Roadmaps to Leadership: Regional Plan Association's Tiffany-Ann Taylor on Sustainable Mobility, Public Benefits, and Investing in Physical and Mental Health
Tiffany-Ann Taylor portrait by Shatimah Monaé Photography.
By Julia Gamolina
Tiffany-Ann Taylor is the Vice President for Transportation at the Regional Plan Association (RPA). Prior to working at RPA, she served as Deputy Director of Freight Programs, Education, and Research for the Freight Mobility unit at the NYC Department of Transportation and as an Assistant Vice President at the NYC Economic Development Corporation. She holds a B.A. in Government from The College of William & Mary and a M.S. in City and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Tiffany talks about managing complex projects, setting stakeholder expectations, and the importance of a human connection.
JG: You studied government and sociology and then went on to Pratt for your Master’s in City and Regional Planning. Tell me about the driving reasons behind both degrees—what were you hoping to do with each?
TAT: I grew up in an immigrant household and was very used to talking about public policy, geography, community spaces, and world events. However, I originally wanted to study medicine and eventually become a pediatrician! Science turned out to be too intense for me at the collegiate level, so when I had the opportunity to switch majors, I wanted to dive further into something that I was equally interested in but that was less stressful than medicine. Government and sociology seemed like very natural fits since I was always interested in current events and how they affected people.
After college, I worked in the legal field and then workforce development for a short stint. When I decided that I wanted to pursue grad school, I remembered an urban sociology class that I took in my final year of undergrad and how much of an impression it left on me. Despite growing up on Long Island—and a few towns over from a life size statue of Robert Moses—I didn’t learn the language of urban planning until I took that course. The realization that I loved studying people and places ultimately led me to get a degree in planning. It wasn’t until I took my first studio course in grad school that I realized I had always had a natural curiosity for transportation and mobility. I’ve stayed in that aspect of planning ever since.
Inside City Hall. Courtesy of Tiffany-Ann Taylor.
Tell me about your early internships at places like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Suffolk County Department of Planning, the Office of Emergency Management. How did those experiences guide you to zero in on what it is you wanted to focus on?
These internships taught me a lot about how the government works . . . or how it sometimes doesn’t. Learning about a process in a textbook and then seeing it implemented in real-life was important to help me understand what part of the profession I wanted to work in. I will say that especially while at the MTA, I learned a lot about how the media can impact your specific job or your project more generally. It also taught me the value of marketing, branding, and visuals for communication. I had a lot of exposure to public hearings, press conferences, and impromptu introductions to senior leadership. I also learned a lot about the physical system and operations.
These internships also taught me both what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do on the job. You need to know what your own level of comfortability is with things like data analysis and mapping, community engagement, public speaking, and certain work environments. Once you know that about yourself, you can go after the roles that engage your mind and spirit in different ways, or use that as an opportunity to lean more into what’s uncomfortable, to challenge yourself in a healthy way, or stretch a new muscle with a different skill set.
Tell me now about your roles at NYCEDC and NYC DOT.
My time at NYCEDC was, without question, instrumental to my career. In case your readers are not aware, EDC is a private non-profit, controlled by the City of New York. Because of this flexibility, it can operate like a private entity or a public agency, depending on the circumstance. So by definition, many projects land at EDC with a certain level of complexity or parameters that differ from traditional agency operations. This structure led me to work on some of the most interesting projects, which of course had their own challenges.
During my time at EDC, I was also co-chair of the Diversity Committee for the New York Metro Chapter of the American Planning Association. In that role, I co-created and co-hosted the Hindsight Conference for five years. It was a national conference that centered on equity in urban planning. Each year, the conference was focused on a theme, often related to a significant urban planning and equity-related milestone, to not only shed light on the discriminatory history of planning and its role in shaping today’s inequitable places, but also to highlight planning as a means of achieving more inclusive, just, and equitable communities.
“I’ve also learned that sometimes success can be measured in what never was—that the failure to build can be a public benefit.”
My time at NYC DOT was unique for me because it was the first time I’d ever worked for an operational agency. It was also my first time working in freight transportation and I just so happened to be there before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, I’d say that the general public’s understanding of freight activity went from non-existent to hyper visible very quickly. I learned such an incredible amount in such a short amount of time. It was also a place where I realized the true power in relationship management and that I’m stronger in policy negotiations and stakeholder engagement—two parts of transportation planning that don’t always get the respect that they should.
How did you eventually get to the Regional Plan Association?
