2024 40 Under 40: Kimmy Feldbauer, AICP

Kimmy Feldbauer, AICP, joined the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in August 2022 as the agency’s director of strategic transformation and enterprise collaboration. In less than two years working at WMATA, Feldbauer has been promoted to chief of staff and strategic transformation officer. She has more than 14 years of experience, spending much of that time leading transformational projects across various transit agencies all over the U.S. 

In her time with the WMATA, Feldbauer has already demonstrated a commitment to making public transit more accessible, sustainable and reliable for the residents and visitors of the National Capital Region. Working with the WMATA Board of Directors and senior executive team, Feldbauer led and managed a team to develop a strategic transformation plan – Your Metro, The Way Forward – that has and will continue to advance the agency’s goals during the next five years. 

Colleagues noted Feldbauer showed leadership and sophistication in developing and implementing the process of gathering input from WMATA’s customers, employees and regional stakeholders. This was a massive undertaking with substantial, high-level stakeholder engagement with customers, elected officials, business leaders and transit advocates from across the region.  

Feldbauer was instrumental in taking public comments, input from the board, along with management guidance and direction to develop a transformative strategic plan. The strategic plan was adopted by the board in February 2023.  

Since then, she has been responsible for activating the plan by standing up WMATA’s first Transformation Office and regularly reporting progress made by the Transformation Team to the WMATA Board of Directors and regional stakeholders. Most notably, this plan has buy-in across a massive organization and engages employees at every level.

The realignment was envisioned to deliver the plan's objectives and sustain performance improvements across the WMATA. This significant change management process involved combining, shifting and realigning departments and roles, creating a new senior executive team and a new senior management team. The overarching goal of the realignment was to focus on delivering WMATA’s mission to provide safe, equitable, reliable and cost-effective public transit. The realignment was implemented in early December 2022 and has already yielded quantifiable benefits, including improved employee morale and sense of accountability.  

As a member of WMATA’s senior executive team, Feldbauer has contributed thoughtfully and positively to the discourse of the team. In addition to serving as the CEO’s key implementer of the transformation work and change management process, Feldbauer takes initiative and volunteers for projects. Feldbauer is fully engaged in her work, whether in her office, out in the field riding the WMATA system or engaging with WMATA front-line employees at stations, bus garages or other WMATA facilities.  

Prior to joining WMATA, Feldbauer was a project manager at AECOM in Austin, Texas, where she led many transformational and strategic transit projects. Most significantly, Feldbauer was part of the leadership team that worked with a coalition of groups supporting the passage of Project Connect (Proposition A in 2020) – a multibillion-dollar transit plan to deliver a new network of light rail transit (LRT), commuter rail and rapid bus in Austin. To advance Project Connect, Feldbauer served as the deputy project manager for a $30 million LRT design and environmental study commissioned by The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority.  

As part of the LRT design project, Feldbauer developed and led a high school intern program each summer with students who lived and went to school along the Project Connect corridors to foster excitement about the project and engage the next generation of transit professionals. 

Feldbauer has a bachelor of arts in sustainability and English literature from Arizona State University and holds a master of urban and environmental planning from Arizona State University. She is a 2022 graduate of the American Public Transportation Association Emerging Leaders Program and an active member on the Women’s Transportation Seminar -DC Chapter Board of Directors. Most recently, she also came onto the board of advisors of the Young Professionals in Transportation for the 2023-2025 term.  

Accomplishment you’re most proud of and why? 

I’m proud to work in a field that has a positive impact on so many people. I take immense pride in being part of an organization that connects thousands of people to destinations in our community every day.  I am proud to be serving on an Executive Team where I get to influence decisions and policies in a way that is authentic to myself and reflective of people who are traditionally not at the table for those conversations.

What is an accomplishment you would like to work towards in your career?  

Chief of staff was never a title I had in mind or job I was chasing. I want to keep challenging myself and taking on stretch roles in this industry I love so much. I recently had my first child and it is important to me to show her that ambition and work-life balance is not a zero-sum game.

Best advice/tip/best practice to share from your area of expertise? 

Two things- first is to be kind and be direct. And second, Shirley Chisolm said it best, if they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.