APTA: Leadership APTA Program

Leadership APTA – the American Public Transportation Association’s premier professional development program designed to develop and support the next generation of transit leaders and future leaders of APTA.

Join the ranks of over 250 program graduates who today lead and serve in executive and senior leadership roles at transit agencies, in the private sector, and in related transit organizations around the world.
Be part of a select group of 25 ATPA members chosen from a competitive pool of program applicants.
Develop and deepen your understanding of the transit industry, strengthen and refine your core competencies as transit leaders, build your network of professional colleagues and friends.
Engage in a year-long leadership program that connects class members with world-class leaders and respected leadership and industry experts.
Learn and grow as leaders through customized sessions, focused workshops, team assignments, online venues, site visits, leadership projects and much more. Have the opportunity to be featured speakers at APTA conference sessions, meetings, workshops and events.
Identify leadership challenges facing the transit industry today, be part of teams that identify and recommend solutions that take our industry into the future.
Give back to the industry and to APTA. Help promote APTA’s vision and mission of public transportation
Apply online today. Application deadline, Friday, June 27, 2008. See below for details.

Background information:

Leadership APTA is a highly respected transit industry professional development program whose goals are to identify, develop and support the next generation of transit industry leaders and future leaders of APTA. Each year, the Leadership APTA Committee selects twenty-five individuals from among APTA members who apply to participate in a year-long program that includes a combination of intensive workshops, conferences, class leadership projects and assignments, teleconference and online meetings, and web-based events that address the challenges, demands, opportunities, and hot topics of our industry. Through these activities, Leadership APTA participants develop and refine the skills and competencies needed to succeed as leaders within APTA and in the public transportation industry. Since the first Leadership APTA class, over 250 transit industry professionals and APTA members graduated from this program, many of whom have now assumed senior and executive leadership roles within APTA and in the public and private sectors of the transit industry.

Through Leadership APTA, selected individuals participate in a combination of specialized Leadership APTA workshops, class leadership projects, teleconferences, online events, and APTA conferences that address the challenges, demands, and key topics of our industry.

Class members have first-hand opportunities to hear from APTA's executive and senior leadership, key transportation industry leaders, legislative officials, labor leadership, and communications, diversity, media and leadership experts. Participants have many opportunities for small-group dialogues with general managers, policy makers, business CEOs, operations and technical managers, as well as representatives from Congress, the Federal Transit Administration, regulatory agencies, labor leadership, and state and local entity representatives.

Through Leadership APTA, participants begin to develop and refine the skills they need to succeed as leaders in public transportation and APTA. The Leadership APTA Committee selects twenty-five individuals from APTA members to participate in the program which begins in the fall at APTA 2008 Annual Meeting & Expo in San Diego, California and concludes with the class's graduation at the 2009 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

This year, all application materials must be submitted online. Please click on the below link to review the application brochure and to apply to the program.

For additional information or questions, please contact APTA's Joe Niegoski at jniegoski@apta.com; phone - 202-496-4870; fax - 202-496-4323.

Application Brochure, Online Application Web site, Application Deadline -- Class of 2008-2009

Program brochure & TO APPLY ONLINE: Please review the brochure for program details and submit your application today. Leadership APTA Class of 2008-2009 Application Brochure
Application deadline: All required application materials for each applicant must be posted to the Leadership APTA online applicant site by 5 pm Eastern Time, Friday, June 27, 2008, for applicants to be eligible to be considered to participate in Leadership APTA 2008-2009. The web site will not be open after this deadline date and time.

Staff Advisor: Joseph Niegoski, telephone (202) 496-4870, fax (202) 496-4323, e-mail jniegoski@apta.com

Leadership APTA Class of 2007 Leadership Projects

APTA congratulates the graduates of the Leadership APTA Class of 2007. This year, class members identified and discussed transit leadership issues important to them, resulting in the development and delivery of five leadership projects as part of their curricula during their recent program year. Class members presented highlights of their projects during the 2007 APTA Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Project team members spent about six months on their respective projects which included extensive interviews with both transit and non-transit leaders worldwide. We highly encourage you to download and read the results of their interviews, findings and related research. We will soon be able to provide the presentations with audio commentary by the presenters. All presentations and papers are tremendous contributions to the transit industry.

