Board of Directors

PRESIDENT

Ronald Chicka
Director, Duluth-Superior Metropolitan Interstate Council, Duluth, MN

Ron Chicka has served as the Director of the Metropolitan Interstate Council (MIC), the MPO for the Duluth – Superior metropolitan area since 1998. He began with the MIC in 1995 as a Senior Planner. Prior to this he was employed with the City of Janesville (WI) Planning Department as the MPO Coordinator from 1990 to 1995. Ron has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Kansas (specialty in transportation and land use) and an undergraduate degree in Geography from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a member of the American Planning Association and is certified by American Institute of Certified Planners. Ron has presented the MICs work at a number of regional, state and national conferences/workshops including (at the national level): AMPO, Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the National Association of Development Organizations.Additional Member Committees:

• Association of Metropolitan Planning Organization – Board of Directors
• TRB ADA-30 – Transportation for Small and Medium-Sized Communities
• TRB – National Cooperative Freight Research Program Report 17: Freight Transportation within the Great Lakes – Saint Lawrence Basin – 2012
• U.S. DOT – Federal Highway Administration: Modeling and Analysis Needs and Resources for Small Metropolitan Area Transportation Planning: Report on a Peer Exchange – September 2012
• AASHTO-CTPP Oversight Committee

VICE PRESIDENT

Amy Cummings, AICP, LEED AP
Deputy Executive Director/Planning Director, Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County (RTC), Reno, NV

Amy Cummings joined the RTC in 2010 as the Director of Planning and became the Deputy Executive Director in 2018. RTC is the MPO, provides transit service and builds regional roads for the Reno-Sparks region in Washoe County, Nevada. The RTC implements a performance-based transportation planning program that is founded on community outreach and engagement. Prior to joining RTC, Amy was the Nevada Planning Manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff. Amy has an undergraduate degree in history from Florida State University, a Master of Community Planning from the University of Maryland at College Park, and a master’s degree in from the University of Nevada, Reno with a focus on transportation and urban history. She is a certified planner through the American Institute of Certified Planners and is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited professional. She has served on the AMPO Policy Committee since 2012.

TREASURER

Gregory Stuart
Executive Director, Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization (Southeast Florida)

Greg brings more than 32 years of transportation, land use planning and logistics experience in both private and public sectors. Greg currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations and the National Association of Regional Councils Executive Directors Council, elected nationally. He is Chair of the Florida MPO Advisory Council (MPOAC) Staff Directors Advisory Committee and the MPOAC Freight Committee. In his spare time, Greg is the Chair of the City of Fort Lauderdale’s Transportation Management Agency, a transit provider, with an annual ridership exceeding 650,000 passengers. Greg also spent his formative years working in logistics related to the manufacturing of the IBM Personal Computers in Boca Raton.

SECRETARY

Pragati Srivastava
Director, Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Memphis, TN

Pragati Srivastava  has served as the Director of the Memphis MPO since 2011 and is responsible for multimodal Long Range Transportation Planning for the Memphis MPO region. She serves more than 1 million residents of the Memphis MPO region and works closely with the 29 member Policy Board, comprising of various local, State and Federal agencies. She formerly served as the Principal Transportation Planner for the Memphis MPO where she was responsible for managing the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) and managed various transportation planning studies. Pragati received a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture and Master’s Degree in Urban and Rural Planning from India. Additionally, she also holds a Master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas, at Austin.

BOARD MEMBER AND TECHNICAL COMMITTEE LIAISON 

Reese Brewer
MPO Director, Frontier MPO, Ft. Smith, AR

Reese acts as the MPO director of the Frontier Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Fort Smith area. She successfully led efforts to implement bike share, integrate health into the design of transportation infrastructure, and ensure communities in the region have improved access to local parks. In addition, she wrote and received the inaugural Parsons Smart Cities Transforming Intersection Challenge on behalf of the City of Fort Smith and the Arkansas Department of Transportation. She has served on the Eno Center for Transportation’s Freight Funding and Finance group and was a contributor to the Eno Center for Transportation paper, “Delivering the Goods: Recommendations for Funding a Federal Freight Program, along with serving on Transportation Research Board Committees. While the focus of her work is in transportation planning and freight infrastructure, Reese received her Master of Science in Intermodal Transportation Management from the University of Denver, obtained certificates from the University of Maryland Senior Management Operations Academy, I-95 Corridor Coalition Freight Academy, and attended the Florida Coastal School of Law studying Transportation Law & Policy.

BOARD MEMBER

Mike Franchini
Executive Director, Capital District Transportation Committee, Albany, NY

Since 2012, Mike has served as the Executive Director of the Capital District Transportation Committee (the MPO for the Albany-Schenectady & Saratoga Springs metropolitan areas of New York State). Mike is very active in planning at the national and state levels. He was a member of the AMPO Policy Committee from 2013 through 2018, initially as an alternate and eventually being appointed chairperson. Mike has been a member of the New York State Association of MPOs’ Executive Committee since assuming his responsibilities as CDTC Executive Director. He also represents the New York MPOs on the State Transportation Innovation Council, which is key to the success of FHWA-sponsored deployment programs such as Every Day Counts. Mike brings a perspective that few MPO directors possess: that of an MPO member agency technical representative. After serving in the Coast Guard for 12 years at various duty stations along the East Coast, Mike returned to his hometown and began his career in local government with the City of Albany. He transitioned to Albany County where he was promoted to positions of increasingly greater responsibility including Deputy Commissioner of Public Works, Commissioner of Public Works, and Director of Operations. Beyond managing more than 20 TIP-funded projects from small bridge replacements to complex intersection redesigns, Mike was the County’s primary representative to CDTC for 15 years where he chaired the Planning Committee for seven of them. Mike received his Bachelor of Science from the United States Coast Guard Academy and his Master in Public Administration from Harvard University.

