Public Transit Executives Share Leadership Lessons
10/12/2026
With a charismatic panel, the October 5 TRANSform & EXPO session on leadership drew a crowd to APTA Central, located among the more than 700 exhibitors on display at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, IL.
To kick off Unlocking Your Executive Presence, James Bradford, CEO of Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, welcomed a group of students and young professionals, saying, “This conversation is really for you. The people sitting up here didn’t simply wake up one morning with an executive title. There was a journey to get here.”
So, what did executive presence mean to the people on stage? Listening, being curious and confident, and creating a safe space for communication were a start.
“For me, leadership is about creating that environment where people trust you,” said Ray Melleady, president of STER, North America, LLC, and chair of the APTA Business Member Board of Governors. “I go back to what I wanted when I was on the front lines of operations, and you want clarity in terms of what’s expected of you. You want to know how it’s measured, and then you want accountability. Trust, involvement, accountability is the foundation.”
Melleady started working at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority right out of high school and worked his way up the ranks. Panelists Derik Calhoun, chief transportation officer, Bay Area Rapid Transit, and Karen Philbrick, executive director, Mineta Transportation Institute, started in transit in college and postgrad, respectively.
Joining the industry mid-career, LaShawn King Gillespie, deputy CEO of Foothill Transit, found an advantage in her inexperience. “I didn’t grow up in transit,” she explained, “… so what’s worked for me is being able to show that vulnerability… ‘Hey guys, I can’t do what you do. However, I want you to teach me everything you can. I want to be able to speak intelligently about these topics, and I want you here with me.’”
Advice for acting like a leader was comically frank: Pretend you already are one. Melleady was told, “Walk fast and look like you know where you’re going.” Calhoun heard slow down, see the big picture. Philbrick, a trained psychologist, developed her leadership voice in networking groups, and took a cue from science.
“The self-talk and the narrative I weave in my brain impacts my performance,” she explained. “If your thoughts and your actions do not align, it produces a state of psychological dissonance until you change one or the other. So…fake it till you make it.”
Asked about how to deal with challenges in the workplace, such as having a conversation with an underperforming employee, panelists discussed having clear intentions and keeping it simple.
Calhoun said, “You can hold people accountable respectfully, and you do that by making sure that your door is open. You also communicate effectively and make sure that everything you have set in front of them is clear.”