Moving Missouri Forward Summit

Speaker Information

We are so excited to announce the individuals listed below will be speaking at the Moving Missouri Forward Summit. However, there are still more names to come!

We are currently finalizing a few more speakers and panelists who are set to speak on a wide range of topics. From general advocacy, like how to get involved, processes, relevance, etc; to intersections of transportation with other issues like geography, health, aging, etc; and everything in between. Check back later or stay up to date by following our social media.

Anna Zivarts (she/her)

Author of Then Driving Is Not an Option
linkedin.com/in/anna-zivarts

Anna Zivarts is a low-vision parent, nondriver and author of When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency (Island Press, 2024). Anna created the #WeekWithoutDriving challenge and is passionate about bringing the voices of nondrivers to the planning and policy-making tables. Anna sits on the boards of the League of American Bicyclists, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium and the Washington State Transportation Innovation Council. She also serves as a member of TRB's Committee on Public Health and Transportation (AME70) and the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center Coordinating Committee.

Charles Brown (he/him)

MPA, CPD, LCI - Champion for Transportation Equity, Global Thought Leader, and Advocate for Justice

Mr. Charles T. Brown is an author, professor, entrepreneur, and military veteran dedicated to advancing transportation equity as a fundamental social justice issue. A globally recognized expert in urban planning and mobility justice, he has spent his career working to dismantle systemic barriers to active transportation, ensuring safe, accessible, and sustainable mobility options for all—especially historically marginalized communities.

As Founder & Managing Principal of Equitable Cities, he leads innovative policies and research initiatives that promote walking, biking, and micromobility as key strategies for public health, economic opportunity, and climate resilience. His work has shaped national and international conversations on sustainable transportation, influencing federal agencies such as USDOT, HUD, DOE, EPA, and CDC and contributing to landmark programs, including the USDOT Thriving Communities Program and National Energy Renewal Laboratory’s (NREL) CCEEJI initiatives.

His impact extends globally, with keynote addresses in Winnipeg, Dublin, Amsterdam, Milan, and Leeds, UK, where he has engaged leaders on the intersection of mobility, racial equity, and environmental justice. He serves on the Global Safety Advisory Board at Lime, supporting micromobility solutions that prioritize equity and safety.

Mr. Brown is the creator and host of the award-winning Arrested Mobility podcast, a platform that exposes racial disparities in transportation and mobility. His upcoming book, Arrested Mobility: Overcoming the Threat to Black Movement, is already a #1 New Release in Urban and Land Use Planning and is expected to be a game-changer in transportation and racial justice discourse.

Beyond his advocacy, he is an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy, a Board Member for New Jersey Future and the World Resources Institute – U.S. Chapter, and Vice Chair of the Franklin Township, NJ Planning Board. His expertise has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg CityLab, and Vice.

A proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Mr. Brown is committed to mentorship and leadership development, donating thousands of dollars to support Kappa League initiatives that empower young men of color.

As a passionate advocate for active transportation, he believes that biking is more than a mode of travel—it is a vehicle for equity, freedom, and social change. His leadership continues to inspire communities to build more just, inclusive, and bike-friendly environments across the nation and beyond.

Sarah Owsley (she/they)

Advocacy Director
Empower Missouri
empowermissouri.org

Sarah Owsley is a people lover from Kansas City, MO. She is passionate about ending poverty, and knows that the Missouri state legislature must do more to ease the experience of our neighbors who struggle to meet their basic needs. That can’t happen without lawmakers hearing from the people who know the most about struggle. She spends her day as Empower Missouri’s Advocacy Director providing individual advocates and direct service staff with the training they need to practice legislative advocacy, share their stories, and plan strategies for systems change. She earned degrees from Avila University and the University of Kansas.

Hannah Conner (she/her)

Epidemiologist
Kansas City University

Hannah Conner, MPH is an Epidemiologist at the Kansas City University Center for Population Health and Equity. In her nearly five years of professional public health experience, she has developed a passion for understanding how social drivers of health affect the communities within the Kansas City metro. She received her Bachelors of Science in Biology from Truman State University and her Masters in Public Health from Drexel University. She spent the next four years at the Wyandotte County Public Health Department where she led their most recent Community Health Assessment and worked on issues spanning widely from COVID-19 to violence prevention to substance use to urban heat, all through the lens of equity. Additionally, she sat on the Wyandotte County Community Health Improvement Plan steering committee and the Complete Streets Traffic Plan for Rainbow Blvd. Now at Kansas City University, she continues to seek to understand how public health systems can be more equitable and how the built environment can be utilized to make optimal health and well-being the easiest choice for all.

