Workshops
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Delivering Essential Information

The Community Transportation EXPO is the perfect place to acquire new knowledge, learn new techniques, and exchange ideas with your peers. As we navigate the “next normal” in community transportation, we are designing this year’s workshops to offer you the best possible learning experience. Whether your interests lie in procurement, technology, workforce development, or discovering the latest innovations deployed by your colleagues in community transit, the schedule is packed with informative and engaging sessions! Please note that the workshop schedule is subject to change.

NOTE: Please note that the workshops listed below represent our initial EXPO 2026 workshop launch. Additional workshops and technical sessions are currently being finalized and will be announced in the coming weeks. We encourage you to check back regularly for the latest updates to our schedule.

Monday, May 11
9 a.m. - Noon

Roadeo Driver Symposium

Speaker: Kelly Shawn
This new, included benefit for Roadeo participants showcases industry best practices.

10:15—11:15 a.m. (60 minutes)

CCAM TAC Series: Federal Fund braiding in Action

Speaker: Lisa Johnson and Olivia Hook
Room: 203
A panel presentation on successful fund braiding projects. Panelist will share how they are braiding federal funds on projects in their communities. USDA and FTA Funds allow Mobility Managers to assist individuals get to WIC appointments. In another program Veterans Admistation Funding is braided with FTA 5311 funds to enable South Dakota Veterans to get to VA appointments.

Transit Tech Series: Mapping Data Flows Within Small Transit Agencies

Speaker: Lauren Ellis, Jordan Howard, and Andrew Carpenter
Room: 204
Do you know how data flows around your agency? All of a small transit system's processes from fares to scheduling rides are made up of several steps that involve different software systems. Information flows through those software systems either in a streamlined automatic process or through manual data input. N-CATT designed a tool to help transit systems map out how information flows from one system to another and enables agencies in providing a complete trip. Come learn about this tool and work with CTAA's tech staff to map out your own flows and learn about the pain points you can tackle. Bring your laptop and be ready to try it yourself!

Improving Inclusion by Addressing Disability Data Gaps

Speaker: Heidi Ganum
Room: 205
CTAA is a partner on a national research project funded by the Transit Cooperative Research Program - TCRP B-54 Improving Inclusion by Addressing Gaps in Measuring Disability in Transportation Data Systems. In the first phase of the project, the research team surveyed over 150 people with disabilities and held focus groups with riders and transit professionals to understand how existing data practices around disability and mobility are working or need to be improved. As the team begins phase 2, which will result in a guidebook for transit professionals, we are looking for more transit professionals to help improve the guidebook. Project manager Heidi Ganum from Transpo Group will share what the team has learned so far and ask participants to weigh in our findings and offer further insights into challenges and opportunities you’re seeing at your own agency.

Refreshing Your Transit Asset Management Plan

Speaker: John Giorgis
Room: 213
FTA's Transit Asset Management Rule required State DOTs and urbanized area transit agencies to establish transit asset management (TAM) plans by 2018, and to update them every four years thereafter. The deadline for the second quadrennial update is October 1, 2026. What have we learned from the first eight years of TAM Plans? What should you be looking at in your TAM Plans as you prepare for this cycle's refresh? Is everything in your TAM Plan where it aught to be? Whether you are already working on your updated TAM Plan or whether you haven't thought about your TAM Plan since 2022, this workshop will get you ready to be compliant with the 2026 deadline and to get the most out of your TAM Plan refresh.

RAPIDO: A Rapid-Response Framework for Crisis Management and Decision-Making in Transit

Speaker: Christina Villarreal
Room: 214
RAPIDO: A Rapid-Response Framework for Crisis Management and Decision-Making in Transit is an interactive, scenario-based workshop designed specifically for transit professionals operating in high-pressure environments. The workshop introduces a practical decision-making framework-Receive, Accept, Pause, Investigate, Decide, Own-that helps leaders and frontline teams reduce emotional reactivity, align with SOPs, and make clear, consistent decisions during disruptions and emergencies. Participants are guided through real-world transit scenarios, including a facilitated crisis simulation involving service breakdowns, ADA considerations, weather impacts, limited resources, and public communication timelines.

The Evolving NEMT Landscape: Standards, Accountability, and System Integration

Speaker: Peter Hicks
Room: 215
This session provides a neutral, standards-based overview of key developments shaping the non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) industry. Topics will include the increasing focus on provider enrollment and credentialing, emerging expectations around data exchange and interoperability, and the role of standards in supporting consistency, accountability, and program integrity across diverse delivery models. he discussion will also explore how NEMT is being positioned within the broader healthcare ecosystem, including intersections with care coordination, discharge planning, and access to services. Attendees will gain a practical understanding of how standards development, education programs, and industry infrastructure are evolving to support reliable, scalable transportation systems without prescribing specific business models or operational approaches. We will leave time for discussion to ensure the session is responsive to attendee perspectives and current challenges.

