Going Forward: Planning the Region’s Transportation Future in a Time of Crisis

Dr. Jarrett Catlin is a researcher, writer, and public affairs consultant. He is a vice president at Tusk Strategies, a public affairs firm running advocacy and communications campaigns for startups. He previously was a researcher at the RAND Corporation, where his research helped federal agencies plan for emerging and his doctoral dissertation focused on how Southern California cities responded to the arrival of shared e-scooters. Catlin was born and raised in Southern California, and he lives in West Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.

Wade Graham, Ph.D, is a historian, journalist, and landscape designer based in Los Angeles. He is the author of American Eden, a cultural history of gardens in America (HarperCollins, 2011), Dream Cities: Seven Urban Ideas That Shape the World, a global history of visionary urbanism (HarperCollins, 2016), Braided Waters: Environment and Society in Molokai, Hawaii (University of California Press, 2018) ), and the upcoming Southland: An Atlas and Almanac of Los Angeles County (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2026). He writes a monthly environment column for the UK magazine Perspective, and has written on the environment, landscape, urbanism, and the arts for The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Los Angeles Times, Outside and other publications. 

He taught urbanism and environmental policy at the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University from 2009 to 2020. 

M. Nolan Gray is the Senior Director of Legislation and Research for California YIMBY and a professional city planner. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in city planning at UCLA. Gray currently lives in Los Angeles, where he serves on the North Westwood Neighborhood Council. He is a widely published author, with work appearing in outlets such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg Citylab, and The Guardian.

Anuj Gupta leads a visionary and collaborative team at the Santa Monica Department of Transportation (DOT)—including the Big Blue Bus, Mobility, and Parking Divisions—dedicated to the strategic planning, construction, operation, and maintenance of a comprehensive multi-modal transportation network. Comprised of more than 470 employees, DOT delivers programs and services that ease congestion, expand access to safe and reliable transportation, connect people with opportunity, and promote climate resiliency. Under Anuj’s leadership, in collaboration with city staff, intergovernmental agencies, and community and regional partners, DOT advances the City Council’s mobility, roadway safety, and sustainability objectives.

Before joining DOT, Anuj served as Santa Monica’s deputy city manager for six years, overseeing the City’s communications and legislative/intergovernmental advocacy teams, while leading policy initiatives focused on economic recovery, equity, and community partnerships. Previously, Anuj served in the administrations of President Barack Obama as associate staff secretary in the White House and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as general counsel in the Office of Immigrant Affairs. He holds a BA in public policy from Stanford and a JD from NYU School of Law. Anuj lives in Santa Monica with his wife and young children.

Norm Van Eeden Petersman is the Director of Movement Building at Strong Towns. Petersman has published articles on housing, transportation, faith, and culture, and his writing appears regularly on the Strong Towns site. He is an energetic enthusiast for the work that Strong Towns members do around the world.

Petersman spent ten years pastoring churches in Canada as a preacher, teacher, and leader. He's worked in communications and stakeholder outreach for the mayor of Surrey, British Columbia, and the federal minister of health in Ottawa, Ontario. Petersman's been a tree planter and construction laborer. He grew up on a dairy farm in Alberta. Today he coaches soccer, promotes cycling, and advocates for better land use in his community of Delta, British Columbia as the leader of Deltans for People-Oriented Places.

Pete Peterson is a leading national speaker and writer on issues related to civic participation, and the use of technology to make government more responsive and transparent. He was the first executive director of the bipartisan organization, Common Sense California, which in 2010 joined with the Davenport Institute at the School of Public Policy to become the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership.

Peterson has co-created and currently co-facilitates the training seminar, "Public Engagement: The Vital Leadership Skill in Difficult Times" a program that has been attended by over 4,500 municipal officials, and he also helped to develop the program, "Leading Smart Communities," which explores the ways in which technology is changing local government processes. Peterson has served as the chair of the Governance Committee for the Public Interest Technology-University Network.

Peterson writes widely on public engagement for a variety of major news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle, as well as numerous blogs. He contributed the chapter, "Place As Pragmatic Policy" to the edited volume, Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern America (New Atlantis Books, 2014), and the chapter "Do-It Ourselves Citizenship" in the volume, Localism in the Mass Age (Wipf & Stock, 2018).

Peterson serves on the boards of the Jack Miller Center and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, as well as the National Advisory Council for the Ashbrook Center, and on the Scholars Council for Braver Angels. He represents the School of Public Policy in the Public Interest Technology-University Network (PIT-UN).  Peterson has served as a member of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, organized by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the nonprofit, Sophos Africa. Peterson has served on the Leadership Council of the bipartisan reform organization, California Forward, and has been a public affairs fellow at The Hoover Institution.

Peterson was the Republican candidate for California Secretary of State in 2014.

Mitchell Reardon is Director of Urban Planning at Happy Cities. He is an award-winning community builder who specializes in healthy urban planning, design, and research.

