board members and staff
Don Borut, Board Chair
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.
Peter Harkness, Board Secretary
Peter Harkness is a retired journalist who devoted his career to covering government at all levels. His title at retirement was Executive Editor and Publisher Emeritus of Governing, a magazine and web service he had founded 35 years earlier with support from the Congressional Quarterly News Service.
He was editor and deputy publisher of CQ at the time but had become convinced that the story on government was changing, moving down the political food chain. In retirement he continued to write a column for Governing for another 11 years. For most of his career, he bicycled to and from work, 9 to 10 miles round trip. He still rides frequently, but now using an e-bike.
Jeff Ciabotti, Board Treasurer
Jeff has spent his more than 25-year planning and advocacy career focused on creating healthy, sustainable communities through developing networks of trails, greenways, and connecting corridors for everyone to use. Over this time, his work has concentrated on the pathway between vision, planning, and implementation – taking good ideas and turning them into reality. Jeff's background as Vice President for Trail Development at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy gives him in-depth knowledge of the connection between land use, transportation, and health. He has presented numerous workshops, trainings, and keynote addresses domestically and internationally to share his knowledge and enthusiasm for trails and greenways. His day job is as the Trails and Greenways Practice Lead and Deputy Director of Planning for Toole Design’s the Mid-Atlantic Region. He is a recognized national leader in trails and active transportation.
Outside of work, Jeff gets his inspiration outdoors through gardening, riding, paddling,or hiking all varieties of trails and experiencing nature with his adventurous family.
Dick Fleming, Board Member
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.
Tomika Monterville, Board Member
Tomika is the Chief, Regional Outreach & Project Delivery in the Federal Railroad Administration’s South Central Region (San Antonio, TX). Prior to joining FRA, Tomika served as the Director of San Antonio’s first Department of Transportation, where she focused on planning and constructing bicycle facilities and Vision Zero projects; managing Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Quiet Zones; and developing multi-modal transportation studies to support the mobility goals of San Antonio.
Her career includes various transportation roles in Florida and the Washington metropolitan area. She served as the Director of Planning & Development for the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (dba LYNX) and Associate Director for Transportation with the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works & Transportation (DPW&T). She planned the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and District of Columbia’s first Rapid Bus service, MetroExtra, and D.C. Streetcar. Tomika has also held positions with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) and was the first Executive Director of H Street Main Street (Washington, D.C.).
Tomika earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Howard University and attended Florida State University, where she earned her Master’s in Transportation Planning
Evren Sonmez, Board Member
Evren is the Director of Strategic Policy and Practice at Living Streets Alliance (LSA), a Tucson-based nonprofit advocacy organization that envisions streets as living public spaces that connect people to places and to each other.
With a passion for people-friendly public spaces, she led the development of Tucson’s Complete Streets policy, collaborated with neighborhoods across Tucson on walkability initiatives, supported schools to implement Safe Routes to School programming, and facilitated various community engagement processes focused on amplifying traditionally marginalized voices.
Evren has a Master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Arizona in Tucson where she currently lives.
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.
Carol has spoken nationally and regionally on the need to revise long-standing perceptions of older adults through words and images. She continues to conduct research on older adult mobility and wellness, partnering with several universities.