Staff

Heather Menninger | Principal (Click for RESUME)
With more than twenty years of experience, Heather Menninger is familiar with all aspects of implementing transit service improvements with particular emphasis on community-level transit programs for small urban and rural settings.  Ms. Menninger holds three degrees, a Bachelors of Arts in American Studies from Hampshire College, a Master’s Management of Human Services from Brandeis University, as well as a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from California State Polytechnic University at Pomona.  She has published various papers, including two in the Transportation Research Record regarding paratransit demand estimation, and on innovation in rural and small urban settings with the Transit Cooperative Research Program.

As a sole-proprietor, Ms. Menninger brings professional evaluation, problem solving skills and expertise to analysis and evaluation of public transit programs, both large and small, having led numerous countywide planning initiatives.  Ms. Menninger has served as a project manager for: comprehensive operations analyses for rural and small urban transit; transit development plans; strategic, long-range and countywide transit planning;  performance assessment of transit programs;  coordinated transportation planning; senior transportation and non-emergency medical transportation planning studies; human service transportation evaluation studies; Americans with Disabilities Act trip modeling, planning and service design; staffing of mandated advisory groups; transit performance measurement, monitoring and reporting; telecommute needs assessments; and contracted staff assistance to regional transportation planning agencies.

Dennis Brooks | Program Administrator
Dennis brings to AMMA his strengths of qualitative analysis and strategic thinking and planning. His deliberative focus lends to much of AMMA’s project development and financial planning.  Dennis’ organizational capabilities involve understanding and translating conceptual ideas into approachable visuals. He also provides considerable insight and experience to AMMA’s work with transit operations such as scheduling, dispatching and vehicle deployment developed through four years working for a magazine wholesaler. Managing a regional distribution network, Dennis’ responsibilities included the supervision of daily routing, delivery and sales functions, across the four-county Los Angeles basin.  

AMMA staff since 2007, Dennis provides critical support and management for various projects and clients related to coordinated and specialized transportation. His responsibilities include compilation and statistical analysis of financial and operational data; needs assessments; creation of demand estimates; construction, maintenance, and analysis of extensive databases; and assisting in preparation and production of transportation related documents such as bid proposals, inventory surveys, and final transit reports. Some         AMMA projects and clients include San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG), Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC), Greensboro Transit Authority (GTA), Loc Angeles County Area Agency on Aging (AAA), Los Angeles Metro, Access Services Inc. (ASI), Placer County Transportation Planning Agency (PCTPA), San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG).

Dennis’ professional accomplishments include: growing Aubry Magazine’s account base in Orange County by 25% in one year, including establishing 70 new accounts within nine months; acquiring Life Insurance and structural pest control licenses from the State of California; and awarded Top Retail Manager nationwide while District Retail Manager for Distribution Services, Inc. Dennis has completed the Transit Management Certificate Program through University of the Pacific and several National Transit Institute training courses, including cost allocation workshops. Further studies include computer aided business administration and general education coursework.

Valerie Sedig | Analyst
Our newest staff member, Valerie Sedig, is a strong writer and critical thinker. She brings analytical and problem-solving skills honed through her studies in literature and languages, including Portuguese and Spanish. Her coursework involved in-depth literary criticism, theory, and interpretation, with an emphasis on the literature of different peoples and cultures. She brings, too, a strong background in customer service established through five years as a barista in both university and corporate settings. Valerie’s academic and work experiences have developed in her a cultural competency which supports AMMA’s work in diverse environments.

As an analyst for AMMA, Valerie’s responsibilities include assitsting in preparation, writing and production of specilaized transportation reports; facilitating and presenting at senior travel training workshops; public outreach efforts, including stakeholder interviews and consumer surveys; management and analysis of data; planning and coordinating meetings; assiting in production of proposals; and administrative support for clients such as San Bernardino Associated Governments and Riverside County Transportation Commission.

Valerie graduated in 2008 from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a Bachelor of Arts in World Literature and Cultural Studies. She was awarded Phi Beta Kappa, college honors, and honors in the major. Her undergraduate studied included studying at PUC in Rio de Janerio, Brazil.

