OUR TEAM
LEAH SHAHUM
Founder & Executive Director
Leah is the Founder and Director of the Vision Zero Network, bringing two decades of proven success championing movements to advance safe, healthy, active transportation. She serves on the Steering Group of the national Road to Zero Coalition, as well as the Advisory Board of the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety (CSCRS) at the University of North Carolina.
As a German Marshall Fund Fellow, Leah researched Vision Zero strategies in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. Prior to that, Leah served as the Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, leading significant change on the streets and in the policies of this leading Vision Zero city. She also served as a policy maker on the Boards of Directors of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District and the SF Municipal Transportation Agency, as well as the national Alliance for Biking and Walking.
JENN FOX
Program Director
Jenn is a non-profit professional who applies her science expertise to improve public policy. She is the former Executive Director of the Bay Area Space Open Council, a network of 65+ nonprofit and public agencies serving tens of millions of Bay Area residents through the trail maintenance and stewardship of 1 million acres of publicly accessible park lands. Over the last 20 years, Jenn has worked internationally as a Director at the ClimateWorks Foundation, and locally, writing the first greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan for the City of Oakland.
TIFFANY SMITH
Program Manager
Tiffany Smith is a public health professional who brings a passion for radical collaboration to her advocacy work. Prior to joining Vision Zero Network, she served as the Program Manager of Family Planning Services at the Institute for Family Health, where she worked with community health centers to scale up their reproductive health services and on advocacy efforts to mandate Medicaid coverage of a novel birth control method in New York State. She has developed research exploring patient satisfaction with a self-administered birth control and conducted research assessing Puerto Rico’s health needs following Hurricane Maria. Based in Queens, NY, Tiffany holds an MPH in Health Policy & Management from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
ODION OVBIAGELE
Project Associate
Odion is a public health advocate who seeks to address our most pressing issues through an equitable lens. Before joining the Vision Zero Network team, she worked alongside the Greater Birmingham Alliance to Stop Air Pollution (GASP) to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 and air pollution in North Birmingham, Alabama in order to make policy recommendations and achieve environmental justice. Currently, Odion is pursuing a Master of Science in Health Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health — where she is also working on a research project exploring ways to enhance racial and social equity through public transportation.
KATE FEFELOVA
Program Associate
Kate has a background in urban planning research and experience supporting roadway safety, including walkability, livable cities, complete streets, active transportation planning, and Vision Zero.
As Vision Zero Network Program Associate, Kate works in the areas of program research, analysis, communications, partnership building, fundraising, and administration. Feel free to reach out to Kate if you have any questions on Vision Zero.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
BOB DALLAS
Bob Dallas is a civil lawyer with extensive experience in developing and implementing public health and safety behavioral programs. In 1989 Bob co-founded Safe Kids of Georgia and has spent 25+ years working on public health and transportation safety initiatives, 20 years as a planning commissioner, and 8 years as Georgia’s highway safety director. Bob currently chairs Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety (PEDS) and was appointed by DeKalb County to serve on the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority board. He also serves on the Road Safe America, Cowart Family Ashford-Dunwoody YMCA, and Dunwoody Planning Commission boards. Bob now works with DEKRA North America to develop and implement Vision Zero policies.
BELLA DINH-ZARR
The Honorable Tho Bella Dinh-Zarr, PhD, MPH, is Senior Advisor to the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) and the FIA Foundation. She co-founded the 05 Saves Lives Coalition to prevent deaths and injuries from drinking and driving. Dr. Dinh-Zarr has served as Vice Chairman,
Acting Chairman, and the 42nd Board Member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Previously, with the FIA Foundation, she played a key role in incorporating road safety into the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and has also worked at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Texas A&M Transportation Institute, AAA, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Born in Vietnam and having volunteered and studied in Paraguay, Chile, and the U.K., Dr. Dinh-Zarr is committed to advancing transportation that is safe and ethical for everyone.
NATALIE DRAISIN
As the North American Director & United Nations Representative for the FIA Foundation, Natalie Draisin leads the organization’s activities across the Americas and advances evidence-based solutions focused on safe systems and equity around the world. She ensured the inclusion of road safety in UN Sustainable Development Goals, and lobbied US Congress to encourage the World Bank to implement minimum safety standards on roads. Highlights of her global partnerships include founding Vision Zero for Youth with the National Center for Safe Routes to School and scaling it globally with the Institute for Transportation Development and Policy and the World Resources Institute. She authored UNICEF guidance about preventing COVID-19 and road traffic injuries on the journey to school, created a Conflict Technique Toolkit with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and enabled the foundation of the New Mobility Initiative at Johns Hopkins University.