Christina Williams (she/her)

Bike Bus Leader
Bike Walk Joplin
www.bikewalkjoplin.org

Christina Williams has been leading a successful bike bus to her children’s school since 2021. Now in its 4th year, most elementary students in Christina’s neighborhood ride to school daily with the Bike Bus. This year, she started a route extension from the elementary school to middle school.

When not riding bikes with the neighborhood kids, she works for Corner Greer & Associates, a Joplin-based architecture firm, as a project manager and interior designer.

She has been an advocate for active transportation for many years and participated in the Missouri Complete Street Consortium in 2020, served on Joplin City Council for the 2020-2024 term, and helped found Bike Walk Joplin.

Earl Simms (he/him)

Public Policy & Advocacy Manager
Paraquad

Earl Simms is the Public Policy and Advocacy Manager for Paraquad, a St. Louis based center for independent living that champions equity and independence for people with disabilities through services, partnerships, education, and advocacy.

Earl is an accomplished government affairs and communications professional with over 15 years of experience in policy analysis, advocacy, and campaign management. Throughout a diverse and dynamic career, he has demonstrated a proven ability to develop and implement effective strategies for influencing campaigns and policy at the local, state, and national levels.

With a background spanning the education policy sector, public health compliance, and political campaign and lobbying consulting, he has successfully managed complex projects while delivering measurable outcomes across a wide range of industries.

A native of Louisville, KY, Earl lives in the St. Louis Metro area with his wife, three daughters, and two rescue dogs.

Teona McGhaw-Ward (she/her)

Organizing and Advocacy Specialist
Paraquad

Teona McGhaw joined Paraquad almost two years ago as the Organizing and Advocacy Specialist. In addition to her lived experience as an above-the-knee amputee, as a senior-level paralegal with 20+ years of experience in criminal, personal injury, traffic, and workers’ compensation law, Teona brings with her a wealth of knowledge on how access, or lack thereof, to healthcare, education, and transportation impacts the lives Missourians across the State.

An advocate for women’s rights, Teona has served as a member of the National Women’s Political Caucus for more than 10 years; in 2022, she was elected as the first African American President for the Caucus in Missouri.

In 2020, Teona joined forces with a lifelong friend to start a nonprofit, The Mission Attempt, dedicated to serving their North St. Louis County community. Through partnerships and fundraising, The Mission Attempt helps provide back-to-school supplies for students, food for families in need, and toys and presents for children and families during the holiday season, all while supporting and celebrating black-owned small businesses and North County’s vibrant local community.

Aída Guhlincozzi (she/her)

Assistant Professor of Geography and Women's and Gender Studies
University of Missouri

Dr. Guhlincozzi studies healthcare accessibility for vulnerable communities. Her work incorporates community geography, Latinx geographies, feminist geographies, and qualitative GIS theory and methodologies.

Rikki Ascani (she/her)

Community Engagement Director
Local Motion
lomocomo.org

Rikki Ascani is the Community Engagement Director at Local Motion, where she serves as a vital bridge between the organization’s advocacy efforts and the voices of the community. Her work ensures that transportation advocacy is deeply informed by those who face the greatest barriers to mobility. Rikki’s passion for the transformative power of transportation was sparked during her time at Virginia Tech, where she first saw how buses could reshape and strengthen communities. Although she doesn’t come from a traditional transportation background, her career has always centered around people. From working as a fisheries biologist to engaging in grassroots activism and now community organizing, Rikki’s diverse experiences have equipped her with a unique perspective on the intersection of environment, community, and equity. In 2018, Rikki moved to Columbia, Missouri, to work for the Missouri Department of Conservation. Her growing interest in the ways physical spaces shape societal outcomes led her to pursue a master’s degree in Geography at the University of Missouri. Her studies focus on community geography, exploring how spatial injustices have contributed to broader societal inequities—particularly the role transportation systems have played in reinforcing those patterns. Rikki is passionate about creating inclusive, people-centered transportation solutions that promote equity, sustainability, and community well-being.