Terri Litchfield | Database Design Consultant
Terri Litchfield is responsible for the design of numerous relational databases to facilitate analysis of collected survey data on behalf of AMMA clients that include County of San Diego, Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines, Norwalk Transit System, City of Mission Viejo, and Riverside County Transportation Commission, among others.  She has developed various special applications related to management of transportation-related information.  Some major projects include database design and maintenance for the publication of the San Bernardino County Specialized Transportation Inventory published over a fifteen year period for the County Transportation Commission  a Paratransit Information Service for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (now LACMTA) and development of various paratransit ADA rider registries for: City of Whittier, City of Barstow, Victor Valley Transit Authority, City of Downey.  Terri holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Anderson College and a Master’s Degree in Mathematical Statistics and Computer Science from Ball State University.

Associates

Collaborative efforts often include:

Roy Glauthier | Principal | Transportation Planning and Policy
Starting in October 1996, Transportation Planning and Policy provides transit and paratransit technical assistance to cities and communities with special emphasis on community-level policy and operating issues.  Direct operating experience in local fixed-route service, paratransit and special services for seniors and individuals with disabilities allows a focus on specific issues and provides practical alternatives and recommendations.  Roy has managed and directly participated in well over 200 consulting engagements to cities, counties, and transit agencies nationwide.  For agencies as diverse as the Chicago Transit Authority, the Via Metro Transit in San Antonio Texas, the Yuba-Sutter Transit Authority in Marysville, CA, and the Honolulu Public Transit Authority. 

Selena Barlow | Transportation Marketing Consultant | Transit Marketing LLC
Selena Barlow is the owner of Transit Marketing, LLC.  She began her transit career as Director of Marketing for SunTran in Tucson, AZ, and later for Metro-Dade Transit in Miami, FL. As a transit-marketing consultant, since 1988, she has worked with more than 100 transit agencies to conduct market research, develop marketing plans and support service development efforts.

Ms. Barlow  works with AMMA to provide a customer focus to the planning process.  Through a combination of market research, community outreach and decades of experience, Ms. Barlow insures the transit services are developed to effectively meet user and potential user needs, and hence to maximize ridership and productivity.  Her expertise in market research and communications, combined with her intimate familiarity with transit planning and operations, allow her to offer creative, yet pragmatic recommendations for service development and enhancement.

Ms. Barlow's role typically involves the use of  data from passenger surveys, segmentation research, focus groups, destination data and customer experience audits to identify the service characteristics which will enhance rider satisfaction and maximize utilization of a new or existing service.  She has worked with all types of services local and express bus systems, paratransit services, rail systems and rural transportation programs to help them understand their markets and to expand their customer base.  Selena holds a Master's of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Arizona and a Bachelors of Science in Advertising from University of Florida.

Daniel Boyle | President | Dan Boyle and Associates Inc.
Dan Boyle offers 30 years of transit planning and operations experience for transit agencies throughout the United States.  In addition to having his own transit consulting firm, he works as a Senior Advisor to TOA on many projects in Florida and the southeastern United States.  Recent studies include comprehensive operational analyses/short range transit plans for Metro-Dade Transit in Miami, Fl, the Cities of Norwalk and Whittier (CA), the City of Lawrence (KS) and the University of Kansas, and the City of Laguna Beach, CA.  He is also working with TOA on the COA project for Sarasota County Area Transit. 

He continues to work as a technical planning consultant for the Antelope Valley Transit Authority (Lancaster, CA) and is the lead firm for Transit Cooperative Research Program Project A-29, which involves the preparation of a scheduling manual for the transit industry.  Daniel Boyle holds a Master’s Degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University.

Michelle Kirkhoff | MK Consulting
Michelle Kirkhoff Consulting (MKC) is a recently formed Women-Owned Business, providing independent consulting services to government, transportation and the clean energy sectors.  Michelle Kirkhoff, Owner/President, has been a key player in the California Transportation arena for the past 22 years and her experience has resulted in the implementation of cutting edge and cost-effective transportation programs.  Her expertise is vast and covers all phases of transit, mobility and clean energy program development, implementation and operations.  She has experience with program visioning, planning, State and Federal legislative processes, financial and market analysis, budgeting, studies and reports, marketing materials, promotional campaigns and event management, as well as developing scopes of works, requests for proposals, procurement and contracting.  She started at the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) in 1988 and then served as the Director of Air Quality/Mobility programs at the San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) from 1995 through 2010.  Ms. Kirkhoff has a Masters in Business Administration and a Bachelor's Degree in Music.

