Mega Events, Major Opportunities

Kome Ajise

Kome Ajise is the executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments. He has three decades of experience in regional planning and transportation, most recently as the Director of Planning at SCAG. Prior to working at SCAG, Kome was the Chief Deputy Director at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), where he was responsible for internal operations, overseeing more than 18,000 employees and a budget in excess of $1.1 billion. Previously, he was Caltrans’ Deputy Director of Planning and Modal Programs and oversaw the Aeronautics, Mass Transportation, Rail, Transportation Planning, Local Assistance, and Research Innovation and System Information Divisions. Kome has a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography and Regional Planning from the University of Benin, Nigeria and a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from California State University, Fresno.

Marissa Ayala

Marissa serves as ACT-LA’s Policy and Advocacy Manager, focused on the coalition’s campaigns for transit justice, equitable land use, and affordable housing. ACT-LA recognizes the connectivity between issues of housing and transportation, and works toward transformative changes that better serve the working class in Los Angeles. At UCLA Luskin, she focused on evidence-based policy related to climate and inequity.

Evelyn Blumenberg

Evelyn Blumenberg is the Director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and a Professor of Urban Planning within the Luskin School of Public Affairs. Her research examines the effects of urban structure — the spatial location of residents, employment, and services — on economic outcomes for low-wage workers, and on the role of planning and policy in shaping the spatial structure of cities. Professor Blumenberg’s recent projects include analyses of trends in transit ridership, gender and travel behavior, low-wage workers and the changing commute, and the relationship between automobile ownership and employment outcomes among the poor.

Erin Bromaghim

Erin Bromaghim serves as the Deputy Mayor of International Affairs in the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, focused on bringing global opportunities to Angelenos and connecting Los Angeles to economic and cultural partners around the world. She leads a team with deep expertise on international trade and investment, international relations, educational and cultural exchange, the Sustainable Development Goals and the green economy, city diplomacy, gender equity, and major global events including the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Madeline Brozen

Madeline Brozen is the Deputy Director at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, where she leads strategic planning and center management. She identifies and advances collaborations and connections between academia, government, and community. Her research investigates the potential for transportation equity interventions to improve people’s access to opportunity. Her current work is investigating the role for mobility wallet and car sharing models for low-income households and communities.

tamika l. butler

tamika l. butler — an expert on the built environment, equity, and anti-racism — is founder of tamika l. butler consulting. Previously, she was the Director of Planning, California and the Director of DEI at Toole Design. She’s pursuing a PhD in Urban Planning at the UCLA. tamika received her J.D. from Stanford, and received her B.A. and B.S. at Creighton University in her hometown of Omaha. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife and kids.

Candace Cable

Candace Cable’s life is impacted by systemic exclusion, and she knows, from experience that the best outcomes happen when we hire people who know the urgency and joy of leaving no one behind anywhere. She consults on how we develop our co-creative imagination and embracement of everyone mindset by sharing her historian, educator and writer wisdom combined with her 27-year career as a winter and summer nine-time Paralympic and three-time Olympic athlete in three sports to support our intentional collective liberation.

Ale Andres Campillo

Ale Andres Campillo (they/elle) serves as the Policy Advocate at KIWA. They previously worked as a teaching assistant in Macdougall Walker Correctional Institution helping incarcerated students receive a university degree. Most recently, they worked as a housing rights organizer in LA’s public housing projects and tenant navigator through the Stay Housed LA program. Ale was born in LA and graduated from Yale University where they earned a degree in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration.

Steven Cheung

Stephen Cheung is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) and its subsidiary, the World Trade Center Los Angeles (WTCLA). As CEO of the LAEDC, Mr. Cheung brings together the capabilities of LAEDC’s mission-delivery department areas, including the Institute for Applied Economics (Research), Business Assistance, Industry Cluster Development, Workforce Development, World Trade Center Los Angeles (International), Strategic Relations, Communications & Marketing, and Public Policy, into a single team that delivers the LAEDC’s critically important, public-benefit mission – Reinventing our economy to collaboratively advance growth and prosperity for all.

Genevieve Giuliano

Genevieve Giuliano is the interim dean and Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Ferraro Chair in Effective Local Government at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.

Giuliano has extensive leadership experience. She served as the USC Price School’s first associate dean for research and helped establish crucial infrastructure, including the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. For more than 20 years, she directed the METRANS Transportation Consortium and built it into one of the nation’s top transportation research organizations.