Fleet Decisions That Follow You: Governance, Risk, and Long-Term Accountability

Sponsored by: Forest River
 Speaker: Ryan Lamb
Room: 216
Fleet procurement decisions carry implications that extend well beyond delivery day. This session examines how vehicle selection intersects with governance, organizational risk, and executive responsibility over the full-service life of a fleet. Drawing on long-term industry perspective, the discussion explores the broader factors that influence durability, support, and institutional exposure. Attendees will gain a clearer framework for evaluating decisions. Designed for agency leaders and procurement professionals, this workshop reframes fleet acquisition as a strategic leadership function.

11:30 a.m.—12:15 p.m. (45 minutes)

CCAM TAC Series: Community Action Partnership Transit Models Panel

Speaker: Marybeth Schneber-Rhemrev
Room: 203
A panel of Community Action Agencies will share how they provided transportation service in their community. Learn about rural transit, transportation to employment, non emergency medical transportation and volunteer driver programs being operated by Community Action agencies.

Transit Tech Series: Using Mobility-On-Demand to Fill the Last Mile

Speaker: Alvaro Villagram and Abby Mader
Room: 204
Many transit systems in smaller communities face a geometry problem: the low density of their communities mean that potential passengers are usually far from fixed routes. For those agencies that want to make it easier to reach these routes, microtransit services could fill those gaps. Now that the technology behind the service model has evolved, there are many options to choose from, and agencies need to plan out how to most effectively deploy a microtransit model. This workshop will help you start the planning steps to get this work started.

Using Precise Language to Boost Support & Funding

Speaker: Steve Yaffe
Room: 205
This will be an interactive participatory workshop focused on using precise language for the uninitiated while avoiding flash-words that upset some without conveying the intent. We will highlight several flash-words which convey different ideas to different audiences and offer precise language to fully describe the intent. For example, we should not assume people understand that "Diversity" in the planning, engagement, and decision-making processes entails learning who uses a service, who likely would be users, and their needs/expectations. We don't know what we don't know unless we include people who likely would know.

The Resilient Operator: Trauma-Informed Strategies for the Modern Transit Workforce

Speaker: Helen Wallace
Room: 213
Transit workers are the unsung first responders of our cities, often witnessing or experiencing traumatic events—from medical emergencies on board to verbal and physical aggression. Without the proper tools to process these high-stress interactions, the results are predictable: burnout, absenteeism, and high turnover. This workshop provides a foundational "Mental Health First Aid" kit specifically for the transit environment. We will explore the Basics of Trauma (how the brain responds to threats), the physiological signs of chronic stress, and immediate "de-escalation for the self" techniques. Attendees will learn how to build a culture of resiliency that protects the psychological safety of employees while maintaining operational excellence.

Mentoring and Coaching: Lessons Learned from a Lifetime in Transit

Speakers: Leslie Rogers, Mike Scanlon, Milo Victoria
Room: 214
Between the "Great Resignation" and the "Bathtub Effect" (high levels of entry level and near retirement staff with a dearth of mid-level talent) currently facing the transit sector, it has never been more important to both engage and train tomorrow's leaders. This workshop examines real world success and failures in mentoring and coaching within the transit industry.

Getting the most out of your CTAA Membership

Speaker: Loreal Lance, Meredith Bay-Tyack
Room: 215
Hear from CTAA Chief of Staff Loreal Lance and Director of Communications Meredith Bay-Tyack about what CTAA has to offer members year-round, from training and education to technical assistance and resources.

2:00—3:15 p.m. (75 minutes)

CCAM TAC Series: CCAM-TAC Trip Cost Allocation Tool

Speaker: Robbie Sales
Room: 203
Learn about the CCAM-TAC Trip cost allocation tool from a panel of providers that have experienced using the tool as we piloted it in 2025.

Transit Tech Series: Determining Your Technology Resilience and Planning to Improve It

Speaker: Kevin Chambers
Room: 204
So much effort goes into getting a new technology system installed and running that we don’t want to think about losing that system down the road. It is important to plan ahead and understand how you will adapt to technology failures and to understand the type of technology that makes sense for your agency. In this workshop, Kevin Chambers of Full Path Technology will use one of CTAA Transit Tech tools to help agencies evaluate their technology readiness and resilience to make sure they can handle whatever curve balls their tech has to throw at them.

Ensuring Fairness and Compliance: How to Make Quality Post-Accident Testing Decisions

Speaker: Russ Parrish
Room: 205
Are you tired of relying on "gut feelings" for drug and alcohol testing decisions? This session will move beyond instinct and equip you with the knowledge to ensure your testing practices are fair, compliant, and effective.

