Leanne REDDEN

Leanne Redden is the Executive Director of the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), which oversees finances, secures funding, and conducts transit planning for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, and Pace. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a collaborative approach to solving complex issues and securing sustainable funding for public transit. Under Redden’s leadership, the RTA developed the 2023–28 regional transit strategic plan Transit is the Answer, created through collaboration and engagement with thousands of diverse voices to address adapting and improving the system post-COVID. Prior to the RTA, Redden was Chief of Planning for the Illinois Tollway and Director of Transportation for the Village of Schaumburg. She serves as the Chair of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and was elected Secretary to the 2022–24 WTS (Women’s Transportation Seminar) International Board of Directors. In 2021, she was appointed as one of two “U.S. Ambassadors” to the Policy Board that governs UITP (Union Internationale des Transports Publics, or the International Association of Public Transport), founded in 1885 to advocate for sustainable urban mobility.