Mode Shift Omaha|

Please join us in welcoming Michaela Brown, our new Program Coordinator!Bio pic MB

Thanks to support from our many wonderful donors and members, we are able to hire a part-time Program Coordinator—our first staff member!—for the next six months with the hope of growing our fund development to make this a permanent position. This position will assist the Board in managing communications and projects for Mode Shift Omaha. We had several very strong applicants for the position.

Michaela is committed to improving public transportation options in Omaha, by working to build a more sustainable, more affordable, and healthier city for everyone. She is passionate about bringing positive changes to Omaha by promoting inclusive growth and equal opportunities, inspiring civic engagement, and supporting the local entrepreneur and creative class.

Michaela is happy to reside in her hometown of Omaha again and brings fresh perspective from living and working in 12 global cities over the last six years, including three years in Africa, Latin America, and South America. Michaela’s professional background is in developing international sustainable travel programs, managing content for community development projects, and building and maintaining partnerships with social enterprises and nonprofit organizations. She is a program and project manager, writer, and educator in sustainable community development. In addition to her position with Mode Shift Omaha, Michaela works for the Refugee Empowerment Center (we see great opportunities for building partnerships!) and founded and owns World Essence Travel, a sustainable travel company.

We are looking forward to the work Michaela will do to grow Mode Shift Omaha’s impact! 

Please send her an email to say hello and let her know how you would like to be more involved with Mode Shift Omaha. Contact Michaela at michaela.brown@modeshiftomaha.org

4 Replies to “Introducing our New Program Coordinator”

  1. dirk says:

    congrats to Michaela and to the board, sounds like she brings a much needed perspective of someone who has experience trying to solve solutions in areas under austerity budgets (sadly ours here in Omaha is largely by choice of the mayor and co. and not one of economic necessity) as most of the solutions being offered for Omaha transportation from civic groups tend to be taken from areas with much bigger budgets than we have to work with.
    Not many folks here in the entrepreneur/creative class (does anyone have numbers?) so the more civic support she can help to generate the better for all.

    • Thank you Dirk! We agree. Michaela also brings the perspective from living in San Francisco, Oakland, and Seattle recently – cities with larger budgets and with transit models that many in Omaha are looking toward for inspiration to grow our city more sustainably. We need to draw from many examples of pre-existing success stories and try out only the practical and appropriate solutions for Omaha.

  2. Sally House says:

    Our Mission:
    Mode Shift Omaha advocates for transportation options that enhance quality of life and opportunities to live, work, and play.
    Citizen Respinse:
    What improvement of quality of life does Mayberry Place offer to current residents, as opposed to 400+ more people in that very small residential area? Traffic already is bad at 51 & Leavenworth, multiple speed bump requests denied for S 51 Street off Leavenworth, that’s BEFORE this monstrosity of a project was proposed. Where is the adjacent bike trail? At least a mile away to reach Papio trail! Would Mr. Christensen live directly across from that with his 3 children! I doubt it!! Your mission does not match your actions!! Why don’t you use resources for taking care of the refugees in this town, and make LFS do thier job the right way!! And provide good homes for these refugees instead of the slums they live in. Do something better with our TIF money other than line Chris’s pockets!! Use that money to help the Burmese people, visit their homes, sleep on their floors with bugs everywhere! It’s a disgrace to thus find city’s name to allow this to happen!!

    • Sally,
      The reason we support this infill development project is articulated in our blog post here: https://modeshiftomaha.org/2016/02/05/51st-mayberry-smart-development-moving-forward/. As we also note in the follow up comments to that post:

      It is our understanding that the City’s Public Works Department has reviewed 51st & Leavenworth and did not see a traffic concern and that a traffic study has been performed that concluded no additional offsite modifications are needed.

      There is a science to traffic and how it works; there are not simple one-to-one correlations that if X happens or not, Y results or not. More density does not necessarily lead to more traffic, especially if people have more options for biking/walking/transit. In addition, efforts to reduce congestion can also mean tradeoffs—wider roads can lead to more traffic (through induced demand) and faster speeds, raising safety issues. For example, most of the day, except for perhaps 30-60 minutes during peak travel times, Leavenworth is not congested and subsequently turns into a dangerous speedway for those living along the street or trying to bicycle or walk along it.

      If we want to minimize traffic congestion more broadly, while also keeping our roads safe for all users, we need to do more to provide viable transportation options in the city. This project supports the land use design needed to support a more robust transportation system that would help to reduce car congestion. There is a need for the design elements and density to support biking/walking/transit combined with transportation demand management efforts.

      Finally, our work focuses on advocating for transportation options for everyone, including refugees. We don’t focus our work on housing and are not funded by TIF or any government funding. Our funding comes only from donors who share our mission.

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