She also lends her expertise to numerous transportation task forces and committees in the Los Angeles region, and in areas as diverse as freight movement, traffic mitigation, and clean vehicle technologies. She has served on several National Academy of Science policy studies, including the NAS Committee on Global Climate Change.

Her research spans relationships between land use and transportation, transportation policy analysis, travel behavior, and sustainable transportation. She has published more than 200 papers and has received multiple distinguished scholarship awards. She is a Fellow in Regional Science.

Giuliano is an innovator in her field. She was among the first to study gender differences in travel behavior and later to partner with computer science and engineering to explore land use and freight transportation relationships.

She participated in the first study of impacts of global climate change on the U.S. transportation system. At the state level, she is working with Caltrans and CARB on the implementation of the California Sustainable Freight Action Plan and subsequent legislation to reduce GHGs associated with California’s freight industry.

Henry Grabar

Henry Grabar is a journalist who writes about cities. He is a staff writer at Slate, and has also written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and other outlets. He was the author of “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World,” which was named one of the best books of 2023 by the New Yorker and the New Republic. He was a 2024 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Veronica Hahni

Veronica Hahni has served as Executive Director of Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative since 2009, overseeing LANI’s implementation of community-driven construction projects and engaging in strategic collaborations with local stakeholders and partners in the public and private sectors. Veronica serves on the FASTLinkDTLA Board, the AltCap CA New Market Tax Credits Advisory Board, and the Caltrans District 7 Complete Streets Advisory Committee. She holds a Juris Doctorate from USC and a BS from Cal State LA.

Javier Hernandez

Javier harnesses change to drive community prosperity. He co-founded BikeSGV, a non-profit, then served as a transportation and economic development deputy to an LA County Supervisor. He is currently master planning a vibrant downtown, dynamic uptown, lively riverfronts, and a national manufacturing zone in Pico Rivera. He has a BA in business from CSU Fullerton and an urban planning master’s from USC. Javier’s passion derives from his family, friends, the great outdoors, and community service.

Bill Higgins

Bill Higgins is an enthusiastic regionalist and enjoys working on the day to day policy issues that improve the ability of regional governments to serve their member cities and counties. Mr. Higgins joined CALCOG as its executive director in 2011. Previously, he spent 11 years as a senior staff attorney, program manager, and legislative representative for the League of California Cities and its nonprofit affiliate, the Institute of Local Government. There, he focused his efforts on local and regional planning, housing, economic development, and land use policy. He has been an adjunct professor at Sonoma State University and teaches periodic classes through the UC Davis and UCLA Extension Programs. In his college years, Mr Higgins demonstrated an odd preference for bucked-tooth mammals, getting a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture & Resource Economics from Oregon State University (Go Beavers) and a law degree from the University of Minnesota (Go Golden Gophers).

Brenda Jackson

Brenda Jackson grew up in a low-income family in the San Fernando Valley. She began organizing at 18, and since then has worked in arts education, union & tenant organizing and on political campaigns. She is dedicated to working with the vibrant working class communities that make up Los Ángeles and supporting them in growing into the political power they hold. She is a graduate from Occidental College with degrees in urban policy and music.

Alicia John-Baptiste

Alicia John-Baptiste is the president and CEO of SPUR. She is responsible for defining the overall vision and strategy for the organization. A seasoned leader and public policy professional, Alicia has over 20 years of experience reimagining systems to create better outcomes for people. Her optimistic vision and practical approach inform SPUR’s efforts to build a Bay Area where all people can thrive.

Prior to her time at SPUR, Alicia developed deep appreciation for local government and its commitment to the collective good while serving in leadership roles for the City and County of San Francisco, most recently as Chief of Staff at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Locally and nationally recognized for her public policy expertise, inspirational perspective and creative approach to systems change, Alicia focuses her talents and experience on building shared dreams. Alicia holds a Masters degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University. She lives in Oakland with her husband, twin children and puppy, Bowie, and loves nothing more than to travel with three of the four of them.

