The Board of Directors of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) unanimously voted to hire Stephanie Wiggins as Metro’s CEO on April 8, 2021. A lifelong trailblazer and champion of equity and inclusion, Wiggins is the first woman and African-American woman to lead the agency. As CEO of Metro, she oversees an agency that runs the third-busiest transit system in the United States, with an annual budget of $9 Billion and 11,000 employees, and serves as the lead transportation planning, programming, financing, and construction agency for the 10.1 million residents of LA County. Before rejoining Metro as CEO in June 2021, Wiggins served as the CEO of Metrolink, the nation’s third-largest passenger rail system covering 538 route-miles throughout Southern California. 

 

Prior to serving as CEO of Metrolink, Wiggins was the Deputy CEO of Metro, where she assisted the CEO in providing leadership and achieving strategic public transportation objectives, including the passage in 2016 of Measure M, a half-cent sales tax approved by 71 percent of LA County voters. She also established the Women and Girls Governing Council. During her tenure at Metro, Wiggins also served as the Executive Director of Vendor/Contract Management, where she implemented procurement streamlining initiatives and greatly expanded Metro’s contracting of small and historically underutilized businesses. Prior to that role, Wiggins was the Executive Officer and Project Director of the Congestion Reduction/ExpressLanes Program where she launched the first high occupancy toll lanes in LA County on the I-10 and I-110 which improved travel times, reduced pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, on two of the County’s most congested freeway corridors.

 

With a deep and genuine commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, Wiggins strives to provide all people living in Southern California equal access to mobility to get to work, school, healthcare and leisure activities. Achieving that goal depends on leading an organization that is as diverse and inclusive as the region it serves.