Engaging with Empathy: Building (and sometimes, Re-building) Bridges with your Community

Speaker: Jaime McKay and Roman Steichen
Room: 213
Every agency has a challenging operating environment, and some are made more challenging by the community, organizations, and perceptions that surround them. Learn from an agency that instituted a successful program with almost no up-front cost on best practices and strategies to generate stakeholder buy-in, more effectively engage with difficult constituencies, and build relationships between internal and external parties. There will be an interactive component as well as a short presentation.

NEMT for Sole Source Providers

Speaker: Shannon McCoy
Room: 214
Cottonwood, Inc. in Lawrence, Kan., is a social service agency that provides services with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Because of the specialized nature of the individuals that we serve, we provide NEMT Transportation to only those individuals in our service program to medical related appointments utilizing our agency staff and vehicles. We stay with our individuals and relay information back and forth between that individual's support team in our agency and their medical care team in all the different specialties that may be involved. We are a bit more specialized in the type of NEMT Transportation services we and many other agencies like us provide to our individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. We provide more than just the basics of NEMT like other public transportation providers. It would be good to offer some specialized speakers on that area. I think CTAA and NEMT would benefit from seeing what many of us "specialized" sole source providers as it pertains to NEMT.

Practical AI for Transit

Speaker: Stephen Kuban
Room: 216
AI is everywhere in the conversation, but where are transit agencies actually starting, and what do they need to do next to keep the momentum going? This interactive session maps out the full journey of what AI adoption actually looks like in transit: from identifying your first use case and getting early wins, to building the internal capability that turns experiments into lasting change. You'll hear directly from peers who are putting AI to work at their agencies today and walk away with a clearer picture of where your organization fits and what your next step could be.

3:30 p.m. — 4:45 p.m. (75 minutes)

State Association Executive Director Meeting

Speaker: Loreal Lance and Scott Bogren
Room: 202
State Association Executive Directors are invited to join CTAA Executive Director, Scott Bogren and CTAA Chief of Staff, Loreal Lance for a discussion on operational safety, workforce development, advocacy, and sustainable funding.

CCAM TAC Series: Rural Health Transformation Funding Strategy

Speaker: Bill Wagner
Room: 203
Unlock the full potential of your $50 Billion Rural Health Transformation (RHT) investment. This session delivers the strategic blueprint for transforming transportation from a logistical hurdle into a core clinical asset. We synthesize CTAA/CCAM-TAC expertise, ensuring your initiatives meet CMS goals through accountability and innovation. Discover actionable strategies for Federal Fund Braiding using proprietary methodologies from the upcoming CCAM-TAC Guidebook Workshop. Ensure operational excellence and defensibility across your mobility network via deep dives into CTAA PASS Training standards. Transition from fragmented care to coordinated access by integrating real-time NEMT platforms and sustainable Health Flex Routes supported by expert technical guidance.

Transit Tech Series: Innovation Implementation: Where to Start

Speaker: Alvaro Villagran and Abby Mader
Room: 204
There is high pressure for transit agencies to "innovate," but how does one go about that? What do the beginning steps of innovation look like? Luckily, the Shared Use Mobility Center (SUMC) has developed a guidebook on how to tackle the beginning steps. SUMC and CTAA Transit Tech staff will work with you on using this guidebook to kick off your own innovation programs.

Office of Transit Safety and Oversight Provides Update on Transit Safety

Speaker: Richard Price
Room: 205
FTA’s Office of Transit Safety and Oversight will provide an update on the nuances of federal oversight and regulatory compliance, this data driven presentation provides a roadmap for building a resilient transit environment that anticipates risks before they become incidents.

From Partnership to Impact: Building Community-Centered Transit Outreach Through Nonprofit-City Collaboration

Speaker: Sara Sisco
Room: 213
Hopelink Mobility Management, the designated mobility management agency for King County, Washington, partners with community organizations and local governments to help residents view transportation as a resource-not a barrier-to full community participation. These partnerships expand program reach, leverage local expertise, and improve access for communities that face barriers to using traditional transit services. This workshop will examine why this partnership has been successful and how similar models can be adapted in other communities. Using the Hopelink-SDOT partnership as a case study, presenters will explore strategies for building trust, addressing root causes of transit hesitancy, and designing outreach that meets communities where they are. Attendees will leave with practical insights and transferable approaches for strengthening nonprofit-public agency partnerships to improve transportation access.