BOARD MEMBER AND POLICY COMMITTEE LIAISON

Matt Johns
Executive Director, Rapides Area Planning Commission, Alexandria, LA

Matt Johns has 16 years of planning experience between the Rapides Area Planning Commission and the Louisiana DOTD. He is currently the Executive Director of the Rapides Area Planning Commission, a member of the Louisiana Planning Council, and on the board of directors for the Louisiana Transportation Authority as well as the Louisiana Community Development Authority. He also serves as vice-chairman of the policy committee for AMPO and serves on multiple committees for the Transportation Research Board. Since joining RAPC, Matt has led the expansion of the MPO from 5 staff members to 19 – accompanied by an annual operating budget that grew from $250,000 to $2.5 million per year. This was accomplished by offering technical assistance to surrounding jurisdictions, providing the expertise of RAPC’s talented staff to assist almost any need – transportation related or otherwise. Matt has a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Louisiana College and obtained his professional planning certification from the American Institute of Certified Planners.

BOARD MEMBER

Ashby Johnson
Executive Director, Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization,  Austin, TX

Ashby Johnson is the Executive Director of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) which is the metropolitan planning organization for the six-county central Texas region and has served in that capacity since August 2014. Ashby also served as the Deputy MPO Director at the Houston-Galveston Area Council, which is the transportation planning agency for the eight-county greater Houston region for the preceding 11 years. Prior to H-GAC, he spent eight years with the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Planning and one year with the Federal Transit Administration’s Office of Planning. Prior to USDOT, Ashby spent five years with the Texas Department of Transportation in the Environmental Affairs Division. He holds a Bachelors degree in Government and a Masters in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin.

BOARD MEMBER

Todd Lang
Director of Transportation Planning, Baltimore Metropolitan Council, Baltimore, MD

Todd Lang is the Director of Transportation Planning at the Baltimore Metropolitan Council which serves as staff to the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization representing the 2.6 million residents of the Baltimore Region. As Director, Mr. Lang oversees the MPO work program including development of the region’s short and long range transportation plans and the recently completed fifty year regional visioning process. Mr. Lang has a Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering, a Master’s in Business Administration (Finance) and a Certificate in Environmental Planning. He is a registered Professional Engineer and is a Certified Planner. Mr. Lang also currently serves on the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Metropolitan Planning Subcommittee.

BOARD MEMBER

Craig Lyon
Transportation Planning Manager, Municipality of Anchorage, Anchorage, AK

Craig Lyon is the Transportation Planning Manager for the Municipality of Anchorage’s Planning Department. Craig has served as the Coordinator for AMATS since July 2003. Prior to that he worked as a legislative aide in the Alaska Legislature. His professional responsibilities include development of the Transportation Improvement Program (programming of federal highway funding) and the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP). He oversees the professional planning staff of AMATS. During his tenure with AMATS he has worked to increase citizen involvement in transportation planning by coordinating the creation of a Freight Advisory Committee, and Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and a revamped Citizens Advisory Committee.  He holds a BA in Government from Norwich University and a BA in Elementary Education from UAA. A lifelong Alaskan, Mr. Lyon serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organization and was the AMPO President in 2018 and 2019.   He is married with 4 children and 3 grandchildren who don’t live close enough to spoil on a regular basis.​

BOARD PAST PRESIDENT

R. TODD ASHBY, AICP
CEO/Executive Director of the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Todd Ashby is the CEO/Executive Director of the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. His previous work experience includes: Account Manager for TMS Management; Senior Project Manager, Snyder & Associates; Senior Project Manager/Planner, CH2M Hill; Assistant Director of Transportation, Mid-America Regional Council in Kansas City; and Missouri Department of Transportation. He attended the University of Missouri where he received a Masters of Pubic Administration and Iowa State University where he received a Bachelor of Science in Community and Regional Planning. Todd currently serves on the boards of many organizations, including: Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations Board, National Association of Regional Council’s Executive Directors Council, : Polk County Aviation Authority Board, DSM Forward Task Force, Iowa Freight Advisory Council, Professional Advisory Committee-College of Design, Iowa State University, Cyclone Gridiron Club Board, Ankeny Kiwanis Club Board, and the Ankeny Alumni Association Board. Told also enjoys traveling with his wife Kerry, attending Iowa State sporting events, reading, and cooking.

Committees

AMPO Board Election

The AMPO 2022 -2024 Board Call for Interest is now open. Submit your name today!

If you are interested in being included for consideration for a position on AMPO’s Board of Directors, please submit your interest and contact information by clicking the button below. If you are someone who would like to be actively involved in AMPO as a leader, collaborator, and strategic planner and are willing to volunteer your time and talent, we encourage you to apply.

An internal nominating committee will evaluate eligible candidates and produce a slate of candidates for voting and approval by members.

We hope you consider!