Lisa Bitzer
Lisa Bitzer is the Director of Operations at Via Mobility Services. Via, is a private non- profit, 501-C3 community-based transit agency, serving the Denver metro and surrounding areas. She has been involved in the transportation field for almost 2 decades, serving in a variety of different roles.
Angel L. Bond, MPA
Angel Bond is the Boulder County Mobility for All Program Manager. She has over twenty years’ experience in the public sector, demonstrating consistent success coordinating collaborative projects and bringing together diverse interests at the international, national, regional, and local levels of government.
For the past nine years, Angel has worked in the field of mobility management and transportation equity. In her current role as Boulder County Mobility for All Program Manager, Angel’s work ranges from facilitating the Local Coordinating Coalition to planning and implementing projects that improve access to multimodal transportation options for older adults, individuals with disabilities, and low-income households in Boulder County. She oversees transportation assistance, educational, and planning efforts focused on improving access to equitable, affordable, and accessible transportation for underserved or vulnerable populations.
Angel is passionate about equity, collective impact, and inclusive planning to achieve human-centered, transportation solutions. She prides herself on creating dynamic teams and a positive culture of innovation.
Curtis Chong
Curtis Chong was born in Hawaii and lived there for twenty years. Because he was born prematurely (weighing in at only two-and-a-half pounds), he was placed in an incubator. Unfortunately, at that time, the incubator delivered too much oxygen, causing his retinas to be irreparably damaged.
For more than four decades, he has worked to improve the ability of blind people to use computers and other technologies. Since 1969, he has been active in the National Federation of the Blind, promoting civil rights and improved services for blind people in Hawaii, California, Minnesota, Maryland, Iowa, New Mexico, and now in Colorado.
Before entering the field of work with the blind, Curtis spent more than 20 years working in information technology. He programmed his first mainframe computer in 1972, at a time when computers did not talk to the blind. As a designer/consultant at American Express Financial Services (now Ameriprise), he provided technical support for mainframe database and communications software, maintaining systems for sighted coworkers within the company. From 1997-2002, Curtis worked as the Director of Technology for the National Federation of the Blind, supporting internal information technology for the Federation and its external programs to improve nonvisual access technology for the blind in several different areas. He then spent fifteen years in Iowa and New Mexico as a nonvisual access technology specialist in work with the blind.
From October 1998 through April 1999, Curtis served as a member of the Electronic Information and Technology Access Advisory Committee of the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board; this group prepared the preliminary standards which were later used by the Access Board to implement Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Curtis also served on a second Access Board committee, appointed ten years later, which developed updated technical standards for Section 508; these standards have been incorporated into published federal rules.
Today, Curtis Chong has retired from paid employment. Nevertheless, he continues his work to help blind people to live the lives they want regardless of their blindness. He continues to volunteer as a nonvisual access consultant for the National Federation of the Blind. In this capacity, in 2019, he and his colleagues in the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado worked to pass a law which enables people with disabilities in Colorado who cannot fill out the printed mail ballot without help to mark their ballots online using the assistive technology with which they are most familiar. In 2021, Curtis and his colleagues in the blind community worked to pass a second voting bill which makes it possible for registered Colorado voters with print disabilities to return their ballots electronically.
Cady Dawson
Cady has nearly 20 years of multimodal transportation planning experience ranging from municipal planning efforts to county, regional and statewide plans. Cady’s experience includes specific emphasis on optimizing multimodal network connections, including a comprehensive understanding of the interrelationship between land use and transportation and the importance of first- and last-mile connections. Focusing her career on transit, she has vast experience with short-and long-range transit planning, strategic planning, financial assessments, feasibility studies, gap and needs assessments, coordinated human services plans, grant writing, and transit system management. Paramount to Cady’s work are her creative style and personal touch that result in inclusive, community supported and implementable plans that work to close the equity gap and improve mobility for all.
Robert Epstein, Vice Board Chair
Former VP, Colorado Mobility Coalition
Former President and Board Chair, Colorado Senior Lobby
Angela Fletcher, CPM, ARM
Angela has been involved with the affordable housing industry for 34 years and currently is the Director for the Housing Management Division for the Denver Housing Authority. Angela is responsible for 6,000 apartment units, 175 employees and a budget of $1.9 million. Angela has experience in multi-family, public housing, project based – 811/8, 202/8, tax credit, home, rural development and conventional housing. Angela holds certifications in: LIHTC, Public Housing Manager, Blended Occupancy, Accredited Residential Manager and Certified Property Manager.
Angela has a BS in Business Administration with a minor in real estate management from Peirce College and holds a Colorado Real Estate Broker License. Angela is also involved with the Institute of Real Estate Management – IREM 17 – Past President, Past President of the Affordable Housing Management Association – Rocky/AHMA and current Board Member, Past President of the Apartment Association of Metro Denver (AAMD) and current Board Member, serves on the Affordable Housing and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committees for the National Apartment Association (NAA). In addition, Angela is involved with the REACH Advisory Board with the Colorado Housing & Finance Authority (CHFA) and she was recipient of the Outstanding Women in Business Award in August 2022 from the Denver Business Journal.