Co-Designing Micro-Transit for Accessibility: A Toolbox to Help Build a Community Driven Mobility Program

Speaker: Trisha Peterson, Community Catalyst The PLUM Catalyst, Community Coordinator goMARTI
Room: 214
As new mobility technologies improve and deploy, it's important to empower communities to lead planning and decision-making for the new technology deployments in their communities. This requires moving beyond traditional public input to genuine shared leadership where community champions and advisory groups own the problem definition and solution prioritization. The output of the initial planning must be their plan, not an imposed solution. It also requires we promote engagement by involving diverse stakeholders, including involving community members with disabilities. This means actively eliminating barriers to participation. The solutions must leverage the unique strengths of each community. Success should be measured by developing viable plans that tackle local transportation challenges, align with goals, and catalyze economic development, even if the final recommendation is very different from the initial thoughts.

AI at the Front Door: Rethinking the Transit Call Center Before Implementation

Speaker: Rich Farr
Room: 216
Transit agencies across the country are facing growing call center demand, workforce constraints, and rising operating costs. This session provides a candid look at how one rural transit system is evaluating an “AI front door” strategy—not as a finished solution, but as a response to real operational challenges. Attendees will learn about the pressures facing the call center today, the true cost of scaling traditional staffing models, and the process used to assess AI as a potential alternative. The session will walk through the agency’s journey from problem identification to procurement and contract award, including key decision points, risks, and lessons learned along the way. The discussion will also explore what success could look like on the other side of implementation and how to approach change management when introducing AI into a customer-facing environment.

Tuesday, May 12
9 - 10:15 a.m.

CCAM TAC Series: Digital Accessibility Basics for transportation professionals

Speaker: Julie Brinkhoff
Room: 203
Join us for a practical training on strengthening digital accessibility in transportation programs. As agencies work to ensure their websites, apps, and digital documents are accessible, this session introduces key web accessibility standards, user‑friendly design principles, and actionable strategies to make digital content inclusive for all riders. With new federal requirements reinforcing the need for accessible digital platforms, this training offers timely guidance to help you stay compliant and better serve your community.

Transit Tech Series: A Framework for Effective Technology Decision-Making

Speaker: Kevin Chambers
Room: 204
Transportation-related technology is a rapidly changing marketplace. It’s hard to stay up to date on the available options, understand how well they actually work, and be confident that your organization has what it needs to implement them successfully. This workshop will help you change your viewpoint by offering a framework for successfully articulating your operational needs, assessing whether technology can be part of a solution to them, and evaluating options—especially if you don’t have an in-house IT department. Bring your laptop and be ready to try it yourself!

From Call Centers to Beyond the Curbside: Blended Approaches to Serving Older Adults and People with Disabilities

Speaker: Eric Esch, Envida and Grayson Lee, CTAA
Room: 205
Making transportation more accessible is an ongoing journey, one that requires a coordinated, people-centered approach. In this session, attendees will explore how transportation providers can combine practical strategies to more effectively serve older adults and people with disabilities. CTAA will highlight the value of inclusion and accessibility, showcasing programs and resources designed to advance accessible transportation. Building on this perspective, a human services transportation provider will then share its blended approach to accessibility, including a regional call center, coordination with public and human services transportation providers, door-through-door services, driver training, and funding strategies.

From Factions to Force: Advocacy and Stakeholder Engagement That Moves Transit Forward

Speaker: Amanda Barlow and Dioane Gates
Room: 214
Transit agencies operate in complex environments shaped by competing interests, limited resources, and heightened public scrutiny. Effective advocacy today requires more than messaging. It requires clarity of purpose, a deep understanding of stakeholder factions, and the ability to mobilize support across differences. This workshop explores how transit professionals can strengthen advocacy efforts by mapping stakeholder factions, clarifying shared purpose, and transferring inspiration into sustained support for their agency's mission. Participants will learn practical approaches to identify stakeholders, understand underlying interests and tensions, and engage them in ways that build trust, momentum, and long-term commitment. Drawing from real-world transit examples, this workshop equips attendees with tools to move from transactional engagement to strategic advocacy that delivers results. This workshop focuses on helping transit professionals move advocacy efforts from reactive or transactional engagement to intentional, mission-driven leadership. It is intended to provide clarity and understanding behind why stakeholders engage the way they do, how misalignment develops even among supporters and how leaders can reconnect stakeholders to shared purpose.

