Please join us in welcoming Reetu Pethani as Vision Zero Network’s new Program Associate.
Reetu Pethani has joined the Vision Zero Network as our new Program Associate.
Reetu has been part of our team as an intern over the past year, helping to grow local engagement with the annual event World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and supporting research, program coordination and communications, including visual storytelling and graphic design. Now, she’ll be growing her role as a full-time staffer supporting communities’ road safety work. She’ll focus on connecting with passionate Vision Zero champions around the nation, identifying and sharing promising strategies and communicating what’s working and what needs to change to ensure safe mobility for all. Learn more about Reetu in our brief interview below.
Kate Fefelova, left, and Tiffany Smith, right, have been tremendous leaders within the Vision Zero movement. We thank them as they leave their roles for new adventures.
We wholeheartedly thank departing staff members – Kate Fefelova and Tiffany Smith – for their tremendous contributions to our organization’s advocacy and to Vision Zero progress nationwide.
Kate joined us in 2019 as a Vision Zero intern and grew her role to become our indispensable Project Coordinator. She significantly shaped Vision Zero Network’s speed management efforts, (including Intelligent Speed Assistance before it was a hot topic!), promoting the Safe Streets and Roads for All funding program, encouraging public agencies to focus on fleet safety, leading World Day of Remembrance organizing, and so much more. Meanwhile, Kate has offered behind-the-scenes expertise, offering project management and coordination skills that keep the Vision Zero Network running smoothly. Her combination of focus, commitment and passion are second to none.
Thank you so much Kate!
Tiffany joined Vision Zero Network in 2022 as Program Manager. She spearheaded development of groundbreaking resources, including: Prioritizing Health Equity in Vision Zero Planning; Right-Sizing the Role of Traffic Enforcement; and Fair Warnings – Recommendations to Promote Equity in Speed Safety Camera Programs. She led peer exchange calls among Vision Zero advocates nationwide, developed our Vision Zero City Recognition program, and influenced many important facets of our program work and communications. And she’s probably a familiar face to anyone who has joined our webinars, many of which she led, reaching thousands of people with valuable Vision Zero wisdom. Thank you so much Tiffany!
We’ve been honored to work with both Tiffany and Kate and wish them all the best in the world!
Q&A with Reetu Pethani, Vision Zero Network's Program Associate
Vision Zero Network: Reetu, what drew you to this kind of work with Vision Zero Network?
Reetu: My time studying at UC Berkeley gave me a real grounding in planning — how to read a street through data, how to spot danger before a crash happens. But I realized what actually keeps me up at night, in a good way, isn't the analysis, it's the mobilizing. A good plan can sit in a drawer forever unless someone's out there pushing to act on it. What drew me to Vision Zero Network is seeing how our work builds critical advocacy muscle, including supporting communities’ safety goals, sharing what's working city to city, and helping advocates learn from each other and stay in it for the long haul. It's advocacy at the scale of a movement, not a single campaign, and that's exactly the work I want to be part of.
VZN: What are a few of the efforts you’re most looking forward to working on in your new role?
Reetu: I'm especially excited about our work encouraging Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), a tool that has real promise for reaching repeat offenders, teens, and fleets before a crash happens. I'm also picking up our Support Advocates work, this year's World Day of Remembrance, and our Recognition Program, which celebrates communities doing real, hard-won Vision Zero work. And there's a new upstream speed report we're building with INRIX, which feels like a nice full-circle moment since that's the research I began my internship with. Mostly, I'm just excited to go from studying risk to helping build the programs that get that knowledge into the hands of people on the ground.
VZN: What’s something that you think would surprise people about the work Vision Zero Network does?
Reetu: I think many people don't know how small the staff is, especially given that just a few of us are reaching hundreds of communities nationwide – including transportation practitioners, advocates, policymakers and other road safety stakeholders. What makes that possible is how deliberately the Network is built – we're less a single organization doing the work and more like connective tissue helping lots of individual communities learn from each other and improve their work faster. So, each city doesn’t have to figure everything out on their own – they are part of a learning network to boost road safety significantly.
VZN: Finally, what are some of the ways you most enjoy spending your time…outside of this important Vision Zero work?
Reetu: I'm an outdoor person, so you'd likely find me exploring random trails, gawking at the most mundane piece of bark, sketching it, and trying to figure out which colors define it best – a trait that's never left me from my earlier days working in architecture. I also dance and box, which are my two favorite ways to get out of my own head for a while.
Please join the Vision Zero Network team in welcoming Reetu!