2023 YPT Changemakers in Transportation Award: Jaime McKay

Jaime is the quintessential transit cheerleader. She is a strong advocate for transit, but especially so for transit serving rural areas and transit serving people with disabilities, two critical focuses in transit that can often get overlooked. Jaime is an avid transit enthusiast and proponent, and has been working in the public transit industry since 2012 in roles at the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities program, helping to implement alternative fuels in municipal fleets, and at Central Maryland Regional Transit, helping to develop GTFS feeds (and Google Maps’ transit information) for agencies across Maryland. 

In May of 2017, Jaime joined the team at the Maryland Transit Administration, just before MDOT MTA implemented its largest system redesign in 50 years with BaltimoreLink. AT MDOT MTA, Jaime managed the Statewide Transit Innovation Grant (STIG) Program which helped fund and implement over a dozen meaningful improvements at local transit agencies statewide. She helped create the Inclusive Transportation Planning program which continues to engage people with disabilities, caregivers, and older adults in meaningful human-centered planning projects. She has won multiple awards in recognition of her stellar work, including being named as Association for Commuter Transportation 40 Under 40 in 2016, Mass Transit Magazine 40 Under 40 in 2020, and Frederick County’s Up and Coming Woman of the Year 2022. She has been recognized for her efforts supporting people with disabilities, including receiving the 2020 Disability Awareness Day Public Service Award, issued by Anne Arundel County Commission on Disability Issues, and supporting women in the transportation industry, including receiving the WTS Baltimore President’s Award in 2019. 

Jaime is a leader both at the office and in the industry, serving many years on the board of Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT) International (including as the Chair in 2018-2019) and YPT Baltimore, as a mentor in WTS Baltimore’s Transportation YOU program for high school women, and as the Chair of the Frederick County Transportation Services Advisory Committee, or TSAC, in 2020. Jaime served on Governor Wes Moore’s Attainment Report Advisory Committee in 2023 and contributed to furthering the goals of the 2045 Maryland Transportation Plan. 

In June 2021, Jaime joined Transit Services as Deputy Director (which she says is her dream job). Her accomplishments are piling up, but most notably, she authored three project proposals for County Executive review, all of which were accepted and earmarked for ARPA funding. She has managed these projects from start-up and will see them through to completion. These projects strengthen the service that Transit offers to residents of Frederick County, with Jaime having identified and implemented real time tracking for the fixed route and shuttle vehicles, expanding rural shuttles service to operate on Saturdays for the first time in the system’s history, and improving the physical accessibility of 25% of the system’s 400 bus stops in the first year of ARPA funding. Jaime also oversaw the launch of the agency’s Adopt-a-Stop Program as well as the enhancement of a Travel Training program. 

Jaime’s support for her team is unparalleled, having drafted numerous award nominations for Transit Services, including the Federal Transit Administration’s Connecting Rural Communities Award in 2020, Transportation Association of Maryland’s COVID-19 Above and Beyond Award, and ACT’s 2023 Social Media Marketing Award, celebrating staff accomplishments, and finding ways to build community from the ground up. Her team is more empowered, engaged, and enthusiastic than they’ve seen in years, thanks in no small way to Jaime’s efforts. We are excited to see what their self-proclaimed Chief Morale Officer will achieve in the future.