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Featured Presenters
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Prior to APTA, Bill served 19 years at the Port Authority of Allegheny County, the principal transit operator serving Pittsburgh, PA. As its executive director from 1983-1996, he oversaw the development and operation of bus, busway, light rail, paratransit and inclined plane service. In 1987 he received APTA’s Jesse Haugh Award for Transit Manager of the Year. He is the founder of Pittsburgh’s award-winning ACCESS paratransit service.
From 1973-77, Bill worked for the Pennsylvania DOT where he developed and managed Pennsylvania’s Free Transit Program for Senior Citizens and led the Penn DOT’s rural public and community transit efforts. He began his career as the county transportation planner in Lancaster, PA.
Mr. Millar is a strong supporter of transportation research and is the recipient of the Founding Father Award for his leadership in establishing the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP). He has been a member of the executive committee of the Transportation Research Board for many years and served as its chair in 1992. He also serves on advisory committees of several university transportation research institutes.
A well-known expert in the field of public transportation and transportation policy, he is a frequent speaker and lecturer at conferences and seminars. He has published numerous articles and has testified frequently before the U.S. Congress and in other public forums.
Mr. Millar is the recipient of many awards, including the Transportation Research Board’s W. N. Carey, Jr. Distinguished Service Award (1999); Pattison Partnership Award from the Intermodal Passenger Institute (2001); and Railway Age’s Graham Claytor Award (2006).
Bill has a BA from Northwestern University and an MA from the University of Iowa majoring in urban transportation planning and policy analysis. He lives in Falls Church, VA with his wife and two children and commutes to work on Washington’s Metrorail.
Soon after his appointment in July 2003, President Gonzalez set about to transform Sacramento State in to a premier metropolitan university and a destination campus. His bold initiative “Destination 2010” seeks to make Sacramento State a campus of choice for students in the Sacramento region and elsewhere.
Before coming to Sacramento, Dr. Gonzalez served from 1997 to 2003 as president of Cal State San Marcos where he successfully calmed a fractious campus, managed a period of rapid growth and directed successful fundraising campaigns. Prior to that he served 18 years at Fresno State, starting as a faculty member in the Psychology Department, which he later chaired. From 1991 to 1997, he was the university’s provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Gonzalez serves on the Board of Directors for Valley Vision, LEED (Linking Education and Economic Development) and Sutter Health. He serves on the Board of Trustees at Pomona College. He served on President Bush’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. His service on several boards and commissions include six years as a commissioner for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the accrediting agency for higher education institutions in the western United States. He also served as chair of the Governing Board of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. His commitment to the CSU system includes serving on a work group that reviewed and recommended corrective action on remedial education, and, more recently, as a member of a committee of presidents considering policy on enrollment management, the CSU’s Technology Steering Committee, and the Institute for Teaching and Learning.
Dr. Gonzalez holds a doctorate and master’s degree in psychology from UC Santa Cruz. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Pomona College, where he graduated with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He spent a year at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow of the Ford Foundation and the National Research Council conducting research on the psychology of time. He also attended Harvard Law School and served in the United States Air Force.
He is committed to making the Sacramento region a better place to live, work and raise families. Mike's objective is to expand transit to a level that people can fully depend on for their travel needs.
Mike is very active in the community and is currently a Board Member for the Del Paso Boulevard Business Improvement District; a 12-year member of the Board of Trustees of the Natomas Unified School District; and has volunteered his time as Chairperson of the Natomas Charter School Board. Mike has enjoyed coaching youth soccer teams for almost 20 years. He has been married for nearly 34 years and has two daughters and three grandchildren.
Steve earned his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1975 and his law degree (magna cum laude) from the University of San Diego in 1979. Steve was a Fulbright Scholar in France in 1975-76 and received a Diplôme de Langues et Lettres Françaises from the Université d'Aix-Marseilles. He served as Assistant General Counsel and Hearing Officer with the California Energy Commission and as a volunteer Judge Pro Tem in the Sacramento Small Claims Court. Steve is currently the Chief Assistant General Counsel for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, where he has worked since 1992. Steve and his wife Catherine Travers live near McKinley Park in East Sacramento. They have two children, Nicole, a UCLA graduate, and Adam, a Sacramento City College student.