Walter Jenkins (he/him)

Data Storyteller
Geostack Solutions
www.linkedin.com/in/walter-k-jenkins

Walter worked in Public Transit since 2011 having worked for 3 different agencies as a planner, analyst and web application developer including Metro Saint Louis. Walter worked on specific issues in public transportation focused around redesign of full systems, federal reporting and disparate impact methodology and analysis.

Walter works in Saint Louis, MO on web development and analysis projects helping his clients tell stories with data. He is currently building TransitChat, a way for Public Transit agencies to document and track issues for reporting and analysis and FixItSTL, a 311 mobile app in coordination with the City of Saint Louis.

Mandy Buettgen-Quinn (she/her)

Engineer 1
City of Springfield
safeacross.com

Mandy Buettgen-Quinn received the International Baccalaureate in 2001 in Germany, two years after completing a year as an exchange student at Hillcrest Highschool, in Springfield, Missouri.

Mandy studied Transportation Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. After her undergraduate studies, Mandy continued her education with focus on crash-related bio and vehicular mechanics and human factors till 2005. During that time, Mandy became a student researcher for the European Commissions’ Advanced Passenger Safety Network (APSN) – an effort to create a network of excellence to unify research, best practices and standardization among member countries. APSN focuses on crash data, dummy development, virtual testing, structural crashworthiness as well as user groups and education.

Mandy moved to the United States in 2005 and started with Springfield Public Works in 2006. In the Traffic Engineering department, Mandy has gained experience in many areas, but currently she is leading Springfield’s Vision Zero program, the SGF Yields pedestrian safety campaign and its sharable version, SafeAcross. Her pedestrian safety program has won many local, state and national awards and last year, Mandy was honored with the Public Service Award by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In her spare time, Mandy and her family run a hobby farm and on weekends, she organizes an outdoor adventure group.

Ed Thomas (he/him)

Executive Director
Camden County Developmental Disability Resources
www.ccddr.org

Ed was born in Monett, Missouri, and grew up in Ozark, Missouri. He became the Executive Director for the Camden County Senate Bill 40 Board, dba Camden County Developmental Disability Resources (CCDDR), in March 2012. Since 2015, Ed has been addressing transportation challenges in local communities, more specifically as it relates to individuals with developmental disabilities seeking access to their communities. Since joining the CCDDR team, Ed is serving/has served in various professional and community service roles, including multiple transportation task forces and councils, community development/housing initiatives, developmental disabilities service associations, and more.

Ashley Buechter

Assistant State Design Engineer – Local Public Agency Administrator
Missouri Department of Transportation

Ashley Buechter, P.E., works for the Missouri Department of Transportation in the Design Division. She joined the Department of Transportation in June 2006 after receiving her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia in May 2006. Ashley currently serves as the Assistant State Design Engineer – Local Programs Administrator where she provides Local Public Agency oversight, Engineering Policy oversight, and CADD Services oversight. She is also a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Missouri.

Christy Evers

Administrator of Transit
Missouri Department of Transportation

Christy Evers is the Administrator of Transit for the Missouri Department of Transportation. She oversees the administration and management of the State of Missouri’s State Transit Assistance and Missouri Elderly Handicapped Assistance Program, as well as, the Federal Transit Administration Section 5304, 5310, 5311, and 5339 grants programs. At a local level, Christy serves as co-chair on the State Department Committee under the Missouri Statewide Transportation Taskforce, as well as a committee/board member of the Missouri Public Transit Association, Capital and Columbia Area Metropolitan Planning Organizations and the Master Plan on Aging Transportation Subcommittee. Nationally, she is member of the AASHTO Multi-State Transit Technical Assistance Program, American Public Transit Association, Community Transportation Association of America, Citizens for Modern Transit and AASHTO’s Council of Public Transportation. She holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance.

