Team

As one of the inaugural staff members at TransitCenter, Stephanie has been involved in its grantmaking, research, and operations since 2015. Over the past 8 years, she has worked closely with and supported dozens of grassroots and grasstops organizations across the country, built relationships with transportation and transit professionals, and led programs such as Women Changing Transportation, a program to foster community and power amongst women in the transportation field. She has served as Acting Executive Director since March. Prior to TransitCenter, Stephanie worked at the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) on bus rapid transit projects in the U.S., Kenya, and Uganda. Stephanie has 15 years of professional experience in the transportation and international development sectors. She received a Master of Social Science, Honors from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Colorado College.

Chris’s work focuses on encouraging transit agencies to adopt best practices and needed reforms. Chris has advocated for better transit as an agency staff member and as an external advocate. He has provided technical support to agencies in the US and abroad.

Chris holds a B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University and a Master of Urban Planning from Hunter College.

Kapish is TransitCenter's Manager of Strategic Communications. In this role, he co-facilitates TransitCenter's Communications Cabinet and spearheads TC's influencer strategy. From 2020 to 2023, he hosted and produced TransitCenter's podcast, High Frequency.

Kapish holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a M.A. from New York University.

Eric brings over a decade of experience in organizing, training, and coalition building to TransitCenter. In his current role, he works to provide advocates across the country with the resources and tools they need to fight for better transit in their community, through grant-making, joint strategic planning, and leadership development.

Eric is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Fred Neal Jr., AICP is a Senior Planner with Villavaso and Associates and a member of the Board of the Commissioners of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA), where he serves as chair of the board Operations and Administration Committee.  Additionally, he is the board liaison to the RTA Riders Advisory Committee. 

Fred is a founding member of RIDE New Orleans, a non-profit organization and civic coalition that advocates for world class and equitable public transportation for the New Orleans region.  As a RIDE board member Fred plays a critical role in RIDE’s key activities — building the rider voice, driving the conversation around transit and winning tangible changes and transit improvements. 

Fred lives in the historic Central City neighborhood of New Orleans and is engaged in many community activities.  He happily uses the bus, streetcar and bike share for many of his daily trips.

Lisa Bender was first elected to the Minneapolis City Council in 2013 and re-elected in 2017, when she was unanimously supported by her colleagues to serve as President of the City Council. She completed her tenure at the beginning of 2022.

Prior to taking office, Lisa earned a Master's Degree in City Planning from UC Berkeley  and had over a decade of experience in shaping transportation and land use choices to make cities more equitable and sustainable. In her first term, Lisa’s leadership helped pass the midwest’s first $15 local minimum wage, invest in community-led approaches to violence prevention and community safety, and pass a $400 million investment in Complete Streets that are safe for all users. In her second term term, Lisa prioritized a Comprehensive Plan focused on race equity and environmental justice, the city’s Complete Streets and Vision Zero commitments, and more protections for renters facing housing instability. Lisa is mom to two young children and is a champion for getting more change-makers, women, and people of color into elected office.

Ratna Amin is founder and president of Infragarden, guiding leadership teams within infrastructure and public system organizations. She practices visual planning/strategy and awareness-based systems change. She’s also a speaker and media host. She recently served as an advisor to executives with the City of Oakland, Caltrain, Deutsche Bahn Engineering and Consulting, and was Transportation Policy Director for the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), where she led the development of significant policy initiatives including Transit+Design, Four Scenarios for the Future of the Bay Area and the Caltrain Corridor Vision Plan. She has a history of navigating complex societal challenges like transit governance and investment and education policy with diverse stakeholders across government, business and civic sectors. She was named Board Chair of TransitCenter in 2022 and also serves on the Oakland Fund for Public Innovation Board.

Ratna has Master's Degrees in City and Regional Planning and Transportation Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Ratna was named the Bay Area Women’s Transportation Seminar Woman of the Year in 2018 and Mass Transit Magazine “40 under 40” in 2018. She’s a proud Coro Fellow in Public Affairs and Teach for America alum.

Tamika L. Butler is a national expert and speaker on issues related to the built environment, equity, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion, organizational behavior, and change management. As the Principal + Founder of Tamika L. Butler Consulting she focuses on shining a light on inequality, inequity, and social justice. Most recently, she was the Director of Planning, California and the Director of Equity and Inclusion at Toole Design. Previously, Tamika served as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, a non-profit organization that addresses social and racial equity, and wellness, by building parks and gardens in park-poor communities across Greater Los Angeles. Tamika has a diverse background in law, community organizing and nonprofit leadership. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Tamika received her J.D. from Stanford Law School, and received her B.A. in Psychology and B.S. in Sociology at Creighton University in her hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife, son, and daughter. 

Aminah Zaghab works at the intersection of climate and transportation philanthropy to accelerate the transition to a clean and equitable transportation future. Her background is in transportation and climate policy, coalition building, and strategic guidance. Aminah served as the Campaign Director at the Clean Vehicles Campaign, a coalition to streamline strategic development and activity around vehicle decarbonization. Aminah previously worked at an environmental nonprofit towards transportation decarbonization, as well as federal environmental defense. She got her start in environmental litigation while pursuing her J.D. from University of Maryland, and received her B.A. in Political Science at Yale University. 

Monica G. Tibbits-Nutt, AICP, LEED AP BD+C, works in transportation planning, urban design, and transit equity. She is the Executive Director of 128 Business Council; is the former Vice-Chair of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board; served on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Board of Directors; and is the Vice-President of the non-profit Youth Engagement Planning (YEP!), which brings planning and community advocacy into K-12 environments. Monica’s recent publications include “Technology for All: How Equity, Access, and Affordability Must Feature in Next-Generation Vehicle Policy” (2019), “A Road To Somewhere” (2017), and “What Intersectional Equality Really Looks Like” (2017).

Sharmila Mukherjee, AICP, serves as the Executive Vice President, Chief Strategic Planning and Development Officer at Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro) in Austin, Texas. She is a transit executive and industry leader with over two decades of progressive urban transportation planning and project management experience in the private and public sectors. At CapMetro, she manages service planning, sort-and-long-range planning, ridership analysis, regional transportation coordination, and transit-oriented development. She offers one of the guiding voices in Project Connect, Austin's high-capacity transit system expansion program. Before joining CapMetro, Sharmila held leadership positions at an international engineering and infrastructure consulting firm.

Sharmila brings her industry understanding and current transit agency management perspective to the TransitCenter Board of Trustees. Sharmila holds a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a specialization in Transportation Planning from the University of Illinois Chicago and a Graduate Certificate in Traffic Engineering Methods from Northwestern University. Sharmila is the 2017 graduate of Leadership APTA and the 2016 Eno Transit Leadership (Mid-Manager) Program.