Washington, DC – One day after COMTO’s A View from The Hill, President & CEO April Rai and Board Chair Dr. Lester Woods joined (D) Rep. Andre Carson for the Congressional Black Caucus Transportation Braintrust centered around the theme, Connecting Communities to Opportunities. 

COMTO co-founded the CBC Transportation Braintrust with the late (D) Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland to ensure community voices are included in transportation policy. Congressman Cummings’ legacy was alive in the Washington Convention Center Ballroom C during a robust and engaging panel on community access and the future of transportation.  

“We have to get young people more excited and interested in the transportation industry,” said COMTO Board Chair Dr. Lester Woods, Jr, “and I'm proud to say COMTO has an amazing internship program. We’re preparing engineers, we’re preparing administrators, attorneys, accountants, and human resources professionals. So, we have to beat the street and get our young people excited about, watch this, not just jobs but careers.” 

Actress and talk show host Claudia Jordan moderated the panel featuring Congressman Carson, COMTO Chair Dr. Woods, Christopher Coes, CEO of America FWD, Veronica Davis, CEO of Northway Strategies and author of Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities, Terry Travis, Co-Founder of EV Noire, and Joell Gamble Copeland, Chief Economist of General Motors.  

“We need something new,” said Chris Coes of America FWD, “what we’re seeing now is a Windows 95 transportation system upgrading to an iPhone.” 

Coes urged the audience to be active participants in transportation policy. Though he said the Reconnecting Communities program was not kept in BUILD America 250 proposal passed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, progress is still being made. For instance, the USDOT Thriving Communities Program which COMTO serves as a capacity builder, is successfully approaching its third year and is continuing to advance transportation projects of 16 communities around the country.  

The CBC Transportation Braintrust was cosponsored by GM and CSX.