Jennifer Hussey
Jennifer is a native of Colorado married with four children and eleven grandchildren. She enjoys being outside and spending time with her family. Jennifer has thirty years of experience in the field of transportation. For the last eight years Jennifer has supervised the Easy Ride program with the City and County of Broomfield. The Easy Ride program provides transportation services for senior citizens as well as adults with disabilities.
Joan LaBelle
Joan has lived with her disability since the age of five. She has served in almost every position within Centers for Independent Living (CIL) across the country and has more than 35 years (both as a youth and an adult) within the disability movement. In particular, she has focused on oversight and expansions of programs, ensuring quality assurance of programs, meeting regulations and oversight of funding from a variety of sources.
Additionally, Joan has been active on Boards across the country, serving on several committees and implementation of strategic planning/development. She has been Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and Secretary.
Joan has been a state, local and national presenter on a variety of topics ranging from technical Funding Formulas to fun Disability Rights Jeopardy.
Currently Joan is serving as the City and County of Denver’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator within the Division of Disability Rights where she focuses on Title II of the ADA.
Bill Van Meter, Board Treasurer
Bill is the Assistant General Manager, Planning for the Regional Transportation District (RTD). He has been employed with RTD since 1991 and has been in his current position since 2010. Bill has over 31 years of experience in the transportation planning field, with experience in public transit and roadway planning, managing multi-modal transportation studies, Federal Transit Administration New Starts and Small Starts grant funding programs. Bill currently represents RTD as a Commissioner on Colorado’s Southwest Chief and Front Range Passenger Rail Commission and as a non-voting Board member of the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
Tanith Nusbeitel
Tanith Nusbeitel is a transplant from San Diego, California. They are an Operations Manager within Colorado Coalition for the Homeless’ Transitional Housing department. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they worked for the Coalition as part of the AR/PA program to coordinate the transportation of several hundred COVID positive individuals to converted hotel units to safely isolate within under the supervision of medical professionals.
Tanith holds a master’s degree in International Human Rights from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. They are passionate about improving access and services for vulnerable populations throughout Colorado.
Jacob Riger
Jacob Riger is the long range transportation planning manager for the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). Jacob develops and maintains DRCOG’s Metro Vision Regional Transportation Plan, which identifies the major multimodal transportation projects, programs, and services to be provided over the next 20+ years for the Denver region. Jacob’s team is also responsible for DRCOG’s transit, freight, safety, bicycle/pedestrian, and transportation performance management planning activities. Jacob is also a Commissioner and past vice chair of Colorado’s Southwest Chief and Front Range Passenger Rail Commission. He has 25 years of public agency and private sector transportation planning expertise across the country. Jacob is the DRCOG ex officio member of the DRMAC Board.
Jan Rowe
Jan is the Assistant Director of Transit Programs for CDOT’s Division of Transit and Rail. He has been with CDOT for over 4 years in a planner role, aiding multimodal transportation solutions that provide benefits to all transportation users in Colorado. Jan has experience with large discretionary federal and state grants, FTA formula grants, corridor studies, and led the first interstate transit study for Colorado looking at a transit route between Cheyenne and Fort Collins. His current position at the Division of Transit and Rail has involved him directly with transit and mobility agencies across the state, and he has become the main voice for those providers and their customers within CDOT.
Bill Sirois
Bill has over 30 years’ experience in transportation and land use planning in both the public and private sectors. Currently Bill is the Senior Manager of Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) for the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in Denver. At RTD, Bill acts as agency’s primary liaison with the development community, local jurisdictions and other stakeholders on transit-oriented development and transit planning projects. Bill has played a pivotal role with multiple TOD projects which have advanced from conception to construction including Alameda Station Village (Denizen), Depot Square in Boulder, Denver Union Station, and the Olde Town Arvada TOD Pilot project. Recently, Bill has played lead roles in key planning efforts including Reimagine RTD and the Systemwide Fare Study and Equity Analysis.
Andrea Suhaka, Board Chair
Andrea Suhaka served on the founding Centennial Council, 2001-2008 and then moved on to serve 12 years on the Centennial Planning & Zoning Commission. Also, in 2007, she was elected to the Centennial Home Rule Charter Commission. She is a graduate of the Transit Alliance Citizens’ Academy and was a founding member of Transportation Solutions Arapahoe County. Throughout 2015, she worked with the Affordable Fares Task Force sponsored by Mile High Connects and continues to follow and take part in the Arapahoe County Transportation Forum. She is a Board member of the Denver Regional Mobility & Access Council (DRMAC). She graduated from Douglass College of Rutgers University in 1970 and retired from Girl Scouts – Mile Hi Council in 2007 after a 21-year career. Growing up in New Jersey, Ms. Suhaka bussed to summer jobs in New York City. She is a resident of Centennial, RTD District G. (Term expires 2023)
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