa Bynum, representing Wyandotte County, secretary.

Also, Jim Allen, a member of the Johnson County (KS) Board of Commissioners since 2009, has joined the KCATA board. Allen, also a former mayor of Shawnee and member of the Shawnee City Council, is retired after a 37-year career with State Farm Insurance.


MONROVIA, IN—Pete Duffy has joined Vanner Inc. as senior electrification engineer. He joins the firm after 36 years with Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, during which he developed the technical and commercial requirements for the agency’s buses.

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