Steve has been a regional leader in promoting smart sustainable growth, particularly the mixed use development in the Central City and the 65th Street/Sac State Transit Village, as well as expanding train service from the Bay Area to Sacramento and expanding the historic UP Depot Downtown into a state-of-the-art intermodal center (Sacramento Valley Station), improving Sacramento's flood protection, expanding the City's arts and cultural attractions, such as the new Crocker Art Museum expansion, building the new home for California Musical Theater and Sacramento Theatre Company, expanding the region's parks and open spaces, adopting campaign finance reform and energy efficiency and environmental standards, and promoting more efficient and responsive local government. Steve has also been responsible for starting the annual Pops in the Park summer concert series, installing street lights in our poorest neighborhoods, and renovating every neighborhood park in District 3 with new playgrounds and sports facilities.
Steve also serves as Vice Chair and past Chair of Regional Transit, Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency and Capitol Corridor (Rail) Joint Powers Authority, and as Chair of the Sacramento Regional Arts Financing Authority and member of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District Board. Steve has also served as Chair and/or member of the regional governing boards for Transportation, Solid Waste, Cable Television, Water, World Trade, Welfare-to-Work and Public Libraries, as well as past Chair of the Council Law and Legislation Committee.
Steve has received numerous civic awards, including the 2007 Urban Land Institute Transit Development Leadership Award, 2002 Bob Holderness Award for Highway 50 Corridor, 2001 Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's City Elected Official of the Year Ward, the 1997 Sierra Club Award for Civic Courage and the 1993 East Sacramento Improvement Association Orchid Award for Community Service.
Mark has been with RT for over 28 years and has worked in the Planning, Transportation and Facilities departments. He previously served as Deputy Chief Operating Officer for eight years. As former Director of Light Rail, he was instrumental in the start-up of the South Line, as well as the Sunrise and Folsom light rail extensions.
Mark holds a Bachelor of Science from the University Of California, Davis and a Master of Public Administration from California State University, Sacramento.
Mr. Ben Louie has been a Sacramento Police Officer for over 28 years. He is currently assigned to the Sacramento Regional Transit Police Service as Education and Training Coordinator. Be has 24 years of teaching experience in lethal and less lethal Use of Force, Hostage Negotiator, Problem Orienting Policing, Tactical Communication and Public Transportation and Security.
Ms. Maribeth Feke is the Director of Programming and Planning at the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. Her oversight responsibilities include Rapid Transit Station and Transit Center Design, Long and Short Range Planning, Transit Oriented Development, NEPA, and property management. She has been with GCRTA for 14 years, gradually moving up through the organization. Ms. Feke has been instrumental in developing GCRTA’s Transit Center/Park-n-Ride network and in engaging the community in the station and facility planning process. Her major accomplishments include: gaining the environmental determination on GCRTA’s BRT project, ECTP; planning and implementing the construction of 5 transit centers/park-n-ride lots throughout the service area, completing the $10M Childcare Development adjacent to the GCRTA Stokes Station in East Cleveland. Her current projects include Development of Transit Oriented Development Implementation Strategy, Station Planning at E. 55th Street, University-Cedar and Mayfield Rapid Transit Stations, Public Art and the implementation of Transit Waiting Environment program targeted to improve the bus stop environment throughout RTA’s service area.
Before working at RTA, Ms. Feke held positions in Planning, Community, and Economic Development with the City of Kent, a small planning consulting firm in Cleveland, and a regional council of governments in Marietta, Ohio.
Ms. Feke holds an MBA from Case Western Reserve University and a B.A. from Cleveland State University. She is active in several local development corporations including the Past President of the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation and is the Secretary of the Historic Warehouse District Board of Trustees.
After 33 years of public service in high level positions, Minnie Fells Johnson PhD now serves as a consultant. Other positions she has held includes a Cabinet Post for the State of Ohio; Deputy Director of the MPO in her region of Ohio; Director of Public Services in Broward County Florida; and, Director of Human Services in Montgomery County Ohio. She holds a BS in Social Sciences from Tuskegee University; Masters in Sociology from Ohio State University; and a PhD from Union University. She has received numerous local and national awards and commendation sin transportation and public policy. She now serves on the Advisory Transportation Research Board at the University of South Florida and Chairs the Board of Project for Public Spacing in New York City.
