About Us
Who we are and what we do
Mission
Seamless Bay Area is a not-for-profit project whose mission is to transform the Bay Area’s fragmented and inconvenient public transit into a world-class, unified, equitable, and widely-used system by building a diverse movement for change and promoting policy reforms.
To get there, we are:
Articulating a clear vision to inspire change
Raising public awareness & grassroots support; building coalitions
Changing professional culture
Advancing legislative reforms
Conducting tactical advocacy
Seamless Bay Area was founded in early 2018 as transit rider-driven grassroots group. A 501(c)3 non-profit entity, Seamless Bay Area Alliance, was set up in July 2019 focusing on education and awareness activities. In March 2020, a 501(c)4 entity was established as Seamless Bay Area and conducts both charitable and advocacy activities. Tax deductible donations may be made to our separate 501(c)(3) entity.
Our board meets monthly, and we also hold ~quarterly happy hours/general meetings. For our general gatherings, we welcome anyone interested in contributing energy and expertise as we work towards unifying the Bay Area's transportation governance.
Board Members
Beaudry Kock
Beaudry Kock is co-chair of Seamless Bay Area’s board. He has a background in urban planning and civil & environmental engineering, and has worked with organizations as diverse as Apple, the MBTA, Ford, and Daimler. He is passionate about delivering a better customer experience for all riders of mass transit, but especially for more vulnerable members of the community. He is co-founder and CEO of Upzone AI, a startup helping multi-family developers quantify and forecast regulatory risk.
Darnell Grisby
Darnell is a national thought leader in transportation policy and the mobility justice movement. He has deep expertise in transportation policy and funding, anti-racist initiatives, housing affordability, transit-oriented development, and the intersection of transportation and housing finance. Darnell is the former Director of Policy Development for the American Public Transportation Association, policy lead for a national smart-growth think tank, and a senior advisor in the California Legislature. He is former Executive Director at TransForm.
Dave Sorrell
Dave is the TDM Administrator for the University of California-Berkeley Campus, managing the Berkeley Moves! TDM Program for 60,000 students, staff, and faculty. Dave comes from the Chicago area where he was a transit planner and analyst (his specializations were TDM and Fare Policy/Programs with Ventra. He moves here four years ago as a planner with SamTrans, and later as a consultant with ALTRANS.
Felix
Pomerantz
Felix works on finance and organizational operations for Seamless Bay Area. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer at Stealth.
Jason Baker
Jason is a political consultant focusing on land use and local, regional, and state transportation and housing issues and campaigns. He previously served as Mayor of Campbell and on its City Council for eight years; SVLG Senior Vice-President of Transportation, Health and Housing; representative for the Bay Area’s Transit Recovery Task Force; and on more than a dozen regional boards and commissions including VTA, MTC, The Santa Clara County Housing Task Force, and as a board member and President of the Cities Association of Santa Clara County.
JQ Ramos
Jacqueline (JQ), she/they, is a sustainability and equity-focused head of research at Solutions 4 New Mobility Education (S4NME) with a business development and government affairs background in the autonomous and electric vehicles industries. At Seamless, she focuses on Policy and Advocacy as well as Engagement to promote and bring about the world-class transportation system that Bay Area residents deserve. As S4NME founder, Selika Josiah Talbott, says, “Transportation is Mobility and Mobility is Freedom.”
Ron Kilcoyne
Ron Kilcoyne has 40 years of experience in the transit industry, serving as General Manager for three transit systems – Santa Clarita Transit, Greater Bridgeport Transit and Lane Transit District. He focuses on Advocacy and Policy work for Seamless Bay Area, and leads research to determine where transit service should be increased.
Staff
Ian Griffiths
Ian Griffiths is Seamless Bay Area's Policy Director and Board Member. He has worked as an urban and transportation planner for the past 15 years in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, previously with BART, Metrolinx (Toronto), Perkins+Will, and AECOM. As a Station Planner at BART, he lead long-range station planning projects and oversaw the development of BART's Station Experience Design Guidelines. In 2021, he authored Governing Transit Seamlessly: Options for a Bay Area Transportation Network Manager. Email Ian.
Adina Levin
Adina is Seamless Bay Area's Advocacy Director and Board Member. She is also Executive Director of Friends of Caltrain, a nonprofit organization which supports successful modernization of Caltrain in the context of integrated system of sustainable transportation. She contributes to a variety of local and regional advisory bodies on transportation and connections between transportation and land use. She is a serial entrepreneur with a background for-profit and nonprofit ventures. Email Adina.
Kaleo Mark
Kaleo is Seamless Bay Area’s Policy and Advocacy Analyst. Kaleo was previously a fellow at the California High-Speed Rail Authority, where he led a wide range of communications affairs to expand and modernize engagement opportunities. His interest in public transportation is driven by his focus on socioeconomic and environmental justice. He recently earned his Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Email Kaleo.
Funding
Seamless Bay Area’s funding comes from individuals, grants, and corporate partnerships, including grants from Seamless Bay Area Alliance, a 501(c)3 organization (see their website for a complete list of their funders).
Additional corporate sponsors to Seamless Bay Area’s work in 2022-2023 include :