Intercity Bus Workshop: Facility Access

Facilitator: Nina Stocker, Washington State Department of Transportation
Room: 215
Facilities are an integral part of ensuring intercity bus riders can make connections across the national network. Over the last several years state DOTs and operators have had to get creative about facilities access. Hear about what some states have done and how the “Reasonable Access” Law falls short of solving the problem. Panelists: Jean Ruestman, Michigan DOT, David Schafer, Illinois DOT, and Greg Cohen, 2349 Solutions (Reasonable Access policy expert)

Cleaner Miles, Smarter Budgets: How On‑Demand Paratransit Is Advancing Sustainability

Sponsored by: Propane Education & Research Council
Room: 216
On‑demand paratransit providers are under increasing pressure to meet sustainability and emissions goals while maintaining reliable service and controlling costs. This session highlights real‑world results from agencies that have successfully reduced their environmental footprint without sacrificing operating budgets. Attendees will hear firsthand lessons learned, performance outcomes, and practical strategies that can be replicated by peer agencies seeking cost‑effective, scalable sustainability solutions.

10:30 - 11:45 a.m.

CCAM TAC Series: Innovative Concept to Community Impact

Speaker: Maria Foster, Alex Guerrero, Suzanne Alewine
Room: 203
Learn how three programs itentified mobility gaps and used FTA's Innovative Coordinated Access and Mobility (ICAM) funding to build practical, people-centered solutions. This sessions highlights three approaches - statewide mobility management, transportation vouchers, and volunteer driver programs - and shares how each project got started, the successes and challenges encountered along the way, and the vision for how these efforts will strenthen their communities.

Transit Tech Series: Technology Procurement Strategies - Developing Specifications and Performance Requirements

Speaker: Eric Lange and Lauren Gilbert
Room: 204
Transit technology evolves so rapidly that the capabilities and limitations of any product can be difficult to pin down during procurement and contracting. This workshop will help transit agencies understand how to use their goals to develop technical requirements and will introduce ideas for performance-based accountability for technology vendors to help transit agencies get the most out of their new tech and maximize their investments.

Operator Recruitment, Training, and Retention: Overcoming Barriers to CDL Licensing

Speaker: Sandy Brennan
Room: 205
Workforce recruitment and retention are on-going issues within the transit industry, but small and rural transit providers face particular difficulties in this area due to smaller workforce pools and competition with other industries. Commercial Driver's License (CDL) requirements play a critical role in the transit industry's ability to provide safe and reliable service. Through careful training, testing, and medical clearances, CDL requirements ensure that all operators possess the necessary skills, knowledge, and safety awareness to transport passengers. These standards promote a baseline competence that keeps passengers and operators safe, reduces liability for transit agencies, and upholds public confidence in transit services. However, CDL requirements also pose workforce challenges for transit agencies. Specifically, CDL requirements are a structural barrier that further narrows the labor pool and intensifies competition with private sector transportation employers that can often offer higher wages and more flexible schedules. Furthermore, prospective operators without a CDL may struggle to successfully complete the required training and testing due to high costs, long waiting periods, knowledge and skills gaps, and difficulty meeting medical requirements. As a result, understanding CDL licensure has become key to understanding the current nationwide shortage of transit operators.

From Planning Study to Practice: The South County Connector as a Community - Based Model for Rural Microtransit

Speaker: Tate Coleman
Room: 214
The South County Connector, operated by the Town of Great Barrington, Mass., began as a concept, a planning study recommendation, and launched in 2023 as a three-town microtransit pilot. Since then, it has evolved into a successful on-demand and deviated fixed-route municipal transit system serving residents of all ages across seven southern Berkshire County communities, operating 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily.

Intercity Bus Workshop: State Investment

Speakers: Avery Daughtry, and Nina Stocker
Room: 215
The intercity bus industry plays a critical role in providing long-distance transportation across North America. With limited subsidy through the FTA 5311(f) program and increasing operating costs the private intercity bus industry continues to struggle, and the role of the state is expanding. To best address the gaps and needs across the private network and ensure the goal of expanded rural access is achieved, states are growing their programs, investing in planning, increasing their coordination efforts with providers, reaching across state lines, and more.

1:45 - 2:30 p.m.

CCAM TAC Series:Mobility Hubs for young familes

Speaker: Alvaro Villagran and Abby Mader
Room: 203
Traditional transit planning often prioritizes the "9-to-5" commuter, but for young families, travel is rarely linear. It’s a complex web of "trip-chaining"—dropping off a toddler, grabbing milk, and heading to a doctor’s appointment—all while navigating heavy strollers and unpredictable schedules. If a mobility hub doesn't work for a parent with a double stroller and a diaper bag, it isn't truly accessible. This interactive workshop re-centers the mobility hub around the caregiver’s journey. We will move beyond basic bike racks and benches to explore the "sticky" infrastructure that makes public transit a viable primary choice for families.

NTD Reporters Community of Practice

Speaker: Joe Gallagher
Room: 204
Join Joe Gallagher, Transportation Data Analyst at the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to discuss transit data, technology, and rural mobility. Attend this session if you are involved in submitting or engaging with the National Transit Database (NTD) and related projects at your transit agency.

Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices

Speaker: Shayna Gleason
Room: 205
In this workshop, the Transit Workforce Center will share insights collected through a national-level research project on streamlining the bus operator hiring process. Current hiring processes are often lengthy, causing candidates to abandon the process in favor of other jobs and exacerbating operator shortages. Using real-world examples from transit agencies of all sizes, this presentation will share best practices for designing a shorter, but nonetheless effective, screening and hiring process. Presenters will also explore with workshop participants their challenges and experiences and will introduce attendees to new tools they can use to evaluate their own hiring processes.

Selling Transit to State Legislatures

Speaker: Scott Bogren, Kristen Joyner, Travis Wood and Mike Whitten
Room: 215
State transit investment is often the difference between well funded, successful and growing transit operations and those that are treading water. How can transit agencies and their state transit associations take on this challenge and properly position the outcomes transit creates in communities of all sizes in the best possible light with state legislators? Learn here how several states have taken on that challenge!

Transit Tech Series: Tech Trends and Technical Assistance

Speaker: Andrew Carpenter, Lauren Ellis, Jordan Howard
Room: 204
CTAA’s Tech Team keeps their finger on the pulse of emerging transit technologies to help you figure out which tools can help your organizations. In this workshop, the Tech Team will share trends that have emerged in the industry, especially around AI and AVs, and how you can engage with them to test these tools out yourself.

Wednesday, May 13
10:15 - 11:30 a.m.

CCAM TAC Series: Moving Families Forward - Transportation Solutions for Caregivers

Speaker: Jane Mahoney and Maureen Murphy (Lifespan of Greater Rochester)
Room: 203
Family caregivers - relatives, friends, and neighbors who support a loved one’s daily needs - now number more than 63 million across the U.S. They provide an estimated 80 percent of the transportation their loved ones rely on, yet only 25 percent have ever used a community transportation program. This session explores why caregivers remain an overlooked rider base, offers practical tips for making transportation more appealing and accessible to them, and highlights a three-county initiative that is working to simplify mobility for family caregivers and others across the region.

Small Urban Systems Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Speaker: Jordan Howard
Room: 204
Small urban transit agencies (agencies serving populations between 50,000 and 200,000 residents) carry nearly 1/3 of daily U.S. transit trips, yet these systems are often overlooked. This workshop explores what drives ridership and success in these communities using a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis. A particular focus is the typology of what makes these areas successful as well as what other similarly sized agencies can do to potentially improve their own services.

Smart Rural Mobility Toolkit: A goMARTI Blueprint for Your Community

Speaker: Jon Dege (Plum Catalyst and Leadership Academy)
Room: 205
As new mobility technologies improve and deploy, it's important to empower communities to lead planning and decision-making for the new technology deployments in their communities. This requires moving beyond traditional public input to genuine shared leadership where community champions and advisory groups own the problem definition and solution prioritization. The output of the initial planning must be their plan, not an imposed solution. It also requires we promote engagement by involving diverse stakeholders, including involving community members with disabilities. This means actively eliminating barriers to participation. The solutions must leverage the unique strengths of each community. Success should be measured by developing viable plans that tackle local transportation challenges, align with goals, and catalyze economic development, even if the final recommendation is very different from the initial thoughts. In this workshop we will bring our proven Framework Experience and Toolbox of Resources including our experience leading successful "Community Driven Engagement" approaches. We will discuss how to integrate tools such as IAP2 (International Association of Public Participation), Community Centered Research, Travel Training, and Accessibility focused expertise ensuring the administrative, engagement, and implementation processes are strategically aligned and grounded in both social science and technical reality.

Skills for the Next Generation of Transit Leaders

Speaker: Kristen Joyner
Room: 213
This exploratory session examines how transit agencies can better prepare emerging managers and directors to grow into future leadership roles while excelling in their current responsibilities. The discussion highlights common professional development gaps in areas such as public speaking and board presentations, navigating transit funding, negotiation and conflict management, media and public communication, and strategic thinking. Participants will explore why these gaps often occur and identify practical strategies agencies can use to strengthen leadership development pipelines. The session is designed for executive leaders and HR teams responsible for cultivating the next generation of industry leadership, as well as early- to mid-career transit professionals.

NTD, Census, and Your Federal Funding

Speaker: John Giorgis
Room: 214
Why is reporting to the NTD important? How does NTD data impact the Formula Funding for Tribal, Rural, and Small Urban transit operators? And where does the decennial Census fit in all this? This workshop will give attendees an understanding of how the FTA Formula allocations are made, and identify opportunities to potentially increase formula allocations through better NTD reporting.

