The Emerging Leaders Academy is a year-long academy to develop true leaders in the transit field. From 2020 to 2021, upcoming transit leaders from across the country gained increased understanding of their leadership skills, learned industry trends and became knowledgeable about what it takes to be a leader.

Throughout the year, the participants worked with each other, their mentors and CTAA leaders to develop a project that would demonstrate leadership skills, and assess and address issues in the field that would contribute to their system. Their projects vary in topics, ranging from the accommodation of service animals on-board a transit vehicle to the implementation of a volunteer transportation program.

EXPO 2021 gave this class of ELA participants an opportunity to share their final projects and reports with their fellow participants, as well as EXPO attendees through a poster session. Click through the mentors and participants below to get to know the class of 2020-2021. The subject of the project is listed below each participant’s name.