Reardon's projects, experiments, and research have helped clients deliver active transportation and public transit projects that support health, wellbeing, and sociability. His work is informed by diverse and sometimes unorthodox approaches to urban planning, design, engagement, and research. He has helped create smiles in cities around the world, from Vancouver to Denver, Mexico City to Rotterdam and beyond. Mitchell has pioneered public space wellbeing assessments, deep engagement approaches, and unique experiments on social trust.

His work and insights have been published or broadcast on Next City, BBC World, Wired, and more.

John Rossant is the founder and CEO of CoMotion, the Los Angeles-based events, media, and advisory group focused on sustainable mobility. CoMotion organizes the CoMotion LA and CoMotion MIAMI conferences on the future of mobility, and is the publisher of CoMotion NEWS, the webinar series CoMotion LIVE, and the Fast Forward podcast. Rossant is also the founder and chairman of the NewCities Foundation, a non-profit based in Montreal. He believes it is imperative that different stakeholders work together to improve the quality of life and work in the twenty-first century cities. From its founding 2010, NewCities' mission has focused on shaping a better and more sustainable urban future by generating and scaling ideas and solutions through events, research, and urban innovation projects—with a particular focus on the impact of new technologies on city-building. Rossant was previously Executive Chairman of PublicisLive in Geneva, Switzerland, the group responsible for the production of some of the most important gatherings of political and business leaders, including the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos and other WEF events around the world. In 2010, President Sarkozy of France asked Rossant to organize the e-G8 Forum on the future of the Internet, which took place in Paris in May of that year. Previously, John held several senior editorial positions at Bloomberg BusinessWeek, including europe editor. He has recieved a number of prestigious awards, including the Overseas Press Club Award and the German Marshall Fund's Peter Weitz Award for Distinguished Reporting. Rossant holds advanced degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the American University in Cairo. He is a member of the board of the Foundation Tocqueville in Paris, the Alliance for SoCal Innovation, and is a member of the Advisory Board of NEOM. He is also the founder and president of the Monaco Hydrogen Alliance, a non-profit insitution in the Principality of Monaco focused on promoting the use of renewable hydrogen in mobility and transportation.

Lindsay Sturman is the founder of the Livable Communities Initiative, a holistic plan to address Los Angeles' housing, traffic, and climate crises. She is the co-host of the podcast "Bike Talk," where her focus is on safe bike infrastructure and Dutch design and engineering. She was the founder of Larchmont Charter School and City Language Immersion Charter (CLIC). She has been a television writer and producer for twenty-five years.

Alissa Walker is a writer based in Los Angeles where she has covered transportation, housing, urban design, public space, and environmental policy for two decades. She edits the newsletter Torched, which tracks the legacy improvements that LA is making for its mega event era, including the 2026 World Cup, 2027 Super Bowl, and the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. Walker is the 2021 recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary for her writing on design and urbanism, and played herself on the traffic safety episode of Adam Conover's show, Adam Ruins Everything, "Adam Ruins a Murder." She lives in LA's historic Filipinotown neighborhood, where she is the co-host of LA Podcast, an avid ice cream consumer, and a mom to the city's two most enthusiastic public transit riders.

With nearly 30 years of senior government experience, Dr. Kurt Wilson is a local government advocate, researcher, and educator who is best known as the city manager during Stockton’s journey from being the largest bankrupt city in America to the second most fiscally healthy large city in America. Along with crisis leadership and the equitable delivery of public services, his primary research interest is the Policing of Black America, which leverages his background in front-line, oversight, and regulatory law enforcement roles. With a career spanning the private and nonprofit sectors, four cities, two state agencies, one county, and two federal agencies, he draws on the diversity of his professional experiences for classroom conversations. He currently serves as the executive director of the Western Riverside Council of Governments and the general manager of the Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency. Wilson holds a BS in organizational management and an MBA from the University of La Verne, a master in educational administration from California Coast University, and a doctor of law and policy at Northeastern University. In addition, he holds certifications in public leadership from Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; governmental accounting from University of Georgia; is a credentialed manager by International City/County Management Association (ICMA); and holds certifications in human resources, certified labor relations, and project management. Wilson served as the City Manager in Residence at Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy in 2015-2017 and 2019-2020.

David Zipper is a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, where he examines the interplay between transportation policy, technology, and society. David’s perspectives are rooted in his experience working within city hall as well as being a venture capitalist and startup advisor. He has consulted with numerous public agencies about regulatory strategy and has helped foundations including Arnold Ventures develop their philanthropic approach toward improving transportation outcomes.

A Contributing Writer at Vox and Bloomberg CityLab, David’s writing has been published in outlets including The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, and Fast Company. His stories focus on topics including America’s failures around road safety, transportation’s role in climate change, and strategies to grow transit ridership.

David holds an MBA with highest honors from Harvard Business School, an M.Phil in Land Economy (Urban Planning) from Cambridge University, and a BA with high honors from Swarthmore College.