From Engagement to Advocacy: Building Community Support for Complex Transportation Projects

Speaker: Elizabeth Elliott and Erika Hill
Room: 215
Effective community engagement is no longer a "nice to have" -- it is essential to successfully delivering transportation projects that are visible, disruptive, and deeply impactful to the public. This workshop will provide a practical, real-world framework for turning engagement into advocacy by sharing strategies implemented within City of Lincoln Transportation & Utilities. Attendees will learn how the creation of a City Communications and Engagement Guide established a consistent, organization-wide approach to outreach, messaging, and stakeholder coordination. The presentation will highlight a comprehensive engagement effort for a new Multimodal Transportation Center, detailing how both external stakeholders and internal teams were engaged throughout the process. Particular focus will be given to navigating the complex challenge of temporarily relocating a downtown transfer station while still maintaining service reliability & minimizing disruption to riders, businesses, and the broader community, and the innovative solutions that helped build public understanding and support. The workshop will also showcase scalable tactics that agencies of any size can implement immediately, including consolidating multiple project updates into a single open house to reduce stakeholder fatigue, leveraging partnerships through a Text-to-Subscribe alert system and Waze campaigns to improve real-time communication, and strengthening cross-departmental coordination to ensure unified messaging. Participants will leave with actionable tools, lessons learned, and replicable strategies to enhance transparency, build trust, and transform community members into informed advocates for transportation investments.

2:00 - 2:45 p.m.

CCAM TAC Series: Regional Collaboration and Partnership Development

Speaker: Kristin Lam Peraza
Room: 203
Regional programs are increasingly challenged to meet growing community needs with limited funding, staffing, and infrastructure. Leveraging resources and partnerships for Regional Programs presents a real-world case study of a successful collaborative model implemented at the regional level, demonstrating how intentional partnerships, shared resources, and coordinated systems can significantly expand impact without duplicating effort. This workshop will examine how cross-sector collaboration-spanning public agencies, nonprofits, volunteers, and private partners-can be structured to create efficient service pathways, maximize funding, and reduce waste. Attendees will gain an honest assessment of the benefits and tradeoffs of collaboration, including governance considerations, data-sharing realities, and capacity requirements. The workshop will also outline practical, step-by-step actions for designing, launching, and sustaining collaborative initiatives, with a focus on scalability and long-term resilience.

Smart Rural Mobility Toolkit - A goMARTI Blueprint for Your Community

Speaker: Jon Dege
Room: 204
Looking for innovative ways to connect and move your community members and visitors? The Smart Rural Mobility Toolkit distills the proven success of goMARTI-Minnesota's pioneering autonomous, on-demand microtransit system-into a step-by-step blueprint for your town. This isn't just about cutting-edge autonomous vehicles; it's about delivering reliable, accessible, and high-tech transportation that drives economic growth and connects every resident, even during the toughest Minnesota winters.

2026 Large System of the Year

Speaker: Jordan Hess, Mountain Line (MT)
Room: 205
Hear from Jordan Hess, CEO and General Manager of Mountain Line, the recipient of the 2026 Large System of the Year Award. Learn about the key elements of their award-winning system featured in their application. They will also discuss the system's upcoming opportunities and challenges for the year ahead and outline the strategies being implemented to address them.

Using Technology to Improve Transportation for All Users

Speaker: Margaret Campbell and Elina Zlotchenko
Room: 213
The workshop will showcase a number of cutting-edge accessible transportation innovations. These real-world deployments offer valuable insights for transit agencies and communities seeking to implement accessible, technology-enabled transportation solutions.

The Microtransit Math: Building Financially Sustainable On-Demand Systems

Speaker: Derek Sherman
Room: 214
Designing an On-Demand (Microtransit) service is often the easy part; making the unit economics work long-term is the real challenge. Many agencies launch pilots that become victims of their own success, with costs-per-trip that far exceed traditional fixed-route budgets. This workshop is designed to move beyond the "hype" of on-demand tech and focus on the fiscal architecture required to keep these services running.

2026 Small Systems of the Year

Speaker: Barb Cline, Prairie Hills Transit
Room: 215
Prairie Hills Transit in Spearfish, South Dakota, is one of the 2026 Small Systems of the Year. Hear from their leadership about what made their application stand out including their innovative approach to regional connectivity, collaboration with local, regional, and state policymakers, their addition of childcare to their facilities, and other forward-thinking projects.