Eli Akira Kaufman

Eli Akira Kaufman has been a bike commuter since elementary school and always prefers to navigate the place he lives and works on two wheels. He has over a decade of leadership experience with stints as a chief communicator and program lead at Film Independent, GOOD, and River LA. Prior to joining the BikeLA team, Eli worked at Swell Creative Group where he helped produce a successful campaign to pass Measure W, LA County’s Safe, Clean Water Program. Eli earned his MFA at UCLA’s School of Film, Television, and Digital Media with a concentration in Directing, and has a BA from Oberlin College where he played four years of Varsity Lacrosse. He is a founding parent of the IKAR Early Childhood Center Garden, and coaches his son’s AYSO soccer team – Go Silver Eagles! His ideal weekend in Los Angeles involves being outside as much as possible in a kayak, working in his garden, and of course on his bike with family, friends, and colleagues. Eli is grateful to make his love for bicycling, the most sustainable, equitable, and joyous transportation option his contribution to a more liveable Los Angeles for everyone.

Karin Korb

Karin Korb is an active transportation consultant specializing in the inclusive built environment. She collaborates with organizations and leads initiatives focused on inclusive design, disability data, and dismantling structural racism, ableism and genderism while highlighting the historical misalignment of antiquated capitalist and patriarchal design hierarchies. She is a disability justice and rights advocate, and speaker dedicated to advancing justice, accessibility, inclusion, equity and social impact. As a two-time Paralympian in wheelchair tennis and global expert in inclusive sport mega events, she leverages her platform to champion the humanization and rights of people with disabilities across sports, education, public health and moveable, walkable environments. Karin is also a much-desired Sound Healing practitioner who provides both individual and corporate wellness strategies for and with people, places and environments seeking to expand their internal healing.

John Lauermann

John Lauermann is an Associate Professor in the School of Information at Pratt Institute, where he teaches GIS and data visualization. He also directs Pratt’s Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative, a research center that supports GIS scholarship across the university. His research analyzes how social inequality impacts the landscape of American cities, on topics including gentrification and mega-events. He has published widely on mega-event planning, and edits the Mega-event Planning book series at Palgrave Macmillan.

Trent Lethco

Trent Lethco is a Principal with Arup’s City Planning and Design team. His focus is on transportation planning projects in the Northeast, major events in the Americas region, and human movement through buildings, places, and spaces. He instructs at Pratt Institute, serves as a board member for the Regional Plan Association, and is a Trustee of the 18+ member organization Arup. He is also an alum of ULCA and serves as an advisor to the Institute of Transportation Studies.

Eli Lipmen

Eli Lipmen (he/him) is the Executive Director for Move LA, a coalition-building nonprofit that led the campaign for transformative public transit and affordable housing funds in Los Angeles County. Eli is an award-winning advocate who has led campaigns at the local, state, and federal campaigns to build affordable housing (Measure ULA), fund public transit operations (Measure R & M), create safer streets (Measure HLA), address climate change, and clean California’s toxic air. Eli served as president of the City of LA’s Neighborhood Council Commission for an unprecedented three terms and has been honored by the TransitCenter and Empowerment Congress for his work in advancing transit and housing justice in Los Angeles.

Eli graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications, the London School of Economics & Political Science, and the Coro Lead SoCal program.

Gustavo Lopes dos Santos

Gustavo Lopes dos Santos is an urban planner and researcher at CiTUA, IST, University of Lisbon. His scientific activities focus on the dynamic relationship between the city and (mega-)events, regarding the planning, delivery, and permanent and temporary effects in territories and communities. In 2022 he was awarded with the Olympic Studies Centre PhD Students and Early Career Academics Research Grant Programme, of the International Olympic Committee.

Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris

Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris is a Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Interim Dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She has authored or edited13 books and over 150 scholarly articles and chapters about public spaces, mobility and safety, women’s travel, transit homelessness, transit security, TODs, high-speed rail development, gentrification and displacement. Her research has been supported by the NSF, HUD, US DOT, NEA, Caltrans, CARB, MTI, AARP, and Haynes, Mellon, Gilbert, and Archstone Foundation, among others.

Karen Mack

Karen Mack founded LA Commons 25 years ago to leverage the power of arts and culture to empower individuals, build connections and develop communities. The South LA based nonprofit implements a range of programs reflecting the unique character of diverse neighborhoods including public art projects, festivals and cultural asset mapping initiatives such Cultural Treasures of South LA. She is a member of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission and the advisory board for Destination Crenshaw.

Juan Matute

Juan Matute is the Deputy Director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and an expert on transportation and land use and how technological innovations like driverless cars, electric vehicles and GPS mobile apps like Waze and Google Maps affect urban mobility and transportation accessibility, especially in Los Angeles. Matute also examines sustainable transportation and land use, transit systems, and local government climate planning, specifically how local governments measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions.

