Women's Transportation Seminar Names MTC Chair Tissier Woman of the Year

Oakland, CA — The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) this week named San Mateo County Supervisor and Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Chair Adrienne J. Tissier as its Woman of the Year. The influential international organization recognized Tissier for her leadership in the transportation industry as well as for her spirited leadership style and her consensus-building approach to tackling regional problems. Tissier, who also serves as Chair of the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, was cited for her work in helping Caltrain navigate its most recent budget crisis without cutting service, as well as for expanding the Bay Area’s award-winning 511 traveler information service, and advancing the regional Freeway Performance Initiative, which is using technologies such as ramp metering and signal timing coordination on adjacent arterials to speed travel times, improve safety and reduce tailpipe emissions.

Tissier long has been a champion of programs that support health, environment and safety, and is particularly enthusiastic in her support of Safe Routes to Schools, a program designed to decrease traffic and pollution and increase the health of children and the community. Tissier also has been a leader in efforts to ensure mobility for senior and disabled residents. She keynoted MTC’s 2005 Regional Summit on Older Drivers and spearheads a series of popular CHP Older Driver Traffic Safety seminars in San Mateo County that offer a half-day of classroom instruction engineered to help older drivers stay on the road for as long as possible and as safely as possible. Tissier was deeply involved in creating SamTrans’ Senior Mobility Action Plan, a comprehensive examination of the transportation challenges facing older residents, especially those who no longer drive. This plan provides various strategies, ranging from community-based transit to municipal shuttles and pedestrian-safety improvements, to produce solutions for the Peninsula’s aging population.

Tissier has served as a San Mateo County Supervisor since 2005 and as an MTC Commissioner since 2006. She previously served from 1997 to 2004 as a city councilmember in Daly City. Tissier is the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors’ liaison to the Commission on Aging and to the Children’s Fund and Jobs for Youth. She also chairs the Emergency Services Council and the San Mateo Medical Center Board of Directors, and serves on the Community Health Reform Advocacy Committee and the San Mateo Local Agency Formation Commission. From 2005 through 2011, Tissier served as the Board of Supervisors’ liaison to the San Mateo County Commission on the Status of Women, which provides leadership to develop policies, programs and legislation that address the needs of women, girls, and families.

“Adrienne has striven throughout her career to advance and support the careers of women in the transportation industry,” said Ann Flemer, MTC’s Deputy Executive Director for Policy. “Because of her accomplishments and caring, supportive style, along with her calm demeanor in the face of a wide range of challenges, she is an inspiration to untold numbers of women.”

MTC is the transportation planning and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. WTS is an international organization with nearly 5,000 members dedicated to the advancement of women in the transportation industry.

Contact:

John Goodwin, (415) 778-5262

Randy Rentschler, (415) 778-6780