Alicia is BART’s Chief Communications Officer and has tirelessly championed more creative outreach at BART, and enabled advocate and rider voices while doing so. Green-lighting initiatives like Not One More Girl, anime mascots, and this year’s BART Paper Ticket Fashion Show, while also championing signage and communication improvements on the ground in BART stations, Alicia has neither been afraid to try new things, or to listen on how to improve. BART is leading the Bay Area in rider communication, and credit goes to Alicia for empowering her team.

Crisis Intervention Specialist Stephine Barnes has been with BART for 28 years. In addition to being a role model and mentor to many people at BART, she is dedicated to advocating for those facing homelessness and reducing recidivism. She is passionate about outreach, including intervention/prevention, de-escalation, case management, working with community partners, networking, and family reunification. In her time at BART, Barnes helped to create a skills tune-up training for Station Agents to divert disciplinary action and emphasize work on skills needed to meet standards and improve. She has served on the Transit Security Advisory Committee for two years and participated in many initiatives throughout the Bay Area, including youth outreach, read-a-thons, and more. Around BART, she is known as being very approachable, compassionate, and patient.

From a rider: 

I can tell from my short trips on Paul’s bus (Route 28 to the Martinez Amtrak), he is a bus operator who cares about those who join him on his bus ride. Public transportation can mean a lot to people, for example gaining independence as a person who has either no car or the ability to drive or a chance to leave the home and socialize. Paul is somehow always on time, allowing riders to stick to their schedule and have the independence to go on errands, appointments, and social outings without their own personal car. Paul also embraces the social aspect that riding transit can offer. I have seen him have great conversations with riders about sports and always greets the people boarding and tells them to have a great day when exiting. My personal experience with him has been outstanding. I am always a little bummed when he is not my driver for the ride to the train station. There are times when I can make an earlier train home when it is late and Paul is right on time. When this situation happens, he is excited for me to be getting home a little bit earlier than expected. When I don’t quite make the early train, he tells me that we can try again the next day. Paul told me that he retired as a bus operator in San Francisco and now he is driving a bus for County Connection in his retirement. I commend his dedication to serving the population of Central Contra Costa County and the Bay Area in general, because not only is he providing a service to those who need it, he does it with an amazing attitude.

Whoofi rides on transit more than most humans in SF, and always makes it look so fun!

From a rider:
He is a super friendly operator, always help answer passenger questions, help them get to wherever they need on time and reliable. He also drives safely and has been an operator for a long time.