Leticia Leon

Sept. 16, 2011

Director of Operations

R&D Transportation Services Inc.

Currently, Leticia Leon serves as director of operations for R&D Transportation Services Inc. Early in her transportation career, Leon showed star qualities; especially her willingness to take on a wide variety of challenges, including dealing with demanding customers and difficult consumers. These qualities, combined with excellent communication abilities, including her bi-lingual language skills, enabled her to rapidly advance.

She was quickly promoted to customer service manager; becoming responsible for R&D LLC's reservation and dispatch departments, which served various city transit and paratransit contracts in the greater Los Angeles area. These contracts included the much acclaimed West Valley Smart Shuttle, a LADOT route deviation demonstration project. During her tenure with R&D LLC, company revenues increased dramatically as customers were attracted to the high quality service that she helped provide.

In November of 1999, Leon transferred to R&D Inc. as scheduling manager and became responsible for maintaining cost-effective and efficient route design and monitoring vendor performance for R&D's specialized transportation contracts throughout California.

In 2008 Leon took the lead in responding to Access Services Inc.'s (ASI) call for proposals to provide fixed route travel training throughout Los Angeles County. And, as a result of Leon's efforts, R&D was awarded the contract. Furthermore, as a result of Leon's leadership, the project has been so successful that in October 2010, ASI extended the term. In an Oct. 29, 2010 report to the board of directors, ASI staff wrote that: "R&D has proven to be a great asset for Access Services as well as a great resource for our disabled and senior riders." Furthermore, the report goes on to say that: "Access saved $2.1 million over the course of the contract," and recognized Leon for her outstanding contribution to the success of the project.

In 2010, Leon was promoted to the position of director of operations, thereby assuming responsibility for all of R&D’s operational departments, including scheduling, customer service, quality assurance and field operations. Recently, and as a direct result of Leon's leadership, R&D scored a 98 percent satisfaction rating on its annual quality assurance survey.

Throughout her career, Leon has been active in the transit and paratransit industry, including membership in the Accessible Transportation Coalition and the California Association of Coordinated Transportation. Furthermore, even though working full time, Leon actively pursued educational opportunities; in 2005 she successfully completed a Transit and Paratransit Management Certificate from the University of the Pacific's Eberhart School of Business, in August 2007 she graduated from California Lutheran University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management, and in the fall of 2011 she plans to return to school to pursue her Master’s in Business Administration.