She joins the agency after coming out on top of an extensive, nationwide search following CEO Scott Smith’s retirement announcement in summer 2021.
by Staff
March 18, 2022
2 min to read
Jessica Mefford-Miller most recently served as executive director for Metro Transit where she led a team that delivered bus, light rail, paratransit, and microtransit across the St. Louis metropolitan region.
Credit:
Valley Metro
Phoenix’s Valley Metro named Jessica Mefford-Miller as its new CEO. Mefford-Miller joins Valley Metro with 15 years of experience connecting people and places through transit in the St. Louis region. She joins the agency after coming out on top of an extensive, nationwide search following CEO Scott Smith’s retirement announcement in summer 2021.
“Jessica offers extensive transit experience with a strong dedication to the customer experience, innovation and collaborative partnerships,” said Valley Metro Board Chair and Mesa Councilmember Francisco Heredia. “She also clearly demonstrated an ingenuity to lead through change and create positive outcomes for the good of the organization, employees, and riders. Her energy certainly matched ours as we consider the future of Valley Metro and its important role coming out of the pandemic and into an era where we continue to experience such incredible growth as a region.”
Ad Loading...
Mefford-Miller most recently served as executive director for Metro Transit where she led a team that delivered bus, light rail, paratransit, and microtransit across the St. Louis metropolitan region. Throughout her career she has focused on social equity, environmental sustainability, delivering excellent customer experiences and contributing to thriving regional economies.
“I am excited to join the team at Valley Metro at a time of tremendous growth and innovation within the metro Phoenix region, where transit is at the forefront as an essential public service,” said Mefford-Miller. “I look forward to working with the boards, member agencies, and staff to provide excellent transit service that delivers value to our communities and continuing realization of Valley Metro’s bold capital vision.”
Mefford-Miller’s career is highlighted by many milestones, including leading Metro Transit through a reimaging of its bus system, which improved frequencies systemwide; creating a shift toward renewable energy through its battery electric bus program; overseeing the planning and design of expansions to their current 46-mile light rail line; and leveraging the region’s rail investment to create thriving transit-oriented development.
Before Metro Transit, Mefford-Miller held posts at the National Park Service, the Ohio Department of Transportation, and The Ohio State University.
Over the three days, PRT recorded 485,000 rides, reflecting the extraordinary number of trips taken as people traveled throughout the region for Draft events, work, and daily life.
Garo Hovnanian explores how agencies can better navigate competing priorities, strengthen decision-making, and prepare for a future shaped by electrification and emerging mobility.
The plan includes investments in cleaner vehicles and upgraded stations, NJT LiveView to provide real-time GPS tracking of train and light rail service, enhanced safety initiatives through a new Real Time Crime Center, and the debut of a redesigned NJ TRANSIT mobile app.
ABQ RIDE Forward is the first transit system overhaul in more than 25 years. This latest phase marks 15% completion of the 16-phase rollout, which will continue over the next several years.
During the meeting, the board approved a resolution invalidating a previously amended contract and authorized Board Chair Ann Duplessis to negotiate a separation agreement with CEO Lona Edwards Hankins.
The Pilot Program for TOD Planning helps support FTA’s mission of improving America’s communities through public transportation by providing funding to local communities to integrate land use and transportation planning with a new fixed-guideway or core-capacity transit capital investment.
Transit agencies have moved past pilot projects, but scaling electrification is exposing a harder truth: the real challenge isn’t vehicles, it’s everything around them.
The only new subway opening in the US this year, the D Line Extension represents one of Metro’s top transit priorities and a historic milestone for Los Angeles, with Sections 2 and 3 set to open in 2027.
In Part 2 of a two-part conversation, AC Transit’s director of maintenance joins co-hosts Alex Roman and Mark Hollenbeck to discuss his maintenance team’s work with various types of vehicle, training, augmented reality, and more.
