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KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Katharine Kelleman
Katharine Kelleman serves as chief executive officer of Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT), the public transit system serving the Pittsburgh region. Katharine often tells her staff and community to dream big - and she means it. She sets her sights high for herself and her team and, most importantly, she follows through. Whether it was becoming the youngest director in the Baltimore transit system, the youngest Chief at the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) in Tampa, Fla, being the first female with young kids to be the CEO at PRT or being in the top 10 for the American Taekwondo Association’s World Standings female black belts in 2003, she exceeds her goals and leads her team to do the same. Since joining PRT in 2018 as CEO, Katharine has focused on providing safe, reliable, and more affordable and accessible transit service to the Pittsburgh region. She has established better communication with customers, fought to find creative and incremental solutions for a more equitable fare system, and championed the development of a 25-year plan for the agency. As the 15th biggest bus agency and one of the top 25 biggest transit agencies in the country, PRT provides critical service to the region which has been highlighted throughout the pandemic. Katharine’s leadership at PRT during this tumultuous time enabled the agency to rapidly adapt to serve the community. During this time, PRT continued to gather robust community feedback despite social distancing, instituted more rigorous cleaning protocols systemwide, and created a national award winning “Room2Ride” Program that uses previous weeks’ data to help riders determine which bus during the day is likely to have room for them during pandemic restrictions. Katharine serves on the boards of American Public Transportation Association, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Queens Gambit, and WTS International.
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