Alma Mater: Middlebury College; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
What’s your best experience on transit and what made it memorable? I have transit to thank for getting to my wedding on time. When a snowstorm hit New York City the day I was supposed to fly out for my wedding, all the airports shut down and Amtrak's trains were cancelled. Luckily, I was able to find a flight out of Philadelphia that afternoon and took a combination of New York City Transit, New Jersey Transit and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to make it there on time. Definitely a memorable start to the wedding weekend!
Ann McGrane started her transit career as an intern at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. After completing her master’s in city and regional planning, she joined the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Leadership Fellow program. She then moved into the policy office at New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT), where she developed and piloted city-wide policies to support multimodal transportation. After her time at NYC DOT, she joined Stantec, where she led a variety of strategic plans and studies around the country.
Following her time at Stantec, McGrane joined the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) as a transit technology senior program manager, taking on a primarily technical coordination role managing zero-emission bus activities. Being flexible and ready to grow, she eagerly took on additional responsibilities and grew in this role to be the project manager and subject matter lead for NVTC's technical support for a General Assembly Joint Subcommittee study of funding options for transit agencies in Northern Virginia. She continues to manage day-to-day internal efforts in this area and interfaces with local and regional colleagues.
More recently, and in recognition of her leadership skills and strong work performance, McGrane was promoted to the newly created role of deputy director of programs and policy. She is now responsible for the management and development of NVTC’s program analysts in addition to her other transit policy work. Colleagues say she has eagerly gone above and beyond by taking on a direct supervisor role for junior staff, providing them with the coaching and oversight necessary to thrive in NVTC and in the industry.
During her time at NVTC, McGrane has had a direct impact on transit innovation, coordinating regional advancements in fare technology and zero-emission buses, including leading the Northern Virginia Zero Emission Bus Strategic Plan. Her work in funding policy and research has helped elevate NVTC’s role in shaping regional and statewide funding options for consideration by the Commission and General Assembly. She led the Value of Northern Virginia Transit to the Commonwealth report, which demonstrated transit’s $1.5 billion net positive impact to the state. A skilled communicator, McGrane translates complex topics into compelling visuals and narratives for elected officials and policy makers. She guided the development of NVTC’s StoryMaps and funding guides, presented to the Virginia General Assembly, transit advocates and conferences like the Virginia Transit Association. These efforts have not only improved communication practices within NVTC, but also empowered decision-makers to better understand and support transit in the region.
While McGrane has already made a great impact on the transit industry, she places great emphasis on bringing others along with her. Colleagues say she brings out the best in management, staff, peers and local and regional colleagues. A true servant-leader, she places great value on mentorship and lifting up those around her. She makes sure junior staff have the tools, coaching and guidance they need to success and thrive in the organization.
She has been especially supportive of women in the industry, a demographic still underrepresented in transit. For example, she was a volunteer for the WTS International - Washington, D.C., Chapter’s mentoring program from 2021 to 2022 before co-chairing the mentoring program from 2022 to 2023.
In addition to mentorship, McGrane regularly attends industry conferences like the Zero Emission Bus Conference and the Virginia Transit Association (VTA) Conference. She also participates in transit advocacy, including attending the VTA’s Transit and Rail Advocacy Day, where transit operators, advocates and partners visit Richmond to discuss the importance of transit with Virginia’s elected state representatives. She also attended the Eno Transportation Mid Manager training in the summer of 2025. Through this training, she learned new skills and advanced her mentorship, coaching and leadership skills to continue developing the next generation of NVTC staff.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I enjoy that my work has a tangible (and hopefully positive) impact on people's everyday lives. I believe that our communities benefit when transit, walking and biking are feasible and reliable alternatives to using a car. I see my job as supporting this vision for a more multimodal and affordable transportation future.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
A consistent challenge of my job is conveying the importance of transit to those who don't use it. In my work in the transit funding space, it is important that decisionmakers and the general public understand transit's critical role in the economy and the larger transportation network.
What is your best advice/tip/best practice you can share from your area of expertise?
I think it is important to learn how your bureaucracy works, especially if you serve in the public sector. You can have great ideas, but if you don't understand the system you're working in, you'll struggle to implement them.
About the Author
Megan Perrero
Editor in Chief
Megan Perrero is a national award-winning B2B journalist and lover of all things transit. Currently, she is the Editor in Chief of Mass Transit magazine, where she develops and leads a multi-channel editorial strategy while reporting on the North American public transit industry.
Prior to her position with Mass Transit, Perrero was the senior communications and external relations specialist for the Shared-Use Mobility Center, where she was responsible for helping develop internal/external communications, plan the National Shared Mobility Summit and manage brand strategy and marketing campaigns.
Perrero serves as the board secretary for Latinos In Transit and is a member of the American Public Transportation Association Marketing and Communications Committee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in multimedia journalism with a concentration in magazine writing and a minor in public relations from Columbia College Chicago.