Dr. Don Dean is Chief of Public Transportation and Modal Research at Caltrans, Sacramento Headquarters and has over 30 years experience in mass transportation, rail and transit research. He serves on the Caltrans Bus Rapid Transit Task Team and has participated in Regional Transit’s BRT Task Force. He is a classroom instructor in transportation subjects at the University of California, Davis and California State University, Sacramento.
Dr. Dean earned his PhD in Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 1980. He received the Master of Engineering Degree in Transportation Engineering from Iowa State University (Ames) and a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a registered Engineer and Traffic Engineer in California.
Dr. Dean’s research specializes in public transit technology and intercity bus transportation. He currently serves on three panels for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program and the Transit Cooperative Research Program. He has given numerous presentations at the Transportation Research Board and his research papers have been published in the Transportation Research Record.
Between 1980 and 1986, Mr. Zhang was a Lecturer at Beijing Jiaotong University and was involved in the development of railway computer control systems. In 1987, Mr. Zhang joined Institute of Transportation Studies and participated in the early founding of the California PATH Program. Since 1987, Mr. Zhang has been leading and conducting research in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Among the research products, he developed magnetic guidance system that was later adopted for various applications worldwide.
Between 1994 and 1995, he was the first Technical Director of National Automated Highway Systems Consortium (NAHSC), a national program led by General Motors and U.S. Department of Transportation. Between 1996 and 1997, Mr. Zhang managed the preparation for a major demonstration for Demo '97, a Congress-mandated national technical feasibility demonstration of Automated Highway Systems (AHS). Since 1997, Mr. Zhang worked with Caltrans, US DOT and other agencies to develop a number of research and deployment programs in California, including advanced technologies for highway winter maintenance vehicles, Bus Rapid Transit, Transit Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI), rail grade crossing research, Integrated Corridor Management (ICM), and Vehicle Assist and Automation (VAA).
Mr. Zhang received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Beijing Jiaotong University. He is a member of TRB and IEEE. He served on the Technical Review Committee for TRB IDEA Program and TRCP project committee. He serves as a technical reviewer for a number of journal and technical publications and conferences. He has published over one hundred papers and reports in the areas of automated vehicle control, advanced transit and traffic technologies and ITS systems issues.
Mr. Bruce Chapman is a Transportation Engineer with the California Department of Transportation in the Division of Research and Innovation where he manages research projects focused on Intelligent Transportation Systems and transit. He has been with the Department for nine years and has extensive background in technology, project management and the systems engineering process. Mr. Chapman has a MBA from Florida Institute of Technology and a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois.
Prior to joining California DOT, Mr. Chapman was in the private sector where he managed technology programs and projects serving U.S. and foreign governments in the design and deployment of civil aviation, space and defense systems.
Mr. Cliff Henke is a senior analyst for BRT and streetcar projects at Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Transit Rail and Systems subsidiary, involved in developing and building PB’s presence in the emerging BRT and small rail starts markets. He is also involved in a variety of BRT projects throughout the U.S., including those in San Francisco, Sacramento, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Houston.
He has more than 25 years of experience in transit policy and technology analysis, BRT research, corporate communications, publications management, government relations, marketing and brand management and technical writing.
Prior to his arrival at PB in March, Cliff was senior director of Weststart-CALSTART, an advanced transportation technologies R&D consortium, serving as the program manager for the organization’s BRT activities, which included leading the FTA’s Action Plan for BRT Vehicle Development, a multi-year effort designed at removing policy and market barriers to U.S.-manufactured advanced-design BRT vehicles.
He also served on the FTA’s BRT Task Force, which advised the agency on policies to help accelerate the development of this emerging public transportation mode in the U.S., and has been involved in a variety of public transportation industry organizations for two decades and is a frequent industry speaker. He is actively involved in APTA, where he serves on a number of tasks forces and committees during the past decade, and is a member of the advisory board of the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute at the University of South Florida.