Ellen Blackman | Principal | Ellen Blackman Consulting Services
Ellen Blackman has more than 20 years of experience focusing on transportation for older adults and persons with disabilities. For two years she developed a new transportation program for older adults in the greater Santa Monica area. A major part of this project-development involved community outreach and presentations to large and small groups of older adults discussing the new program and other forms of transportation available for older adults. Earlier, as a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee, she initiated agency funding for the “Seniors on the Move” transit-orientation program and worked with the Los Angeles County Commission on Aging Transportation Committee in the early development of the program. In addition, she led local reviews of Section 5310 applications, provided technical assistance to agency staff on accessibility requirements, and made presentations on transportation options for seniors and persons with disabilities at workshops and meetings of these groups. She also participated on the Los Angeles County Long Term Care Coordinating Council, serving as co-chair of the Transportation Work Group.  And she has served as the ADA representative on Metro’s Technical Advisory Committee. As a consultant, she has assisted agencies in the preparation of applications for federal funding for capital grants for transportation of older adults and persons with disabilities, participated in the development of public transit-human service transportation coordination plans, and conducted research on information needs of persons with vision disabilities using public transportation.  Ellen holds a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside and a Master's of Arts in Political Science from Northwestern University.

Roger F. Teal | President | TWJ Consulting LLC
Dr. Roger Teal, President of TWJ Consulting, has over 30 years of experience in transportation as a consultant, researcher, university professor, and designer/developer of software solutions. Dr. Teal is a former tenured faculty member in Civil Engineering at the University of California-Irvine. His involvement in paratransit, public transportation, and taxicab regulatory policy spans 4 decades, and he is widely recognized for his expertise in these areas. Dr. Teal is the author of over 30 publications and has been a principal researcher for two TCRP studies related to paratransit, A Handbook for Acquiring Demand-Responsive Transit Software (project A-6) and Toolkit for Integrating Non-Dedicated Vehicles in Paratransit Service (project B-30). He has been involved in more than 20 consulting studies of public transportation, paratransit, and taxis, and has been an expert witness in several taxicab regulatory proceedings. Dr. Teal is an entrepreneur whose firm is an information technology company that develops software-based solutions for operations management and scheduling needs in the telecommunications and transportation sectors. It has recently developed next generation mobile software applications (including automated scheduling) for the general public demand responsive transit services of the Denver Regional Transportation District. He and his firm have also recently developed OptiRun, a software application that generates optimized vehicle deployment and driver shift schedules for large paratransit operations. Dr. Teal is also an accomplished project manager who during his tenure at TWJ has directed two large, multi-million dollar software application development projects to a successful conclusion. Dr. Teal holds a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering from MIT, an Master's of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of California-Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Tufts University.

Lynn Ricketts | Transit Oriented Design Consultant
Lynn Ricketts, an award winning designer and art director, joins the
AMMA team for our newest ventures.

Lynn began her career with product design and has honed her skills over twenty-five years in a variety of dimensional design fields: graphics, interiors, architectural, museum and theme park design in both 2D and 3D forms.  Lynn's creative imagery and imaginative design is structured by her technical training in engineering and architecture.  Lynn's strengths lie in her ability to intuitively listen and translate her vision into physical designs.  Her ability to problem solve through space and images, brings to AMMA a new exploration of mobility and its challenges.

Lynn is particularly proud of her participation on several team projects: creating an international wayfinding signage for Walt Disney World's transportation system (monorail, buses, and ferries), maximizing destination access for guests with disabilities within tight budget & schedule parameters, and incorporating innovative construction solutions by providing affordable, aesthetic, and environmentally conscientious designs.

Recent work includes collaborating with AMMA on a Riverside County Transportation Commission project for Perris Valley Metrolink Extension.  She has previously worked on projects for The Walt Disney Company, Sea World, Ocean Park, Circus World, Church Street Station, Universal Studios, and Dubailand - as Project Lead, Senior Interior Designer, Senior Show Designer, Art Director, and Facility Design Manager.

Lynn Ricketts received her Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design from California State University at Long Beach.

John Johnson | Geographic Information Systems Consultant    
John Johnson has an M.B.A from the University of California – Irvine and a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon.  He provides technical support regarding mapping service areas while specializing in the development of custom geographic information system (GIS) solutions.  He has been particularly helpful in cases involving Senior Mobility and adult day health care programs where understanding service areas graphically can be revealing of gaps and duplication of services.  John holds a Bachelors of Arts in Geography from the University of British Columbia, a Master's of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Irvine.