Winter 2024 Speaker Series

Transportation Equity:  Moving the Needle

The speaker series features five accomplished transportation practitioners and thought leaders.  The speakers will discuss the transportation challenges facing communities of color and low-income communities and draw on their own efforts to highlight diverse strategies to create a more equitable transportation future.

Location: UCLA Campus,  2343 Public Policy Building

Time: 9:30–10:45 a.m.

Recordings

View a playlist of recordings from each speaker.

Speakers

Wednesday, January 24:  Creighton Randall, CEO and Principal Consultant, Mobility Development

Topic: Low-Income Electric Carshare Programs 

Bio: Creighton launched Mobility Development Group in 2018 and leads work to develop programs and funding for shared mobility so that these systems can work for everyone. Mobility Development supports launch, growth, and back-office operations of community-controlled shared mobility networks like Miocar, Floshare, and Drive CDTA that focus on providing service to marginalized communities. 

Since 2015, Creighton has also led technical support to LADOT for the BlueLA program in Los Angeles, which is growing to provide 300 vehicles serving South, Central, and East Los Angeles. This work has evolved over these nine years but is currently centered on Mobility Development’s partnership with six community-based organizations that comprise a Steering Committee for BlueLA, supporting outreach, site selection and the long-term development of the program. Creighton has worked in equitable mobility implementation and policy for over 15 years, with early experience in  Buffalo Carshare informing plans for what would become California Air Resources Board’s Clean Mobility Options portfolio.

Wednesday, February 7:  KeAndra D. Cylear Dodds, Executive Officer, Equity and Race, Office of the Chief Executive Officer, LA Metro

Topic:   Public Transit Equity

Bio: KeAndra Cylear Dodds has dedicated her career to expanding access to affordable housing, transit, healthy environments, and economic opportunities, and developing policies that foster racial and social equity. She is currently the Executive Officer, Equity and Race at LA Metro. Before joining Metro, she worked as Manager of Preservation at the LA County Development Authority, where she oversaw the County’s affordable housing preservation and homeownership programs and developed several tenant protection policies. She also worked as a Housing and Transportation Deputy for LA County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis. Outside of government, she has worked as Senior Program Director of Policy and Special Initiatives at Enterprise Community Partners, a national non-profit. She began her career as a state affordable housing attorney at Western Center on Law and Poverty. KeAndra received her law degree from the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law and her bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania.

Wednesday, February 21:  Roberto Requejo, Program Director, Elevated Chicago 

Topic:  Equitable Transit-Oriented Development 

Bio: Roberto Requejo is an urban planner specialized in community development, public transportation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Since 2017, Prior to joining Elevated, Roberto served as an officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, developing its first DEI strategic plan and the Financial Services Pipeline Initiative, a collaborative of financial institutions tasked with increasing diversity and inclusion in the banking sector. Roberto was also a program officer at The Chicago Community Trust, leading and monitoring a $10M program to address the region’s foreclosures crisis, and has worked at the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) and at Citi Community Capital.

In 2021, Roberto was included in Chicago Magazine’s “New Power 30” a list of Chicagoans challenging the status quo and sparking systemic change. In 2022, he was selected as a Fulcrum Fellow by the Center for Community Investment. 

Born and raised in Galicia, Spain, Roberto emigrated to Chicago in 2001. He holds a graduate degree in Political Studies by the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy by the University of Illinois at Chicago. He lives in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood with his partner Jomar.

Monday, March 4:  Asiyahola Sankara, Equal Justice Works Fellow, the ACLU of Southern California 

Topic:  Race, Income, and Transportation Enforcement Practices

Bio: Asiyahola Sankara is an Equal Justice Works fellow at the ACLU of Southern California. His work focuses on transportation-related police practices that harm Black, Brown, and low-income people. Before the ACLU, Asiyahola served as a campaign manager at the Alliance for Community Transit, where he led work to reimagine public safety on transit by steering funds away from policing and towards infrastructure improvements. He graduated from Pomona College and Howard University School of Law.

Monday, March 11:  Veronica Davis, author and Director of Transportation & Drainage Operations, City of Houston

Topic:  Inclusive Transportation

Bio: Veronica O. Davis is Director of Transportation & Drainage Operations for Houston, Texas, leading the team responsible for maintaining and improving the infrastructure that spans Houston’s 671 square miles. Veronica has nearly 20 years of experience in engineering and transportation planning. She is an Entrepreneur and Civil Engineer, co-founding Nspiregreen, LLC., which manages Community, Multimodal Transportation, and Environmental planning and consulting. While at Nspiregreen, she led the Vision Zero Action Plans for Washington, DC and the City of Alexandria. She co-founded Black Women Bike, an organization and movement which builds a community and interest in biking among black women through education, advocacy and recreation. Veronica was recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2012 for her professional accomplishments and advocacy.

Veronica graduated with Bachelor of Science from University of Maryland College Park and a Master of Engineering and a Master of Regional and Urban Planning, Land Use and Environmental Planning from Cornell University. She completed graduate work towards a PhD in Civil Engineering from University of Maryland College Park. Veronica serves on the committees for Transportation Research Board, the board for America Walks, as well as technical advisory boards at the University of Maryland and Cornell University.

Sponsored by:  UCLA Institute of Transportation and the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies