HOUSTON – LINK Houston welcomes Jonathan Brooks as the organization’s first Director of Policy and Planning. In this role, Mr. Brooks will use his transportation expertise to build LINK Houston’s programs and engage in coalition building around different forms of transportation, mobility, and infrastructure spending.
Jonathan Brooks comes to LINK Houston from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute where he worked as an Assistant Research Scientist in the Transit Mobility Program, focusing on policies and issues affecting public transportation and travel management. Through his research, Brooks surveyed people in Texas and across the country to understand the connection between transit and quality of life; investigated how to improve pedestrian safety near light rail; engaged Texas transit agencies across to understand their long-term vision and capital funding needs; authored reports on the societal value of supporting transit services; and provided technical support to assist agencies in providing more effective and efficient services for individuals with a disability. Brooks served as the principal investigator for the Federal Transit Administration-sponsored “Gulf Coast Climate Change Adaptation Pilot Study” and recently briefed METRO on improving pedestrian safety through Bluetooth-activated announcements. Brooks holds a Master of Urban Planning from Texas A&M University and a Bachelor in Science from Brigham Young University.
“Jonathan’s work history, leadership in professional organizations, and experiences beyond the workplace demonstrate his lifelong commitment to the issues at the core of LINK Houston’s mission: equity and transportation. We are excited to have someone with this caliber of technical skills in urban planning, experience in transportation policy, and a personal commitment to equity as LINK Houston’s first Director of Policy and Planning.”
Brooks joins a team of committed advocates at LINK Houston, including Ashley Johnson, Director of Community Affairs; Ines Sigel, Director of Communications and Outreach; and Oni Blair, Executive Director. LINK Houston is a non-profit organization advocating for a diverse and robust transportation network for all people to connect to opportunity. The organization is building a broad-based coalition to support transformative and inclusive policies, systems, initiatives and infrastructure development that connect people to opportunity by transit, walking, and biking. It moves ideas into action through public engagement and advocacy. Specifically, our advocacy activities work to improve the accessibility, frequency, reliability and availability of the public transit network; expand safe pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure; and mitigate the adverse risks of transportation infrastructure.