Adam Millard-Ball

Adam Millard-Ball is professor of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, and affiliated faculty at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. His research and teaching focus on transportation and climate change, and on how data science can support urban planning research and practice.

Bryn Moncelsi

Bryn Moncelsi’s experience in forging and facilitating cross-sector collaborations for greater climate resilience serves her well in this strategic leadership position. Before moving to Los Angeles, Bryn worked as a policy analyst and consultant in Copenhagen, Denmark, where her primary foci were on life cycle-oriented governance mechanisms and integrated natural resource management. While there, she also served as the first sustainability officer of a major Danish institute, where she successfully implemented numerous high-impact, cross-departmental initiatives. She also served on the steering board of Impact HUB Copenhagen, a co-working community centered around collaborations for social good, and was a founder and board director of a local, organic vegetable cooperative.

Sam Morrissey

Sam is the Vice President of Transportation for LA28, leading all Transportation functions for the Organizing Committee. Sam has more than 25 years of experience across a wide spectrum of transportation elements in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

He served as a lecturer for two undergraduate courses in Transportation Engineering and Design at UCLA. Sam holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Aaron Paley

Since 1982, Aaron Paley has focused on how Angelenos experience and use public space through temporary and permanent civic interventions at the unique nexus of event production, arts, community, culture, transportation, urban planning, and policy. Paley co-founded Community Arts Resources (CARS) with Katie Bergin in 1989 to “create unique experiences where art, culture, community and civic life collide.” CARS helped incubate and develop CicLAvia where he served as its founding director from 2010 to 2015.

Katharine Perez

Katherine is the Co-Director of Los Angeles Tomorrow, match-maker initiative creating a big-tent coalition that will facilitate community-powered activations or installations across LA County. Los Angeles Tomorrow seeks to leave a legacy of enhanced civic capacity and public realm improvements in response to the series of international events that LA will be hosting over the next several years. Until recently, Katherine was a Principal and Los Angeles Office Leader for Arup, an international engineering, design and consulting firm. With over 300 professionals in the LA Office, she played a critical role in the office management, project pursuits and Arup’s role in external markets.

Kurt Petersen

Kurt Petersen is a Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents more than 35,000 hotel and food service workers in Southern California and Arizona. Kurt studied Theology/Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and attended Yale Law School. Kurt went on to win the first union contract for farm workers in Washington State history at Chateau Ste Michelle winery with the United Farm Workers. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1995, Kurt has organized more than 30,000 workers into UNITE HERE. Kurt recently led the largest hotel strike in the nation’s history, and won a new contract with 40% wage increases, with a $5.00 an hour raise in the first year alone. The new contracts expire January 2028, months before the Olympics.

Makenzi Rasey

Makenzi Rasey is the Assistant General Manager of External Affairs at the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), responsible for strategic political, community, and media engagement. Her coalition building has delivered transformative safety and mobility projects, new regulatory programs, safer speed limit setting and enforcement policies, and innovative tools to drive equitable transportation services. Prior to joining LADOT Makenzi worked at the Natural Resources Defense Council on emerging mobility, and at EVgo implementing electric vehicle access programs for low income communities. Makenzi holds a Master in Public Policy degree from UCLA, and spends most of her free time outside hiking, biking, skiing, or otherwise trying to exhaust her two crazy dogs.

Marlon Regisford

Marlon is a eighteen-year veteran of Caltrans. He currently serves as the Deputy District Director of Planning and Local Assistance in District 7, which covers Los Angeles and Ventura counties. He is responsible for the delivery of Division functions, including development of long-range strategic plans for the preliminary planning and feasibility studies. In addition, he supports Regional Transportation Planning and Transit Agency partners on Regional Planning and Project Development activities, and oversight of Environmental review to ensure compliance with Federal and State laws and regulations. Marlon engages in developing innovative and effective transportation strategies for the District and provides technical support and assistance to local cities and counties to aid the delivery of locally sponsored projects utilizing transportation funds.