Leadership APTA Class of 2007 project topics include:

Leaders as Change Agents
Leadership: The Next Generation
Leading New Technology
Leadership when Facing Insurmountable Odds
Public-Private Partnerships: Leading Transit in a New Age

To view the PowerPoint presentations with audio (available soon), the following software is required:

Flash Player 6,0,79 or later

One of the following browsers:

Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP
Macintosh OS 9.x, Mac OS 10.x
Linux

Leadership Topic	Leadership APTA Class of 2007 Project Teams
Topic: Leaders as Change Agents	Conan Cheung (San Diego Metropolitan Transit System), Susan Jurman (MTA Capital Construction), April Maguigad (VRE), Kimberly Slaughter (HDR/S.R. Beard & Associates, LLC).
Synopsis: “Leaders as Change Agents” examines the role of leadership during a major change initiative by focusing on three main approaches: identifying key characteristics of change agents within the transportation industry, determining current industry challenges which motivate change, and establishing a blueprint for negotiating the change process through a change initiative, focusing on key approaches, competencies, and resources. A change initiative involves a process that incorporates some specific components that, while similar across situations, must be tailored to the environment, organization and culture of the agency. We challenge our audience to think about their own leadership style and whether they would define themselves as a change agent. Are all leaders change agents? To be a successful leader, do you need to know how to negotiate the change process?
Leaders as Change Agents – Paper Leaders as Change Agents – PowerPoint Leaders as Change Agents - PowerPoint with audio
Topic: *Leadership:* *The Next Generation*	Aida Berduo Douglas (Capital Metropolitan Transportation Agency), Marisa Espinosa (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency), Lydia Grose (SEPTA), Jay Peterson (Pierce Transit), David Reyno (Foothill Transit), Jason Schiedel (DMJM Harris, an AECOM Company).
Synopsis: The “baby boomer” generation is retiring in record numbers. The transportation industry’s workforce is changing faster than the industry is keeping up. Is your organization ready for what young talent will demand? Learn strategies for attracting and retaining the next generation workforce. How do their expectations, skills and experiences differ from veteran employees? How can your organization ensure a proactive approach to attracting and cultivating the next generation of transit talent? Hear about new approaches that can be done today to keep up with a changing workforce.
Leadership - The Next Generation - Paper Leadership - The Next Generation - PowerPoint Leadership - The Next Generation - PowerPoint with audio
Topic: Leading New Technology	Bruce Cardon (Utah Transit Authority), Rachelle Jezbera (American Public Transportation Association), Martha Martinez (SamTrans), Gloria Salazar (San Joaquin Regional Transit District), Randy Winders (Intercity Transit).
Synopsis: Leading transit toward new technology requires transit leaders to take extraordinary efforts while maintaining a vision for their industries’ future. Balancing the needs of today, and taking the risks to invest in advanced technologies, is extremely challenging on an operational and fiscal basis. This project focused its attention toward helping transit industry leaders in addressing these issues. The presentation and accompanying recommendations will highlight creative means of policy development within strategic plans, external/internal influences, implementation issues, and overcoming obstacles.
Leading New Technology - paper Leading New Technology - PowerPoint Leading New Technology - PowerPoint with audio
Topic: *Leadership when Facing Insurmountable Odds*	Tara Balakrishnan (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority), Melissa Boyles (Valley Metro Rail, Inc.), Kent Cashel (Park City Transit Park City Municipal Corporation), LaVerne David (Long Beach Transit), Sheila Dezarn (Parsons Brinkerhoff).
Synopsis: Extraordinary leadership is born out of extraordinary times and examples of this simple fact exist throughout human history. This project capitalize on this fact by researching and interviewing transit industry leaders that successfully faced extraordinary circumstances; this project highlights lessons learned and the secrets of extraordinary leadership. Research included one-on-one interviews with over 16 transit industry CEO’s as well as research of both academic and popular literature. The research findings will prove invaluable to all leaders but particularly those facing difficult and challenging times.
Leading when Facing “Insurmountable Odds” - paper Leading when Facing “Insurmountable Odds” - PowerPoint Leading when Facing “Insurmountable Odds” - PowerPoint with audio
Topic: Public-Private Partnerships: Leading Transit in a New Age	Kathy Drayton (Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority), Michael Furnary (Eastern Contra Costa Transit Authority), Pamela Herhold (San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District). Timothy Schmidt (Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc.), Mitun Seguin (Veolia Transportation), Kimberly Ulibarri (Utah Transit Authority).
Synopsis: Funding for transit projects is scarce, while completing transit projects on schedule can be uncertain. Through the use of public-private partnerships, agencies are able to tap into private sector resources and expertise, share project risks, and increase schedule certainty. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been used to develop transit infrastructure projects (asset development and transit oriented developments) and marketing projects (branding and revenue). Through research and interviews with transit and private leaders from across the country and Europe, we identified several successful projects completed through public-private partnerships. Our research and interviews also allowed us to identify leadership competencies and leadership opportunities with PPPs, the benefits and risks of PPPs, and obstacles and keys to successful PPPs.
Public-Private Partnerships: Leading Transit in a New Age - Paper Public-Private Partnerships: Leading Transit in a New Age - PowerPoint Public-Private Partnerships: Leading Transit in a New Age - PowerPoint with audio