Leslie Herring (she/her)

City Administrator
City of Westwood, KS
www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-gust-herring

Leslie Herring is the City Administrator of Westwood, KS. She and her husband have maintained a car-lite lifestyle for over a decade. They intentionally remain a one-car household, walk as a primary mode of daily transportation, and regularly utilize ride-share to reduce parking congestion when visiting nearby urban neighborhoods. Leslie’s professional experiences so far have allowed her to develop depth in the areas of public works and infrastructure, community development and planning, economic development, regionalism, resident engagement, and process improvement. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, both from the University of Kansas. Leslie currently serves as the Kansas Co-Chair of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee at Mid-America Regional Council, as an alternate and regular attendee of the MARC Total Transportation Policy Committee, and is a member of the Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) Committee for Urban Land Institute (ULI) Kansas City.

Scott Ogilvie (he/him)

Program Manager for Complete Streets
City of St. Louis Planning & Urban Design Agency
@scottogilvieSTL

Scott is the Program Manager for Complete Streets with the City of St. Louis Planning & Urban Design Agency. He is currently managing the planning process to develop a Transportation and Mobility plan for the City. His role focuses on planning and design for multimodal transportation facilities across the city and transportation policy development and implementation.

Before joining the Planning and Urban Design Agency, he served on the St. Louis Board of Aldermen for eight years. While being a champion for active transportation, he passed several pieces of legislation to improve the city's non-motorized transportation amenities and policy, and secured funding to reconstruct the Penrose Park Velodrome, which re-opened in 2019.

Outside of work Scott enjoys spending time with his family, gardening, riding bikes, and enjoying the Midwest's best beaches.

Dorothy Yeager (she/her)

Executive Director
OATS Transit
www.oatstransit.org

OATS Transit is a private, non-profit transit provider serving 87 counties in Missouri since 1971. A graduate of University of Missouri, Ms. Yeager has been with OATS Transit in various roles for more than three decades serving as its Executive Director since 2012. She is also Past President of the Missouri Public Transit Association; a State Delegate for the Community Transportation Association of America; a member of the Society for Human Resource Managers; and is also a Certified Community Transit Manager (CCTM) which is a national certification program for transit professionals. This activity in transit at both the state and national level has served OATS Transit well, making it one of the most recognized community transit systems in the nation.

Kelly Ast (she/her)

Chief Regional Mobility Officer
New Growth Transit
www.newgrowthmo.org/transit

Kelly Ast is the Regional Mobility Chief Officer of West Central Missouri Community Action Agency’s, volunteer driver network, New Growth Transit. Her current work involves planning and development of mobility solutions, advocating for more rural transit support for a twenty-two-county territory in west central Missouri and in partnership with three sister agencies. In the past six years these efforts have produced a strategic plan that engaged over forty community partners, the launch of Missouri's largest volunteer transportation network and van pool program that works with large and small employers throughout Missouri.

Ast came to West Central from the Vernon County-based population health initiative Healthy Nevada, where she worked to drive innovation in rural living and health care. She led project development that addressed the social determinants of health, for youth and adult wellness. She advocated successfully for new policy that addressed tobacco regulation and the first adoption of a Prescription Drug Monitoring Network in Vernon County. She coordinated a local food gleaning project known as “Seeds of Faith”, serving the local food pantry and community kitchen. Most recently, she worked to establish a multi-use facility, for the local farmers market and youth 4-H chapters. Kelly started her professional career as a business owner before embarking in community development. She and her family reside in the countryside of Vernon County Missouri, on their family farming operation.

Sheridan Garman-Neeman (she/her)

Chief Operations Officer
New Growth
www.newgrowthmo.org

Sheridan is a strong leader in the rural economic development space. This is on top of her heartfelt love for rural and lifelong quest to improve life for the people she loves, in the places she loves. She now leads New Growth after several years building a partner nonprofit in the region, and being part of New Growth’s founding in 2017. She brings an extensive background in planning, business, finance, and economic development to the work of leading New Growth. New Growth is a community development corporation founded to solve for the gaps in rural community and economic development. New Growth has a food systems team and is the Co-lead on the Heartland Regional Food Business Center, has a nationally acclaimed volunteer transit program, and is the administrator of the New Growth Women’s Business Center. Additionally New Growth is an emerging CDFI with a microlending and credit building program.