Leadership Academy Conclave

Speaker: Amanda Barlow and Dioane Gates
Room: 216
The workshop is reserved for Leadership Academy Alumni. As the conference day winds down, prepare to immerse yourself in an atmosphere brimming with nostalgia and an introduction to new ways to exercise leadership on adaptive challenges. Join us for an exhilarating workshop at Expo 2026, where past meets present in a vibrant confluence of ideas and memories. Our exclusive Leadership Academy conclave is more than just a gathering; it’s a chance to reignite the spirit of camaraderie and collaboration that marked your time in the Leadership Academy. Reconnect with your peers, share your journeys, and discover the diverse paths taken by your cohort since graduation. This is your moment to refresh old bonds and forge new ones, to collaborate on future ventures, and to celebrate the shared legacy that ties us all together. Whether you’re looking to reminisce about the good old days, seek advice for your latest endeavor, or simply enjoy the company of fellow alumni, the Leadership Academy Conclave is the perfect setting. With a blend of informal chats, structured experiential learning workshop, and a touch of fun, you’ll leave with a renewed sense of connection to each other and the ideas taught during the Leadership Academy.

3:00 - 3:45 p.m.

CCAM TAC Series: Community Provider Map PolicyMap Connection

Speaker: Bill Wagner
Room: 203
Learn how the CCAM-TAC Community ProviderMap can be used can be used to optimize routes, enhance infrastructure planning, and support grant applications by analyzing demographic, socioeconomic, and transit data. The platform enables agencies to map service gaps, visualize commuter patterns, and evaluate accessibility, helping to align transportation services with community needs and identify high-potential service locations.

CCAM TAC Series: Tech Worksheet Walkthrough: Customer Feedback Surveys

Speaker: Lauren Ellis and Jane Mahoney
Room: 204
Surveys are an excellent source of data for transit agencies and a key way to hear from current and potential riders. However, surveys are only as useful as the questions they ask. This workshop will focus on how to write good survey questions using two worksheets: Collecting & Analyzing Customer Feedback Data and Maximizing Data from Customer Feedback Surveys. Come prepared to learn practical techniques for designing surveys that capture the data needed to make impactful decisions.

The Mirror Effect: Mastering Self-Awareness as a Leadership Multiplier

Speaker: Dan Mulraney
Room: 205
Frontline staff need to understand self-awareness to provide excellent customer service by understanding how their words and actions affect our customers. They also can use self-awareness to be excellent teammates. Supervisors need to understand self-awareness to lead teams and organizations. Every word, memo, decision, email, etc. impacts those that receive it. Understanding your impact on others is paramount.This workshop explores self-awareness not as a static personality trait, but as a dynamic, developable skill. We will move beyond simple introspection to look at the two distinct lenses of awareness: Internal (clearly seeing our own values and reactions) and External (understanding how others truly perceive us). Attendees will leave with a toolkit for identifying their professional "blind spots" and a strategy for using radical self-honesty to drive team results.

Tools for Small Transit Agencies to Save Time and Money with Technology Procurements

Speaker: Trey Lackey
Room: 213
Limited capacity and subject matter knowledge are barriers for agencies to articulate specific requirements before an RFP is written and published. We provide five actionable tips and tricks for getting the technology that is right for their agency. The CTAA Tech Readiness Assessment is a valuable tool that we reference.

Key Results and Insights of the Mississippi Statewide Transit and Intercity Bus Study

Speaker: Brian S. Waterman, PhD, AICP
Room: 214
This workshop will outline the Mississippi Statewide Transit and Intercity Bus Study—the study’s methodology and key results, statewide performance insights, and the top data supported solutions advancing to the Implementation Plan. Lessons learned offer a model for other states seeking to integrate public engagement, scenario planning, and evidence based strategies into statewide mobility planning.

Leadership Academy Conclave

Speaker: Amanda Barlow and Dioane Gates
Room: 216
The workshop is reserved for Leadership Academy Alumni. As the conference day winds down, prepare to immerse yourself in an atmosphere brimming with nostalgia and an introduction to new ways to exercise leadership on adaptive challenges. Join us for an exhilarating workshop at Expo 2026, where past meets present in a vibrant confluence of ideas and memories. Our exclusive Leadership Academy conclave is more than just a gathering; it’s a chance to reignite the spirit of camaraderie and collaboration that marked your time in the Leadership Academy. Reconnect with your peers, share your journeys, and discover the diverse paths taken by your cohort since graduation. This is your moment to refresh old bonds and forge new ones, to collaborate on future ventures, and to celebrate the shared legacy that ties us all together. Whether you’re looking to reminisce about the good old days, seek advice for your latest endeavor, or simply enjoy the company of fellow alumni, the Leadership Academy Conclave is the perfect setting. With a blend of informal chats, structured experiential learning workshop, and a touch of fun, you’ll leave with a renewed sense of connection to each other and the ideas taught during the Leadership Academy.

The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) and its members believe that mobility is a basic human right. From work and education to life-sustaining health care and human services programs to shopping and visiting with family and friends, mobility directly impacts quality of life.

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