Austin City Council and CapMetro Board of Directors appoint community representatives with expertise in architecture, engineering and construction; finance; and community planning or sustainability
Austin City Council and CapMetro Board of Directors finalized the appointment process for the community expert director positions. The terms for the three community expert directors will commence in January 2025.
The Austin Transit Partnership Board of Directors is comprised of five voting members responsible for providing leadership and oversight of ATP, a local government corporation established to plan, design, construct and implement light rail. Austin’s first light rail system will feature 15 stations and consist of electric-powered trains, miles of new walk and bike paths lined with shade trees and will be an engine for thousands of jobs for Texas.
The Austin City Council and CapMetro Board of Directors reappointed both Veronica Castro de Barrera and Juan Garza and appointed Kammy Horne, who will be new to the ATP Board. The community expert directors bring important knowledge in areas of architecture, engineering and construction; finance; and community planning or sustainability, bringing decades of experience to their respective roles.
“I am thrilled to continue to work with Veronica and Juan who have been instrumental in advancing progress,” said Greg Canally, ATP’s executive director. “The work to date to advance Austin Light Rail could not have been achieved without the overall leadership of the ATP Board. We are equally as excited to begin to work with Kammy. This group’s extensive knowledge is vital to the project’s ongoing success and solidly positions ATP as we propel Austin Light Rail forward.”
Veronica Castro de Barrera brings professional experience working on public transportation and multi-modal projects. She will continue to serve in her current role as the community expert director in engineering and construction. In addition, she has served as the chair of the ATP Board of Directors for the last four years. Castro de Barrera also serves as the lead campus and mobility partner for the Office of Planning, Design and Construction at the University of Texas at Austin and is a member of both The Congress for New Urbanism and Design Austin Boards of Directors. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and registered architect in the state of Texas.
Juan Garza currently serves on the ATP Board as the community expert director in planning or sustainability and will transition to the appointed position of community expert director in finance as the new term begins next year. Garza served as the general manager of Austin Energy from 2000-2008, the chief financial officer and then city manager for the City of Corpus Christi, and as interim chief executive officer at Driscoll Children’s Hospital. Garza is actively involved as a Capital IDEA Board Member. He formerly owned a consulting firm, providing financial and management advice to companies and their senior executives and continues to provide advice to Central Health on an as-needed basis. In addition, he has held senior financial and executive positions at Central Health, NRG Energy Inc. and Pedernales Electric Coop.
Kammy Horne, who was appointed as the community expert director in planning or sustainability, is the chief executive officer of Mpact, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to building vibrant communities around transit. Horne brings extensive experience in the transit industry, having worked at many levels of government and in both the private and public sectors. Before joining Mpact, Horne served as the senior vice president for Development and Planning at VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio. In this role, she led multiple departments and spearheaded the development of new projects under the “Keep San Antonio Moving” initiative. Horne’s career also includes significant roles as a consultant with HNTB, AECOM, and Michael Baker International, where she worked on various transit projects across different cities including for Capital Metro on Project Connect. Additionally, she has experience with the Federal Transit Administration and the Texas Department of Transportation.
The newly appointed ATP Board members will convene in early 2025, with an item on the ATP Board meeting agenda for the three community expert directors to draw for two-, three-, or four-year term lengths. Subsequent terms of the community expert directors will be four years. The Austin City Council and CapMetro Board of Directors also separately appoint a member to represent each respective entity. These two members, along with the three community expert appointees, compose the five-member ATP Board.
Information about the Austin Transit Partnership Board of Directors is available at atptx.org/atp-leadership.
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