Leadership APTA Class of 2006 Leadership Projects

APTA congratulates the graduates of the Leadership APTA Class of 2006. Class members excelled in the development and delivery of five leadership projects as part of their curricula during their recent program year. Class members presented highlights of their projects during the 2006 APTA Annual Meeting in San Jose, California. Project team members spent about six months on their respective projects which included extensive interviews with transit leaders from across the country. We highly encourage you to download and read the results of their interviews, findings and related research. Additionally, with the help of this year's class, we were able to provide the presentations with audio comments of the presenters. All presentations and papers are tremendous contributions to the transit industry.

Leadership APTA Class of 2006 project topics include:

To view the PowerPoint presentations with audio, the following software is required:

Flash Player 6,0,79 or later

One of the following browsers:

Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP
Macintosh OS 9.x, Mac OS 10.x
Linux

Research Topic	Leadership APTA Class of 2006 Project Teams
Topic: Leading Transit Systems into the future	Lisa DeGrace (MARTA), Ed Byers (South Florida), Dottie Lancaster (Austin), Brett Tyler (WMATA), Peter Velasquez (MTA- NYC Transit)
Synopsis: The goal of the project is to identify the steps and resources necessary to successfully lead transit into the future. The team concentrated on leadership, technology, and marketing. Strong leadership will be required to make transit competitive with the automobile commuter. To satisfy the rider, transit will be required to implement many technological initiatives. Also, customers will need to be targeted and made aware of the benefits of riding transit by innovative and attention grabbing marketing campaigns.
Leading Transit Systems into the future - Paper Leading Transit Systems into the future - PowerPoint Leading Transit Systems into the future - PowerPoint with audio
Topic: Leading Through Disasters and Recovery	Terri Giurintano (Lebanon County), Aida Asuncion (LACMTA), Stephen Hansen (Calgary), Kellee Hopper (Golden Gate), Andy Vobora (Lane Transit)
Synopsis: We broke our crisis/disaster study into three phases: pre-event occurrence, the event as it unfolds, and post-event recovery. We studied the effects of leadership styles and their core competencies on the three event phases. We sought to identify which core competencies were most critical during the event phases, and if each phase required a different competency.
Leading Through Disasters and Recovery - Paper Leading Through Disasters and Recovery - PowerPoint Leading Through Disasters and Recovery - PowerPoint with audio
Topic: *Leading in Both Good Times and Tough Times*	Ken Ronsse (Santa Clara VTA), Vida Covington (Charlotte), Lee Davis (BART), Tammy Haenftling (Dallas), Richard Hannasch (North County Transit)
Synopsis: The purpose of this project is to explore the idea of leading in both favorable and difficult situations. Based on dialogue with a variety of leaders in the transit industry, issues such as the definition of good and tough times, reaction to good and bad times and recommended leadership strategies will be discussed. Specifically, the key leadership themes of vision, communication and credibility will be explored in detail.
Leading in Both Good Times and Tough Times - Paper Leading in Both Good Times and Tough Times - PowerPoint Leading in Both Good Times and Tough Times - PowerPoint with audio
Topic: Leading when Facing a Local Transit Ballot Initiative	Brittany Doten (Veolia Transportation), Mark McLaren (HDR Engineering), Armando Ramirez (DMJM Harris), Anne Louise Rice (SCRRA), Dana Wiemiller (OCTA)
Synopsis: Our team focused on the qualities that an effective leader should portray as outlined in our APTA leadership materials and the APTA mission statement. We tracked these competencies as they change in their importance throughout the before, during and after stages of a ballot initiative process. We studied 15 transit agencies who had recently been through a ballot initiative and either won or lost by a narrow margin. These agencies ranged from large to small, east to west coast, first time to 5th re-up, single mode to multi-modal uses of the funding.
Leading when Facing a Local Transit Ballot Initiative - Paper Leading when Facing a Local Transit Ballot Initiative - PowerPoint Leading when Facing a Local Transit Ballot Initiative - PowerPoint with audio
Topic: Leadership from a Global Perspective	John Levin (Minneapolis), KellyAnne Gallagher (APTA), Jennifer Garrity-Moody (MetroLink), Maria Rosario (PADCO/AECOM, formerly, PB Placemaking), Diane Shaw (SamTrans), Beverly Williford (Chicago)
Synopsis: We explored the exchange of information on innovations and best practices in transit around the world. Through research and interviews with transit leaders from across the industry, we discovered several examples of innovations and best practices that are being shared on a global scale. We also identified factors in the United States and abroad that affect the exchange of ideas. Finally, we examined the role of leaders in championing exchange and innovation and suggested new opportunities for transit agencies and groups such as APTA to enhance the exchange of innovations and best practices in transit around the world.
Leadership from a Global Perspective - paper Leadership from a Global Perspective - PowerPoint Leadership from a Global Perspective - PowerPoint with audio

