Executive bio

 

For more than 20 years I have had the honor of serving as executive director of the RTA, a metropolitan business coalition that drives consensus and action to advance transportation policy and funding solutions for the growing Research Triangle region.

I create the structure and strategy to leverage the strength of the regional business community – including a cadre of executives from 100+ leading companies in various RTA volunteer roles – to accelerate success on key mobility priorities.

My primary role is to bring the business community together in concert with elected officials and transportation partners at the local, regional, state, and federal level to get our region moving faster.

RTA represents many of the region’s largest employers, including: IBM, Google, MetLife, Red Hat, SAS, Lenovo, United Therapeutics, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, Duke Energy, Fidelity Investments, First Citizens Bank, Duke University, UNC Chapel Hill, NC State University, the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, and more.

RTA - the Regional Transportation Alliance, a regional program of the Raleigh Chamber – also serves 25+ member chambers of commerce in 13 counties in central North Carolina.


As RTA executive director since 2002, I have:

  • Spearheaded the initiative to construct the $1 billion Triangle Expressway turnpike (western Wake freeway), North Carolina’s largest-ever highway project upon its opening in 2012

  • Led the private sector advocacy effort to save and then accelerate the $2 billion, 29-mile extension of the turnpike, with final environmental approval achieved in June 2018 with segment opening dates in summer 2024 (southern Wake freeway) and 2028 (eastern Wake freeway)

  • Spearheaded the push for an accelerated, scalable, regional BRT (bus rapid transit, or "buses resembling trains") strategy for our market

  • Led the media and communications strategy for the successful 2016 Wake County transit referendum campaign.

  • Created the “dynamic left turn intersection” concept to relieve off-peak delay, which was implemented in Cary, NC in February 2020 by NCDOT

  • Conceptualized the Air Service Advancement Project (ASAP), a $250,000 private sector marketing effort to support air service recruitment at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

  • Advanced a simplified and accelerated $49 million widening of I-40 between Cary and Raleigh to relieve the region’s most severe traffic bottleneck. 

  • Successfully promoted a new I-87 corridor from Raleigh to Norfolk, Va. Approval required garnering local and regional support in two states, as well as inclusion in an Act of Congress.

  • Held more than a dozen intercity leadership visits of business, elected, and government officials to areas including California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, DC. 

Overall, I've led our organization to successfully advocate for the advancement of more than 250 miles of freeway worth more than $3 billion, along with three approved county transit referenda worth $2 billion, and a new transatlantic flight. These and other initiatives have enhanced economic development and quality of life across the metropolitan Triangle region for more than 20 years.

* * * * * 

I previously served as director of policy and traffic operations at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) at North Carolina State University. At ITRE I was principal investigator for more than $1 million in policy and research projects and educational initiatives.

I have been a registered professional engineer (PE) in North Carolina since 1998 and a registered lobbyist in North Carolina since 2002.