Amanda Eaken Appointed to the SFMTA Board of Directors
The SFMTA Board of Directors is now full with the Sept. 25 appointment of Amanda Eaken, a leading expert and advocate for sustainable urban planning in land use and transportation policy.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors confirmed the Mayor’s nomination of Amanda Eaken to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's Board of Directors for a term ending March 1, 2019.
New Board member Eaken brings decades of experience in transportation policy and involvement in landmark transportation legislation to the agency's seven-member governing authority. She fills the vacancy created when former Director Joel Ramos was hired to lead the SFMTA’s Community Response Team as part of the Sustainable Streets Division.
Currently, Eaken serves as the Director of Transportation & Climate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she focuses on reducing transportation-related pollution. She also serves as the Director of Transportation for the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge, a $70 million, two-and-a-half year initiative to support 20 U.S. cities in their efforts to set and meet aggressive climate goals.
As an advocate for sustainable urban planning, Eaken focuses on slashing transportation-related pollution. She played a key role in the formulation and implementation of California's 2008 Sustainable Communities Act, which gives regions funding and incentives to develop emission-reducing strategies. Before joining NRDC, Eaken managed affordable-housing construction for a nonprofit developer in San Francisco.
Eaken was instrumental in the passage of SB 375, a first-in-the-nation law to connect transportation and land use to climate change in order to encourage development that allows residents to rely less on cars for mobility. She also helped pass reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act to prioritize walking, bicycling and public transportation.
Eaken lives in the Panhandle neighborhood. She is an avid bicyclist and a regular rider of the 5-Rapid bus. She has a bachelor's in environmental and evolutionary biology from Dartmouth College and a master's in transportation and land-use planning from the University of California, Berkeley.