Camilla Dartnell

APBP Board of Directors Candidate Statement

Camilla Dartnell
Multimodal Senior Transportation Planner and Engineer
Kittelson and Associates, Inc

Please briefly describe your current position and how your work relates to the bicycle/pedestrian field:  
I’m a multimodal senior transportation planner and engineer for Kittelson and Associates, Inc. I pursued this career in an effort to advance walking and biking transportation because I saw how impactful our transportation options and choices are on the health, livability, and sustainability of our communities. Much of my work focuses on improving walking and biking through area planning, improving the designs of our streets and roads, and performing studies to understand how our pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure impacts our communities to help inform future decisions around and make the case for future pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.

Why do you want to be a Board member? What do you hope to gain over the term of your Board membership? 
For the last few years, I’ve served on my local WTS board. It’s been a valuable experience, and I think that the work that our local WTS board is doing is very important. The wildfires and heat domes this summer, though, have been a very real reminder for why I became interested in the active transportation profession in the first place, and in the future, I want to put more of my time towards efforts that will more directly advance my personal priorities of reducing our GHG emissions and improving the livability of our communities. I believe that contributing to APBP through a board position is the best way for me to use my time to reach these personal goals, which also align with APBP’s goals. Also, I have been very impressed by the work that APBP has done over the years, and I want to contribute to this work in the future.

Please describe your goals for APBP and how your leadership on the Board will benefit the association. 
Although simplified, all butts on bikes—is my moto. By “all”, I mean, we need to be actively working to make biking and walking accessible and comfortable for all people, regardless of race, income, ability, body type, or any other classification. If we focus our work on making our streets safer and more comfortable for marginalized communities, our streets will be safer and better utilized by all people. Getting more people walking and biking is the ultimate outcome I’d like to work toward, and there are several goals that I’d like to help APBP reach to help achieve this. First, continue to advance the profession through teaching and sharing best practices. I’d like to explore opportunities to expand the monthly webinars to make them more accessible to more people or groups. I find great value in the webinars, and I think that getting more eyes on the webinars can help advance our goals. Especially during this period of mostly working from home, I’ve seen firsthand that even those that should have access to the webinars may have additional barriers, and there are some minor changes in webinar distribution that may make a difference in increasing viewership. Additionally, I’d like to explore opportunities to expand our presence to make a bigger impact. Can we do more outreach or partner with HBCU transportation programs/professors? Finally, apply an equity filter to all of our work and introducing equity moments into our meetings and webinars can help advance our equity goals and spread awareness throughout the community. My passions align with those of APBP, so I’ll be especially motivated to work through my board position to make the biggest impact possible. As a big picture thinker with technical experience, I’ll do my best to identify major decisions and opportunities to advance our industry. Identifying policies on which to take a stand and important topics to share with the APBP community can be extremely impactful.

Past volunteer/leadership positions with APBP: 
Portland 2019 conference planning committee; Virtual 2021 conference planning committee

Past volunteer/leadership positions with other organizations: 
WTS Portland Chapter Board Member 2020/2021