RPA is pleased to announce the addition of four new members to its Board of Directors, who were elected to the 101-year-old organization at its June meeting. The leaders bring many years of expertise in the fields of transportation, construction, infrastructure, and communications. They will join an esteemed group of professionals that help support RPA’s operations, set its strategic vision and reach its policy goals.
Sarah E. Feinberg
Founder, Feinberg Strategies LLC
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Sarah E. Feinberg is the founder of Feinberg Strategies LLC, a strategic communications, CEO advisory, public policy and operations firm specializing in advising companies in the transportation and tech sectors. Feinberg founded her firm in 2017, following a career that spanned years of government service, as well as deep experience in the tech sector.
During 2020-2021, Feinberg served as the President and CEO of New York City Transit – the largest transit agency in North America and home of the iconic NYC Subway. The system is served by more than 54,000 employees, spans hundreds of miles of track, and serves, on average, more than 9 million riders each weekday. Feinberg’s service as NYCT President was notable for its timing – just days into her tenure, NYC became the epicenter of Covid-19 in the US. Feinberg led the agency’s aggressive response to the pandemic, maintaining subway and bus service for New York’s essential workers, as other transit agencies shut down or scaled back service dramatically. She also led the agency’s unprecedented efforts to message safety to the NYC riding public, clean and disinfect the subway system each day, test and vaccinate all employees, improve security in the system, assist in overseeing capital projects large and small, and begin the process of restoring ridership. Feinberg was the second woman to lead the agency in the subway’s more than 100 years.
Prior to serving as NYCT President, Feinberg served as the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, the sole safety regulator for the U.S. passenger and freight rail system, and the oversight agency for every rail grant and large capital rail project in the U.S. Feinberg was nominated for the post by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the Republican-led U.S. Senate. As FRA Administrator, Feinberg developed and enforced rail safety regulations; managed a multi-billion rail investment portfolio; finalized two of the largest multi-billion loans in US DOT history; and became known as one of the leading voices championing safety for the riding public across the country. Feinberg was again the second woman to lead the agency.
Prior to leading FRA, Feinberg served as Chief of Staff at the US Department of Transportation, where she served as the operational lead for the multi-modal agency and its more than 57,000 employees. As Chief of Staff, Feinberg led the agency’s day-to-day operations, as well as all agency and regulatory actions related to modern day transportation challenges including autonomous vehicles, drones, aviation, etc.
From 2009-2010, Feinberg served in the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. At the White House, she served on the teams leading the response to the country’s fiscal and economic crisis and the H1N1 flu pandemic.
Feinberg also served on Capitol Hill in both the US Senate and the US House of Representatives, was director of policy communications at Facebook from 2010-2013, and served as Bloomberg LP’s Global Director of Communications and Business Strategy. Feinberg previously served on the boards of Amtrak and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and currently serves on the boards of Rand Logistics and the NHP Foundation. She also serves as a senior advisor to Applecart, a NY based marketing technology company, and Boston Consulting Group’s public sector practice.
Feinberg is a resident of the East Village in New York City and a native of Charleston, West Virginia.
Kristin Mott
Managing Partner Amberlake Capital
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Kristin Mott is the Founder and Managing Partner of Amberlake Capital. With a distinguished career featuring extensive experience across various alternative investment classes including hedge funds, private equity, real assets, real estate, and credit, Ms. Mott established Amberlake Capital, a premier provider of outsourced marketing and investor relations services. The firm caters to both emerging and established investment managers specializing in real assets, infrastructure, credit, and mission-oriented strategies.
Prior to founding Amberlake Capital, Ms. Mott held senior roles in investor relations and marketing at prominent firms such as MC Asset Management Americas (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation), Arrowhawk Capital, and DKR Capital Partners. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and is recognized as a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
Ms. Mott’s contributions to the industry have been acknowledged with the “Excellence in Private Equity” Award by Markets Media. She is actively involved in various industry organizations, notably co-chairing the Global Council of 100Women in Finance. Beyond her professional achievements, Ms. Mott is dedicated to her community, serving as an elected Representative Town Meeting member and Chair of the Library and Museum Arts Committee in the Town of Westport, CT.
Jason Redd
Managing Director, Stono Public Affairs
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Jason (Jay) Redd has a wealth of strategic public affairs experience and is well versed on a range of policy issues targeting political, governmental, and legal affairs. Having spent the past decade serving in roles at the highest levels of New Jersey government and lobbying on behalf of a broad client base, he possesses a unique combination of internal knowledge and external experience that is critical to the successful management of a challenging roster of clients, from former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to the Reform Alliance. He has provided strategic guidance to multinational life-science companies and innovative social-enterprising nonprofits. To quote one of his colleagues, “He is on a first-name basis with the movers and shakers of New Jersey--people answer his call.”
Jay believes in the value of connection, focusing on impactful results while leveraging his charismatic and energetic networking skills. His longstanding relationships within government, insights into the legislative and executive processes, and deep understanding of the regulatory issues faced by businesses in the current economy enhance the services he provides.
Jay has been widely recognized for his notable achievements in government affairs. He was a 2016 recipient of The Network Journal’s 40 Under Forty Achievement Award and has been named to the New Jersey Super Lawyers Rising Stars and New Jersey Law Journal “New Leaders of the Bar”lists. In 2014, Jay was honored with a Young Alum Award by the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, where he served as an adjunct professor of public policy and is on the Public Policy Dean’s Advisory Board. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University Law School where he teaches lobbying and advocacy and is on the Alumni Board at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University.
Jay is also involved extensively in pro bono work and community service, including work on domestic violence and mental illness, and is a former president of the Trenton Board of Education.
Nick Sifuentes
Program Director, Sustainable Cities, The Summit Foundation
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Nick serves as Director for the Summit Foundation’s Sustainable Cities program, which works to ensure our cities reduce carbon emissions and pollution through radical climate action, with an aim of full carbon neutrality by 2050. The Sustainable Cities program provides grants to organizations in the U.S. that challenge the structures that inhibit climate progress, with a particular grantmaking focus on grassroots, policy, and environmental justice organizations. He also serves as the co-chair of New York Philanthropy’s Environmental Funders Table and the Equitable Transportation Fund and sits on the boards of the Spring Street Climate Fund and Spring Street Action.
Prior to joining Summit, Nick was the Campaign Director for the Northeastern U.S. for the Energy Foundation, where he led grantmaking and strategy with grantees throughout the region. Before his career in philanthropy, Nick was an advocate: he was the Executive Director of the U.S-based nonprofit Tri-State Transportation Campaign and, before that, the Deputy Director of the Riders Alliance. In those roles, he was one of the leaders in the fight to win congestion pricing in New York and has won campaigns focused on funding billions of dollars in transit and transportation improvements in the greater New York City region. While at Tri-State, Nick served on several government advisory councils in New York and New Jersey.
Nick was also the Sierra Club’s Northeastern Communications Director and a Senior Associate at BerlinRosen, where he advised advocacy organizations on strategy and communications. He began his career working in economic justice at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, where he led campaigns for workers’ rights in the transportation, construction, and hotel industries. Nick’s opinion pieces and other writing have appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, New Jersey Star Ledger, and other outlets, and he has appeared in print, radio, and television hundreds of times as an expert on transportation policy. He is a native of the L.A. region and often cites growing up in the county with the worst air quality in the U.S. as a powerful motivator for the work he does. Nick is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and now resides in New York City, where he spends his free time working on a forthcoming book from Island Press about how advocates won congestion pricing.