Dear Mobility Heroes,
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we thought we would craft the ultimate love letter to you, our mobility heroes, both past and present. As part of our love letter, we wanted to share some of the critical work you amazing women are currently doing in the transportation sector and also some of the work and actions that have inspired us, from our transportation heroes of the past.
We truly appreciate your outstanding contributions to the shared mobility industry and recognize that your past and current efforts are what will shape the future of transportation, for the better.
Love, movmi
Keep reading to learn more about some of our #MobilityHeroes or check out our ‘Women in Shared Mobility’ series, for interviews with some of the women leaders in the shared mobility industry.
A Love Letter To Our Mobility Heroes
Georgia Yexley
General Manager for UK & Ireland, TIER Mobility
Now in her second Micro-mobility company with Unicorn status, Georgia has worked in partnership with hundreds of cities across the globe, to reach their active and sustainable transport goals through micro-mobility. A firm believer that collaboration and partnership underpin sustainable services, Georgia now heads up TIER’s business and partnership with Cities across the UK & Ireland.
Georgia is a passionate advocate for inclusion and accessibility, and contributes to raising the volume of women and underrepresented groups in tech & mobility both in and outside of the workplace.
Dr. Mae Jemison
American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut
Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. Born in Alabama and raised in Chicago, Jemison graduated from Stanford University with degrees in chemical engineering as well as African and African-American studies. She then earned her medical degree from Cornell University. Jemison was a doctor for the Peace Corps in Liberia and Sierra Leone from 1983 until 1985 and worked as a general practitioner.
In pursuit of becoming an astronaut, she applied to NASA and in 1992, she became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Jemison left NASA in 1993 and founded a technology research company. She later formed a non-profit educational foundation and through the foundation is the principal of the 100 Year Starship project funded by DARPA.
Nadia Anderson, PH.D.
Director of Federal Affairs, INRIX
Nadia Anderson, Ph.D. is the Director of Federal Affairs at INRIX. Prior to this role, she was a member of Cruise’s government affairs team and also led Uber’s global public policy work on road and traffic safety. Nadia and has spent the majority of her career working on policy issues related to transportation, technology, mobility and equity. She’s worked with all levels of government, both domestic and international, and at major corporations like AAA and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (now the Alliance for Automotive Innovation).
Dr. Anderson is motivated by the belief that equitable access to mobility options is requisite for building cities and communities that are fair, resilient and prosperous. She holds a doctorate in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the University of Delaware, and is also a graduate of Virginia State University and the University of Virginia. Dr. Anderson is a native Virginian and currently resides in San Francisco, California.
Back in 2020, movmi interviewed Nadia as part of our “Women in Shared Mobility” series for a chat about diversity, equity and collaboration and how they are the key to successful future mobility. Watch the full interview below.
Rosa Parks
American Civil Rights Activist
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. She helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Led by a young Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the boycott lasted more than a year—during which Parks not coincidentally lost her job—and ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional.
Over the next half-century, Parks became a nationally recognized symbol of dignity and strength in the struggle to end entrenched racial segregation. The United States Congress has honored her as “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement.”
Tamika L. Butler, ESQ.
Founder, Tamika L. Butler Consulting, LLC
Tamika is a PhD student in the Urban Planning Department at UCLA and a national expert and speaker on issues related to the built environment, equity, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion, organizational behavior, and change management. From speaking, to writing, to training, Tamika has worked with a myriad of clients. As the Principal + Founder of Tamika L. Butler Consulting, she focuses on shining a light on inequality, inequity, and social justice. She provides consulting, training, coaching, and public speaking for a wide range of organizations in the public and private sectors.
Most recently, she was the Director of Planning, California and the Director of Equity and Inclusion at Toole Design. Previously, Tamika served as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, a non-profit organization that addresses social and racial equity, and wellness, by building parks and gardens in park-poor communities across Greater Los Angeles. Tamika has a diverse background in law, community organizing and nonprofit leadership. Recently she was the Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC). Prior to leading LACBC, Tamika was the Director of Social Change Strategies at Liberty Hill Foundation, and she worked at Young Invincibles as the California Director.
In 2020, we also interviewed Tamika as part of our “Women in Shared Mobility” series. Tamika shared her thoughts on how we can combat social inequity and anti-black racism within the shared mobility industry and its services. Watch the full interview below.
Kameale C. Terry
Co-Founder & CEO, ChargerHelp!
Kameale is the Co-Founder and CEO of ChargerHelp, Inc. an app that enables on-demand repair of electric vehicle charging stations and also the winner of movmi’s 2021 Empower Women in Shared Mobility Pitch Award. As the former Director of Programs at EV Connect, an electric vehicle charge station network provider, Kameale structured and led teams to execute electric vehicle infrastructure projects and programs in the United States, Australia, and Canada for commercial and government entities. Her most notable projects include the Electrify America – Phase One Program, the Southern California Edison Charge Ready Pilot, and the New York Power Authority portfolio.
Prior to this role Kameale created, hired, and oversaw the Customer Experience Department at EV Connect, by partnering with the Southbay Workforce Investment Board to employ candidates from the local community. As a South Central Los Angeles native, Kameale believes that an equitable green economy can be achieved through impactful workforce development and realignment.
Last year, ChargerHelp! became the winner of movmi’s first every ‘Empower Women in Shared Mobility Pitch’ Award! Watch Kameale take the victory below.
Bessie Coleman
Early American Civil Aviator
In 1921, a time of both gender and racial discrimination, Coleman broke barriers and became the world’s first African-American and Native American woman to earn a pilot’s license. Because flying schools in the United States denied her entry, she took it upon herself to learn French and move to France to achieve her goal. After only seven months, Coleman earned her license from France’s well known Caudron Brother’s School of Aviation.
Though she wanted to start a flying school for African Americans when she returned to the U.S., Coleman specialized in stunt flying and parachuting and earned a living barnstorming and performing aerial tricks. In 1922, she became the first African American woman in America to make a public flight.
Jay Pitter
Award-Winning Placemaker & Author
Jay Pitter, MES, is an award-winning placemaker whose practice mitigates growing divides in cities across North America. She spearheads institutional city-building projects specializing in public space design and policy, forgotten densities, mobility equity, gender-responsive design, inclusive public engagement and healing fraught sites. What distinguishes Jay is her multidisciplinary approach, located at the nexus of urban design and social equity, which translates community insights and aspirations into the built environment.
Pitter also makes significant contributions to urbanism theory and discourse. She has developed an equitable planning certificate course with the University of Detroit Mercy’s School of Architecture and taught a graduate level urban planning course at Ryerson University, among others. Jay also delivers keynote addresses for entities such as the United Nations Women and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the co-editor of Subdivided: City-Building in an Age of Hyper-Diversity, and her forthcoming book, Where We Live, will be published in 2021. Ms. Pitter is currently the John Bousfield Distinguished Visitor in Planning at the University of Toronto.
Check out our ‘Women in Shared Mobility’ series, for interviews with some of the women leaders in the shared mobility industry.
- Multimodal Transportation in India: Interview with Monalisha Thakur from Tummoc
- Financial Fridays: The Benefits of Electrifying Car Rental and Carshare Fleets
- Electric Micromobility in Africa: Interview with Céleste Vogel from eWAKA
- How to Integrate Micromobility with our Public Transportation: Cheat Sheet
- EmpowerWISM 2023 Award Ceremony