Bailey Waters (she/her)

Chief Mobility Officer
City of Kansas City, Missouri

Bailey Waters serves at the Chief Mobility Officer for the City of Kansas City, Missouri. She has been there since 2022 and has helped the City start building a separated bike lane network. She also helps lead the City’s Vision Zero program aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities.

Dane Eifling

Mobility Coordinator
City of Fayetteville Arkansas
www.linkedin.com/in/daneeifling

Dane Eifling began working at the City of Fayetteville in 2014 as the City’s first Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator. From 2018-2020 Dane served in a joint role as the Bike/Pedestrian Coordinator for both the University of Arkansas and City. In 2020, Dane began a full-time role as the City’s first Mobility Coordinator with responsibilities including transit, micro mobility, traffic calming, Tactical Urbanism, walkability and bicycle network planning. Dane is a Fayetteville native; he serves part time in the U.S. Navy Reserves and has a BA in Human Geography from San Francisco State University.

Nick Voss (he/him)

Lead Consultant
WSP USA

Nick Voss has worked as a project engineer for the City of Lawrence and with WSP. He has a passion for roundabouts and complete street roadway design and loves when ideas can be implemented to provide benefits to the communities they serve.

Doug Hermes (he/him)

Statewide Planning Coordinator
Missouri Association of Councils of Government
www.macog.org

Doug Hermes is a professional community and regional planner with nearly 40 plus years of local, regional and statewide planning experience. Mr. Hermes has a bachelor degree in Sociology and History from Emporia State University (Kansas) and a graduate degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Iowa. He was past Planning & Zoning Administrator for Saline County, Kansas and Director of Community Development for the City of Liberty, Missouri. He currently serves as the statewide planning coordinator for the Missouri Association of Councils of Government (MACOG) – the state association representing Missouri’s 19 regional planning commissions and councils of government, a role he has held for 23 years.

Jollyn Tyryfter (she/her)

Assistant Extension Professor
University of Missouri

Jollyn Tyryfter is an Assistant Extension Professor with the University of Missouri’s department of Public Health where she guides a statewide network of specialists to develop policy, systems, and environmental changes to improve nutrition and physical activity for Missouri’s residents. After completing her Master of Public Health degree at Loyola University in 2015, she joined Purdue Extension’s Nutrition Education Program as a Community Wellness Coordinator before coming to Mizzou. Focusing on long-term, sustainable changes in limited-resource communities, she has worked with a variety of community stakeholders and championed several new initiatives related to improving food security, healthy food access, and active transportation opportunities.

Matt Messina (he/him)

Chief of Multimodal Transportation
Kansas Department of Transportation
www.ksdot.gov/programs/multimodal-programs

Matt Messina is a 2015 graduate of Arizona State University with degrees in Urban and Environmental Planning where he focused his studies on transportation infrastructure’s impacts on the communities they serve. He began his career with KDOT in 2016 as the state’s Bicycle & Pedestrian Coordinator which continued his passion to improve systems for affordable forms of transportation and for the most vulnerable of road users. In this role he began working on the first Pedestrians & Cyclists chapter of the 2020-2024 Kansas Strategic Highway Safety Plan and the 2023 Kansas Active Transportation Plan, the state’s first since 1995. Currently, Matt serves as the Bureau Chief of Multimodal Transportation which administers the state’s programs and initiatives related to Active Transportation, Public Transit, Freight and Passenger Rail, and Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and other Alternative-Fuels. He is known for commuting to work by bike throughout the year and can be seen around Topeka running errands, getting groceries, and handling school pick-up and drop-off using the family's e-cargo bikes. Matt lives in Topeka with his wife, Ariane (Air-ee-ann), their two kids, Miles and Lewis, and their two dogs.

Michael Kelley (he/him)

Policy Director
BikeWalkKC
www.bikewalkkc.org

Michael serves as the policy director for BikeWalkKC in Kansas City, Missouri. In that role, he leads the organization's efforts to advocate for the policies, plans, and projects that make it safer and easier for people to walk, roll, bike, and use public transit across the bi-state Kansas City region and beyond. As part of the leadership team within Missourians for Responsible Transportation, he helped to develop a model Complete Streets policy that has been used to craft some of the strongest policies of their kind in the country. Outside of BikeWalkKC, Michael serves as the vice chair for the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.

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