Seleta Reynolds

Seleta has 25 years of experience in transportation in both the public and private sector. As Chief Innovation Officer of LA Metro, her responsibilities include delivering the mobility program for the 28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as a mobility wallet and a strategy for transitioning the agency to a Zero Emission Bus fleet. Formerly, she was the General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation where she launched Vision Zero, a goal to get to zero traffic deaths, in Los Angeles after leading a similar effort in San Francisco. She is the founding chair of the Open Mobility Foundation, an open-source project to build digital infrastructure for the public realm and serves on the Executive Committee of the ITS America Board of Directors.

Daniel Rodman

Daniel Rodman serves as Director of International Events in the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, where he coordinates the city’s work on operations, legacy, and diplomacy for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games. Dan leads the Mayor’s International Events team and works collaboratively to deliver mega-events that are open to all Angelenos, maximize opportunities for local businesses, and invest in permanent green infrastructure. Previously, Dan served as Deputy Director of Transportation for the LA Mayor’s Office and as a social worker with Street to Home Manhattan. Dan holds a master’s in urban and regional planning from UCLA and a bachelor’s from NYU.

Carter Rubin

Carter Rubin advocates for zero emissions transportation options that support equitable access for all. Rubin leads NRDC’s state-level transportation advocacy to ensure that transportation investments and policy support climate-friendly and equitable communities. He previously served for five years in the Los Angeles mayor’s office, working on transportation policy and public administration. Rubin earned his master’s in urban and regional planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he focused on transportation, land use, and parking. He is based in NRDC’s Santa Monica office.

Joshua Schank

Joshua Schank is a Partner at InfraStrategies, a transportation and financial advisory firm, where he leads a practice focused on innovation, strategic planning, and technology. He is also a Senior Fellow in the Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Research Associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute. Prior to joining InfraStrategies and UCLA, Dr. Schank was the first-ever Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro). Dr. Schank previously served as President and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, a leading national transportation policy think-tank based in Washington, D.C.

Brian D. Taylor

Brian D. Taylor, PhD, FAICP is a Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy in the Luskin School of Public Affairs and a Research Fellow in the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA. He teaches courses on transportation, land use, and urban form; public transit and shared mobility; and transportation economics, finance, and policy. Professor Taylor studies travel behavior and transportation equity, finance, history, and politics. His recent research examines falling public transit ridership, public sector responses to new transportation technologies, the socio-economic dimensions of travel behavior, the equity of increased local option sales taxes for transportation, the economic effects of traffic congestion, and the transportation policy and equity implications of the SARS-Cov-2 global pandemic.

Christopher Torres

Chris is an award-winning landscape architect and urbanist passionate about creating a more equitable, resilient and vibrant Los Angeles. He founded Agency Artifact as a civic design studio, creating ambitious placemaking experiences. He has 15 years of international experience designing urban parks, public art, large-scale housing projects and regenerative infrastructure. He also serves as a Planning Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles and trained in urbanism at LMU, UC Berkeley and Columbia University.

Molly Wagner

Molly Wagner is a Senior Manager on the Transportation team at the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Molly works with nonprofits, academia, and private sectors to center community priorities and lived experience in transportation planning and policies. She is deeply interested in exploring how policies influence the implementation of infrastructure and its impact on residents’ quality of life. Her recent research documents the travel experiences of people with disabilities and examines how transportation practitioners interact with ADA.

Alissa Walker

Alissa Walker is a writer based in Los Angeles where she has covered transportation, housing, urban design, public space, and environmental policy for two decades. She edits the newsletter Torched, which tracks the legacy improvements that LA is making for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Alissa is the 2021 recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary for her writing on design and urbanism, and played herself on the traffic safety episode of Adam Conover’s show Adam Ruins Everything, “Adam Ruins a Murder.” She lives in L.A.’s Historic Filipinotown neighborhood, where she is the co-host of LA Podcast, an avid ice cream consumer, and a mom to the city’s two most enthusiastic public transit riders.

Oscar Zarate

Oscar U. Zarate is a Director of Advocacy and Organizing at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), where he leads the organization’s built environment work, with a focus on improving the conditions of rental housing and public transit. Oscar serves as a council member on the LA County Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Community Advisory Council and is a Founding member of the City of Compton’s Tenant Union. He’s led successful grassroot efforts to establish new tenant protections in LA County and prevent fare hikes for Metro riders.

Before joining SAJE, Oscar was a UCLA Labor Fellow at SEIU Local 2015 and Teamsters Port Division, organizing truck drivers and long-term care workers. Oscar holds a BA in Political Science from UC Santa Barbara.