Leadership APTA Class of 2005 Industry Research
Following are presentation materials presented by the Leadership APTA Class of 2005 delivered at the 2005 APTA Annual Meeting and Expo in Dallas, TX.

Research Topic	Leadership APTA Class of 2005 Research Teams	Planned Delivery of Research Project Presentations Highlights at 2005 APTA Annual Meeting and Expo and other events
Successful Business Practices and Business Models	Nick Promponas, (First Transit, Inc ); Nancy Gilbert, (Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc.); Olaf Kinard, (Charlotte Area Transit System)	BMBG Meeting Sunday, September 25
Successful Business Practices and Business Models Presentation
Safety and Emergency Preparedness	Cathy Hendrix, (Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority ); Pam Rivera, (Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority); Alphonso Davis, (Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus)	Small Operations Committee Sunday, September 25 APTA Semi-Annual Safety/Security Meeting, Winter, 2005
Safety and Security Effective Practices Presentation Safety and Security Effective Practices Handbook
Applications of New Technology:	Jannet Thoms, (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority ); Eric Marx, (Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission/OmniRide); Carol Smith, (Fairfax County Department of Transportation); Linda Somilleda, (Foothill Transit)	Research and Technology Committee Sunday, September 25 APTA ITS Public Transit Forum meeting Aug 2005
Applications of New Technology Presentation Applications of New Technology Research Document
Transit's Role in the Community: Mobility Management (Implementing New Paradigms):	David Simpson, (Orange County Transportation Authority ); Kenneth Snapp, (Port Authority of NY & NJ); Christina Messa, (Colorado Railcar); Jim Byrne, (San Diego Metropolitan Transit System)	Conference Session - Increasing Mobility Options for All Americans, Tues. Sept. 27
Transit's Role in the Community: Mobility Management Presentation Transit's Role in the Community: Mobility Management Research Document
Risk Assessment for Capital Projects	Lillie Claitt, (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority); Bernadette Bridges, (Maryland Transit Administration); Karen Counes, (DMJM Harris an AECOM Company)	Capital Projects Subcommittee Sunday, September 25
Risk Assessment for Capital Projects Presentation
Industry Sustainability: A Future Vision for Transit	Tamar Allen, (San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District ); Yawa Duse-Anthony, (KKO and Associates, L.L.C.); Mary Clayton, (Parsons Brinckerhoff ); Erik Zandhuis, (ATC - San Jose)	Policy and Planning Committee, Sunday, September 25
Industry Sustainability: A Future Vision for Transit Presentation
Workforce Development: Succession Planning	Rhodetta Seward, (Intercity Transit); Stephen Hill, (Norwalk Transit District (Wheels)	Human Resources Committee, Sunday, September 25 Conference Session, -- Workforce Development: Models and Solutions to Grow our Future, Tuesday, September 27
Workforce Development: Succession Planning Presentation Workforce Development: Succession Planning Handbook
2007-2010 EPA Compliance	Michael Melaniphy, (Motor Coach Industries); Lurae Stuart (American Public Transportation Association), Michael Gorman, (Chicago Transit Authority)	Wednesday - Friday, September 28-30, post conference workshops and events
EPA Compliance Presentation
Contact Information - Leadership APTA Class of 2005	Click here for contact information

Join us in congratulating the members of the Leadership APTA Class of 2005 for their growth and significant contributions to the Leadership APTA program, to APTA, and to the transit industry.

Staff Advisor: Joseph Niegoski, telephone (202) 496-4870, fax (202) 496-4323, e-mail jniegoski@apta.com

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