Kathleen Rooney, Director of Transportation Policy & Programs at Ulupono Initiative, discusses whether Hawaii’s current ground transportation system is truly serving the needs of our communities and helping to shape a sustainable, resilient future for the Islands. Rooney will explore what drives change in transportation, the incongruencies that too often exist between environmental and transportation goals, and the intersects with societal issues ranging from the cost of living to inequities impacting underserved communities. The session will not only question assumptions but also equip participants with a starting point to re-evaluate current transportation investment decisions based on real-life outcomes.

Registration: 

Free (members)

$10 (non-members)

Please register based on your current ITE International membership status.

Speaker Bios:

Kathleen Rooney, Director of Transportation Policy and Programs, Ulupono Initiative

Kathleen Rooney is Ulupono Initiative’s lead on transportation-related policy and programs in the advancement of a people-centric, carbon-free, and equity-enhancing transportation system in Hawai‘i. Her current projects include rightsizing parking policies; helping expand immediate transportation choices and access to those choices; and ensuring transportation investments meet important community and climate goals.

 Recognized as one of Women’s Transportation Seminar’s 2021 Women on the Move, Rooney was recently featured in a new book, titled Women Driven Mobility: Rethinking the Way the World Moves, which explores women “leading the way mobility and automotive innovation.”

Rooney brings 15 years of national experience in transportation and planning, combining both to advance community visions and goals in many diverse communities across the nation. For example, she helped two West Virginia towns strategize around health, leading to two trail program implementation grants. She also helped to conceptualize a resiliency center in Washington State, operationalize multimodal accessibility metrics in Florida, launch a food incubator in New Mexico, and develop a statewide transportation demand management framework for New York State. She has also worked at all levels of government in multi-disciplinary ways, leading to a broad understanding of transportation, community, and environmental issues.

 Prior to joining the Ulupono team, Rooney served as a project manager of Renaissance Planning in Orlando, Florida, and as a senior manager at ICF in Washington DC.  

 She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland-College Park and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.