This is the fourth in a weekly series on my DC sabbatical (Sep 1 → Nov 30, 2026). Catch up on earlier posts if you missed them, and join my mailing list for future posts.
I knew I had become a regular at the RPA offices when I left my badge at home this week and Patterson at the front desk bailed me out no questions asked. The office fridge now has a shelf of my turkey sandwich supplies, plus apples, peppers, and hummus. When I need a change of scenery, the MLK public library has become my favorite spot to grind out specific projects (this week, mostly the national plan). It is also where I keep checking out my books. Shout out public libraries!!! But as settled as I am starting to feel, this was also the week my worlds collided, in the best way.
I visited Procter & Gamble’s DC office (yes, you read that right!) to meet the US Government Affairs team, at the invitation of Nicole, the VP who leads it. It was fascinating to see how much corporate and nonprofit government affairs have in common, and fun to find how much of my last five years at P&G has touched their work. I ended up in a long conversation with Christina, who worked on transportation policy at the US Chamber of Commerce before P&G. The next day we got happy hour with her friend Jen, who spent years working transportation policy on the Republican side of the Hill. Jen reaffirmed my belief that rail and transit can be truly bipartisan, and wowed me with her knowledge of both the policy and how to sell it.
One of my favorite days this week started with coffee with my mentor Becky at the Georgetown Tatte. Becky knows the internal workings and politics of DC far better than I do, and I love when she challenges me or broadens how I think about something. Afterward I biked to RPA to help Jonsie, RPA’s Chief of Staff, pack up equipment for RailNation Toledo. I cannot wait to welcome people from across the country to Ohio, and to show Ohio leaders that the rest of the country is counting on us.
Ahead of the event, the RPA and AAO comms teams put out two releases, one announcing RailNation and another showcasing John Christoph’s economic modeling. John found that six proposed services could bring Ohio nearly $190 million in annual benefits and 1.69 million passenger trips a year. He usually works at the same table I do at RPA, so I get to talk tech and analytics with him often. His passion for this space is radiant.
Getting to Navy Yard to meet Joel Szabat, Vice Chair of the Amtrak Board, meant dodging some serious traffic. I do not know why DC decided to repave all of downtown the same week China’s President Xi was in town, but the roads were a mess even on a bike. But the commute was worth it. Joel and I talked through my goals, the AAO board, and the future of Amtrak expansion in Ohio. He has seen it all, and I value his advice immensely. The same goes for Bill Gray from AAPRCO, who knows all the players and has a realistic view of where we can go next. We had multiple fruitful calls this week, and have some cool collaborations cooking.
I really enjoyed my meeting with Joe Black, SVP and Rail Lead at WSP, picking up where we left off at the STB. Joe has worked projects across the country from both the consulting and government sides, including the Lone Star Rail District in Texas. We dug into the toolkit it takes to get a project built: funding, political champions, and real capacity inside the state. Much like my conversation with Maux from CDOT last week, we kept coming back to state DOTs. A few experienced staff who know how to deliver passenger rail pay for themselves many times over. We already have another call set for next week!
I also finally met Giancarlo Valdetaro, whose work with Transportation for America and the National Campaign for Transportation Justice mirrors so much of what we want for a national rail network. So many people had told me to reach out to him that it was almost funny, and they were right. Our conversation hit many of the questions I had been asking myself, which was extremely validating.
On the All Aboard Ohio side, I spent time with Beth, our comms director, whose team is operationally excellent while keeping a family feel. She brought Monday.com (sponsor us please @monday.com…) into her team’s process, and I am now working on rolling it out AAO-wide. Our advocacy committee, led by Matt and Fred, reviewed a letter writing campaign to get more business and civic institutions across the state engaged, and I checked in with Jayna from engagement and our executive committee.
Vice chair Lisa and I also met with Bill and Ed, two of the most experienced rail advocates in Ohio, who are building the Lakeshore Rail Alliance to push for service from Detroit through upstate New York along Ohio’s lakeshore. They will also lead our new Emeritus Committee, something I have wanted to start for a long time but have not had the capacity for. I am very thankful they are taking the lead. Ryan Pecaut, Kaleb (from week two!), and I met about AAO Labs, a program to build tech projects that help partner nonprofits and agencies, sell our vision, and make AAO run more efficiently.
The biggest AAO news of the week was the announcement that John Esterly, our executive director, is stepping down effective September 30th. I wish John so well and look forward to working with him as a coalition partner in his role leading Ohio BLET. I am also excited about the growth ahead for AAO. Stay tuned for more there.
On the personal side, the week opened on Old Rag in Shenandoah with the international lawyer crew. The next day brought the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and I enjoyed debrief calls with my friends Michael and Nashad who are far from DC. Felix played his first ever game of cribbage at a new neighborhood bar and came back from a near skunking to beat me, an underdog story worthy of an ESPN 30 for 30. The weather turned sunny and in the 60s and 70s, so I took afternoon runs to get my mileage back up, 5 to 6 miles at a time. Follow me on Strava! We closed out the week with tapas to send off Charlotte and Nina, whose fellowships have ended. They will be missed.
I finished Catcher in the Rye and am well into Trillion Dollar Coach, about Bill Campbell, the Silicon Valley great who mentored many of tech’s most successful founders. He treated relationships, mentorship, and emotional intelligence as just as important as business or technical skill. It has me thinking about what I want AAO to be. I want it to be a place where people feel comfortable, bring their best selves, and see their talents celebrated and encouraged to grow. I want people stretched in a healthy way, so it is not just the movement that grows but each of our people too. I have grown so much through this experiment over the past few years, and I hope my team can say the same.
This was a week of building the systems and people that carry us forward, from Monday.com to the Emeritus Committee to AAO Labs, plus a leadership transition that opens our next chapter. I love my AAO family, and want to take the lessons from Bill Campbell on fostering, supporting and challenging them.
And on the national network movement, I spent a big share of this week heads down on the plan, and I now have a first draft. It is extensive and ambitious. It lays out why state-level advocacy is so essential to getting rail built, why so many state groups have struggled to deliver despite plenty of passion, and how the playbook we built in Ohio could help them move faster, starting with cohorts of states working through it together. Advocates in about fifteen states have already asked us for help, so the demand is there. Joe, Giancarlo, Jen, and Joel come at this work from four very different worlds, and all four pushed me toward the same conclusion this week: success depends on relationships and capacity inside each state. Next week I start passing the draft around, and there is no better place than RailNation Toledo, October 2 through 4, where state leaders from across the country and the RPA board will all be in the same room. I cannot wait to show everyone what we have been building and hear what they think. See you in the Glass City!