Mr. Paul Bignardi has been at SFMTA (nicknamed MUNI) for 2 years and was hired to work on BRT projects that are in the planning stages. Prior to MUNI, Mr. Bignardi was a transportation planner with the National Park Service (NPS) in San Francisco and at the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) in Oakland, California. At the NPS, he worked on technical and environmental planning for new service in the Marin County area of Golden Gate National Recreation Area and was the NPS project manager to establish shuttle service to Muir Woods National Monument. While at AC Transit, Mr. Bignardi was the service planner for Transbay bus service, led planning efforts for a universal student pass program at UC Berkeley, and led the effort to implement owl service routes in Oakland. He was also the AC Transit’s superhero “Captain Transbay.” Prior to entering a career in transportation, he worked in political campaign management and was a National Park Ranger at several parks across the United States including Statue of Liberty, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite. Mr. Bignardi has stood in the torch of the Statue of Liberty and hiked across the Grand Canyon. He earned a B.A. and M.P.A. from San Francisco State University and a J.D. from the “University of California, (Hastings). He did not pass the bar and has no desire to practice law. Mr. Bignardi is married with no children. His wife Terri is a professionally trained chef who works as a chef instructor in San Mateo. Paul says his cooking ability is limited, although he can do artistic icing on cakes and can bartend pretty well. They live in San Francisco and he takes transit to work (M Route streetcar) daily.
Dr. Marshall Miller is a Research Engineer for ITS-Davis. He studies electric and hybrid vehicle propulsion systems and how to integrate these systems in vehicles to optimize performance. Dr. Miller is the technical manager of the Hydrogen Bus Technology Validation Program that will operate hydrogen fueled buses in a real transit environment. He also manages the Hybrid Vehicle Propulsion Systems Laboratory where he studies storage battery, ultracapacitor, and fuel cell technology. He develops computer models to simulate the performance of electric and hybrid vehicles using a variety of propulsion systems, using data generated in the lab. Prior to joining the Institute full time, he held a joint appointment with ITS-Davis and the Union of Concerned Scientists where he studied technology and policy implications of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen fuel infrastructure.
Mr. Levin has been with AC Transit since 1998, and began developing alternative fuels policy for the District in 1999. He directs a department of over 40 people, responsible for a range of activities, including marketing, community relations, and customer services. He is directly responsible for the development of the District’s hydrogen fuel cell and hybrid bus programs and the District’s corporate identity and branding programs. The hydrogen fuel cell program is now valued at $48 million, and is one of the largest demonstration projects of its type in the world.
Mr. Levin holds a Masters of City Planning degree from the University of California at Berkeley, with a focus on land use, transportation, and energy. He has been a member of the National Hydrogen Association’s Board of Directors since 2001, and presently sits on the Board’s Policy Committee. He is also AC Transit’s representative to the California Fuel Cell Partnership, of which the District is an associate member.
Jack Gonsalves' diverse experience of 22 years ranges from public works to heavy civil construction management with increasing responsibilities both in the size of projects and in management roles. He has specialized expertise in the design and construction of public works improvements. Most recently, his experience has centered on the design of multimodal transit infrastructure and facilities, specifically on BRT facilities.
He was the project manager for the Eugene, Oregon BRT project, a FTA demonstration project, for Lane Transit District. There, he was involved in all aspects of the final design. In particular, he developed and incorporated the design of sustainable solutions such as a planted space between the wheel tracks. This 1-meter wide “green” strip absorbs storm water runoff and treats it with a subsurface sand filter drainage system, allowing for “no net increase” in impervious surfaces project-wide.
As a part of the early concept phase of the Eugene project, Jack traveled to Europe with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) staff to view BRT transportation systems firsthand and to learn how to evaluate and implement this emerging technology back into the US.
Jack is extensively involved in a variety of BRT planning and designs in Portland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Sacramento State University and Las Vegas. Jack frequently has presented and participated in numerous BRT workshops nationwide.
Based in Portland, Jack’s project experience has included traditional transit developments, from Light Rail to Multi-modal transit station design to special vehicle manufactures to coordinating with commercial rail carriers – and these roots in the fundamental elements of transit engineering help to anchor his technical skills in BRT technologies.