In 2021, I was asked by the Regional Plan Association (RPA) to be a speaker on one of their panels for the annual Regional Assembly. At the time, I grossly underestimated how large the audience would be for that session, but I was honored to be considered for the opportunity. My panel was about redesigning streets for recovery, growth, and equity. Given my experiences in passenger and freight transportation and curating the Hindsight Conference, I was a natural fit for the discussion and ultimately for my current role at RPA.
Tell me now about your role and work with the RPA. What are you focused most on as we head towards 2025?
As the current Vice President for Transportation at RPA, I often tell people that “if it moves people or goods throughout the region, I have to have an opinion on it.” It’s my job to stay abreast of current happenings in passenger and freight transportation policy in the tri-state area—New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. At RPA we are a long-range planning organization known for our original research and advocacy efforts on a myriad of projects ranging from mega projects like the Gateway Program to smaller investments in pedestrian and bike access.
Each day is different for me but as we head toward 2025, I am prioritizing advocacy in support of congestion pricing, improved regional freight mobility, supporting campaigns to reduce the size of highways throughout the region, and always advocating for access to more sustainable mobility options.
The Regional Plan Association's offices. Courtesy of Tiffany-Ann Taylor.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
While the work itself hasn’t been easy, I’d say that my biggest challenges have been with finding my voice as a confident leader and fighting against imposter syndrome. In a field where I’m often the only or one of a few women or people of color at the table, it’s been important to develop confidence about my professional ability and to build a community of supportive women and allies along the way.
Therapy, specifically with a Black woman as my practitioner, has been essential for me to unpack feelings of inadequacy, understand the influence of my culture as a child of immigrants, and help me to accept that a different roadmap to leadership is an asset not an anchor. Finding traditional mentorship through a formal matching program and building a network of mentorship through my peers has also been instrumental in helping me manage setbacks.
Tell me about a time when something didn't turn out the way you wanted to or expected. What did you learn from this?
I’ve had plenty of projects that were never built. I’ve had projects that were stopped dead in their tracks because an elected official made an unexpected decision. Back then, it felt like I would never get that time back in life, but now I realize that it was still time well spent. I learned how to manage complex projects, stakeholder expectations, and the importance of a human connection on a complicated project. I’ve also learned that sometimes success can be measured in what never was—that the failure to build can be a public benefit. I’ve also learned that if you ever work for the government, you should never measure your worth on the quantity of projects that you complete or begin to implement.
“For women especially, invest in yourself as a brand and protect that throughout your career. Only lend your name to things that you believe in, learn how to say no to what doesn’t serve you, and invest in your physical and mental health just as you would invest in your retirement savings.”
Who are you admiring now and why?
I admire my friends who are all working hard to forge their own paths. Many of them are women who are immigrants or first-generation in some way like myself. I admire people like Midori Valdivia, who has worked at very high levels of leadership for major transportation agencies in New York City through watershed moments in history, but has now stepped out on her own. I admire my friend Anisha Steephen, who is a Senior Advisor to the first-ever Counselor for Racial Equity at the US Department of the Treasury. They are so passionate about racial equity at the intersection of tax policy and are constantly enhancing their knowledge so they can make a more equitable country for many people without a voice. I admire Dr. Destiny Deguzman, who I met when she was a young planner working in California, but has since opened her own practice Thrivance Group, to deconstruct traditional patterns of urban planning and instead, hold planners accountable to plan at the speed of dignity. I’m incredibly thankful to know them and be inspired by them all.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And what does success in that look like to you?
I hope that my impact on the world is that when young Black and brown women who are interested in transportation show up as the chief executive, that no one bats an eye. I hope that I’ve been so influential, impactful, and kind, that my existence has inspired others to lead with confidence. I think my core mission is to serve as an example to others that there is more than one way to get to the top and that it’s ok if you have to create your own tools to help you get there. To me, success is when I see more women of color in leadership, given the same grace to lead, grow, and make mistakes without retribution, as their white counterparts in the same field.
CP Testimony at MTA. Courtesy of Tiffany-Ann Taylor.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Be yourself. I know it sounds cliché but it’s true. It might take you a few years to get there but my career has been so much better because of it. You can only learn so much in a textbook, so it is important to recognize how valuable your lived experience is. Your cultural norms around community, public space, sustainability, and mobility are a shared language that often gets watered down in order to get your degree. Bring those elements to your work and have confidence in it. It is invaluable.
For women especially, invest in yourself as a brand and protect that throughout your career. Only lend your name to things that you believe in, learn how to say no to what doesn’t serve you, and invest in your physical and mental health just as you would invest in your retirement savings. Find your community and accept that it may change over time.