Board Members and Staff

Mark Harkins, Board Chair

Mark joined the Government Affairs Institute as a Senior Fellow in July 2013, after serving on Capitol Hill for 17 years. Mark worked for two Members of Congress before joining the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology as a Professional Staff Member and later as Legislative Director for the House Science Committee Democrats. Following his tenure on the Hill, Mark was a government relations professional for more than five years where he focused on the representation of corporate, nonprofit, and government clients before Congress and the Executive Branch.

Mark has extensive experience with the federal appropriations and budgeting process, as well as issues handled by the Financial Services, Science, Ways and Means, and Homeland Security Committees.

Dick Fleming, Secretary

Dick’s experience as a city and regional planner includes community and economic development, and civic entrepreneurship in nonprofit, for profit, and public sector roles at the local, regional, and national levels. He serves as a board member or advisor for several organizations, including the Clean Economy Solutions, a national economic and environmental nonprofit funded by foundations including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Community Development Ventures, a consulting firm dedicated to public/private partnerships, clean economy initiatives, and urban education/charters schools; and the “Innovation District and Placemaking Project” for the Brookings Institution and Project for Public Spaces.

Trey Hahn, Interim Treasurer

Trey is an urban mobility planner and educator specialized in the user experience of cycling. He trains transportation professionals and activists in people-centered design methods for studying everyday people and fitting cycling infrastructure into their lives. He has worked on 7 online courses on urban mobility that have reached over 25,000 enrollments, actively manages multiple open resources including a database of 600+ cycling infrastructure documents and presents to international audiences. He has worked across the academic, startup, government, nonprofit, and private sectors. Outside of work, Trey enjoys outdoor activities, board games, history and exploring cities.

Don Borut, Board Member

Don has served on many non-profit boards of directors and currently serves on the Levine Music, The Washington Chorus, National Theatre Boards and is a member of the advisory Boards of Think-Kids and the Center of State and Local Government Excellence@ICMA RC.

Don served as the Executive Director of the National League of Cities from 1990 – 2013 following 18 years with the International City/County Management Association. He is a National Academy of Public Administration Fellow and former Chair of its State and Local Government Working Group. He enjoys walking for exercise and rides a bike when on vacation.

JB Meek, Board Member

Before retiring in late 2024, JB served in various executive roles in technology, most recently at a healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) firm in San Francisco, and before that at a DC area management consultancy. His experience includes starting new companies and business units, managing business operations and service delivery, manufacturing and supply chain, HR, and M&A. He holds a degree in Economics from Washington & Lee University, and enjoys daily exercise, cycling, backpacking, golf, skiing, and most of all grilling out. Originally from NW Georgia where public transit and mobility options are less accessible, today JB resides with his wife Kate in NW Washington, and values the active transit opportunities such urban areas afford. They have one daughter, Alex, who attends Colby College in Maine, along with a rescued terrier mix who has yet to be accepted to any institution of higher learning.

Carol Kachadoorian, Executive Director

Carol has a breadth of knowledge of and expertise in transportation planning and operations, working at both the city and regional levels, including school- and community-based active transportation plans and older adult mobility. She understands the importance of both big data and personal experience to determine feasible changes to transportation systems that make travel by all modes safe, accessible, and comfortable for all ages and abilities.