Currently, Jack serves on the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) Committee on Bus Transit Systems and BRT Subcommittee. This three year appointment provides members the forum to discuss Bus Transit Systems and more specifically is charged with BRT discussion current and future BRT research topics that will have an influence on BRT policy in the US.
Michael’s role as a transport strategist and project manager over the last 27 years has involved him in complex transit projects, and has placed him in the forefront of the development of SDG’s extensive Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) capability. He was the project manager for the Cambridgeshire Guided Bus, which will be the longest guided-bus scheme project in the world when opens in 2009. Currently he is the project director for developing the BRT system for Bristol, England.
In addition, Michael has lived overseas for two years in a project environment in the Middle East, Africa and South America. This experience enables him to have a high level understanding of complex transit projects.
As an international consultant, Michael will share his experiences about bus operations in various cities of the world. He will then share how the positive features of other bus operations can be applied to our local and regional operations.
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Mr. William Millar is the president of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). Since coming to APTA in 1996 Bill has sought to expand APTA’s reach and effectiveness, guiding it to legislative victories and dramatically increasing federal investment in public transportation.
Dr. Alexander Gonzalez is the 11th president of California State University, Sacramento, one of the largest universities in the 23-campus system. 
Mr. Mike Wiley is currently serving the District as General Manager/CEO. He has been a resident of the Sacramento community for over 34 years and has been employed with RT for 30 years. Mike has been the District's press spokesperson and an executive manager for the past 24 years. He has managed most of the District's departments and functional areas, and served as the Deputy General Manager for the past two years, assisting with all aspects of the District's management.
Vice Mayor Steve Cohn was first elected to the Sacramento City Council in 1994. He was re-elected in 1998, 2002, and 2006. He was elected by his peers as Vice Mayor in 2008.
Mr. Mark Lonergan is Chief Operating Officer at RT. He is responsible for performing Executive Management level tasks involving bus and light rail operations for the District. 
Dr. Minnie Fells Johnson will be the first to tell you that moving people from Point A to Point B is not her specialty. “I’m not a traditional transportation person,” she says. Perhaps that’s why as CEO and Executive Director of the Greater Dayton (Ohio) Regional Transit Authority (RTA), she championed the bold new idea that transportation should create places, help people connect with each other, and bring investment back to struggling communities. In the process, she transformed the RTA from an ordinary bus operator into a major catalyst of revitalization in the Dayton region. [excerpt from Making Places June 2005]
Mr. Wei-Bin Zhang is a Research Engineer at the California PATH Program, Institute of Transportation Studies of University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and the leader of Transit Research Program at PATH. 
Mr. Jaimie Levin is the Director of Alternative Fuels Policy and Marketing for the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), which carries 227,000 people each weekday (67 million people annually) on 105 transit lines in the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit primarily serves 13 cities in the East Bay, including Oakland and Berkeley, and operates commuter bus service across three transbay bridges to San Francisco and Peninsula cities.
Mr. Jack Gonsalves is Parsons Brinckerhoff’ National Practice Leader in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Systems. Jack is responsible for Corporate BRT marketing activities and also serves as the organization’s BRT technical resource. Jack has been instrumental in working on the ground floor of this emerging technology for PB in the Pacific Northwest and now nationwide.
Ms. Lisa Callaghan is an independent consultant with 15 years of experience in sustainable transportation research, analysis and advocacy. Her work focuses particularly on hybrid and fuel cell buses, and bus rapid transit. She has authored reports for the Federal Transit Administration, peer-reviewed publications and conference publications. Current projects include co-researcher on a case study analysis of US cities implementing BRT in stages for the Mineta Transportation Institute; co-chairing the APTA BRT Standards working group and acting as lead researcher on an FTA-funded analysis of worldwide fuel cell bus demonstrations, both as a representative of Breakthrough Technologies; and drafting and editing for the revised FTA Characteristics of BRT report. She was most recently an employee of Breakthrough Technologies Institute, where she co-authored the Orange Line evaluation that is the basis for today's presentation.
Mr. Michael May is a Civil Engineer with Steer Davies Gleave (SDG), an independent consultancy working worldwide across the transport sector. Steer Davies Gleave consultants advise governments, operators, financiers, regulators and developers on transportation issues.