NICOLE FERRARA
Nicole Ferrara is Chair of the Vision
Zero Network’s Advisory Committee. She is a leader in the City of Oakland Department of Transportation’s Great Streets Division and the manager of Oakland’s Vision Zero initiative. Prior to Oakland, Nicole was the executive director of Walk San Francisco, the city’s pedestrian advocacy organization working to reclaim San Francisco’s streets as
safe, shared public spaces for everybody to enjoy. Nicole has served on the Caltrans District 4 Pedestrian Advisory Committee, the City of Berkeley Transportation Commission, and the board of the Alliance for Biking and Walking.
NIKO LETUNIC
Niko Letunic is a principal at Eisen | Letunic, a transportation, land use
and environmental planning firm based in the S.F. Bay Area. Niko has almost 25 years of professional planning experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors. A long-time resident of San Francisco,
Niko was born in Ecuador and raised in Colombia. He was the founding board president of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, has served on the Citizens’ Advisory Committee of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and is currently on the board of directors of
Walk San Francisco, a pedestrian advocacy organization.
JUAN MARTINEZ
In his current role as Senior Advisor for
State Legislative Affairs, Juan Martinez lobbies to advance the City of New York’s transportation and infrastructure policies, including successful campaigns to expand automated enforcement and win adoption of
congestion pricing. Previously, Juan served as the Director of Traffic Operations Policy at the NYC Department of Transportation, where he led policy development for several of the agency’s Vision Zero efforts, including the expansion of pedestrian right of way within crosswalks. Previously, Juan was General Counsel & Legislative Director at Transportation Alternatives, one of the nation’s leading walking and bicycling nonprofits, where he led the campaign to commence NYC’s speed camera program and helped lead the campaign which led to the adoption of Vision Zero in NYC.
JAMILA M. PORTER
Jamila Porter, DrPH, MPH is Chief of Staff
at the de Beaumont Foundation, where she serves as a key advisor to the
President & CEO, leads the execution of strategic priorities, and works across teams to drive organizational impact. Dr. Porter’s work focuses on transforming the interconnected social, environmental, and
power structures that impact health. Her expertise includes public health, active transportation, policy evaluation, injury and violence prevention, and equity and social justice. Dr. Porter authored the first
study to link the adoption of a Complete Streets statute to statewide, multi-decade decreases in pedestrian fatalities. Dr. Porter is a lifelong Atlantan and serves on the board of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.
MARTHA ROSKOWSKI
Martha Roskowski brings people together to develop and implement strategies for
sustainable and equitable mobility. At her consultancy Further Strategies, she’s worked on parking reform, congestion pricing, greenhouse gas budgets, zero-emission freight, and increasing funding
for advocacy efforts. Previously, she helped cities build protected bike lanes with the Green Lane Project. She ran the campaign in Congress that created the national Safe Routes to School program and was deemed the “godmother of Complete Streets” for helping launch that movement. Other jobs include running the City of Boulder’s transportation planning, programs, and policy shop and leading advocacy group Bicycle Colorado. She also serves on the advisory committee for the board of Better Boulder.
CLAY VEKA
Clay Veka is the Vision Zero Program Coordinator at the Portland Bureau of Transportation in Oregon. She has worked in traffic safety for almost 15 years and joined Portland’s Vision Zero program when it launched in 2015. Having led the development of Portland’s Vision Zero Action Plan, she now manages implementation efforts including major street redesigns, safe streets legislation and expansion of Portland’s automate enforcement program. Clay is committed
to advancing racial justice through Vision Zero.
MANTILL J. WILLIAMS
Mantill Williams is an award-winning association executive with more than 24 years’ experience in public relations, grassroots and advertising outreach in the area of transportation and land use issues. Since March of 2019 he was named the Vice President of Public Relations and Communication Strategy for the National Association of REALTORS® which is the largest trade association in America. Before that he served as the Director of Advocacy Communications for the American Public Transportation for twelve years, where he led the association’s public relations, grassroots and advertising outreach. Before this he served as the Director of public relations for AAA. His experience also includes serving as the Director of Member services for the American Trucking Association.