Joy Miciano began her tenure as chair of the CTS Executive Committee on July 1, 2025. Miciano is the president and CEO of Zan Associates, a transportation planning consulting company based in Minneapolis that helps build connections through community engagement and communications. She succeeds former chair Nicole Griensewic, executive director of the Region Nine Development Commission. Miciano has been a member of the Executive Committee since August 2021.
Related article: CTS welcomes new Executive Committee members
Below, Miciano shares her insights on community engagement in transportation and highlights current transportation priorities in Minnesota. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is your experience with the transportation industry and CTS?
Since 2007, I have been an engagement and communications consultant who primarily works on public transportation projects—that include transit, multimodal, roads, and highways—from planning and design through construction. My transportation experiences include several reconstruction projects of I-35W between Burnsville and Forest Lake; transit projects such as the Gold Line, Green Line, Rush Line/Purple Line, Riverview Corridor, B Line, Northern Lights Express, and Northstar commuter rail; and corridor studies such as the ongoing Rethinking I-94.
As a transportation industry professional, I have known CTS as an organization that provides cutting-edge research in all areas of transportation and have looked to it for knowledge of upcoming innovations and solutions to industry challenges. I have often attended CTS’s yearly research conference and was a member of the Education and Engagement Council for several years.
What are you hoping to bring from your unique career experience to the role of CTS Executive Committee Chair?
Throughout my life and career, my passion has been about supporting and connecting people. My approach to being the Executive Committee chair will be no different. I hope to support connection and community among the committee members by building relationships and helping them strengthen relations with each other. I’d like to also consider how the Executive Committee can build relationships with the other CTS councils as well as increase connections with CTS staff so that the committee can support and promote the Center’s work.
How can community engagement shape transportation planning and influence outcomes?
Engagement isn’t a checkmark on the to-do list of transportation projects, but a valuable and important component integral to understanding and meeting the transportation needs of the community. To build the communities we want to live, work, and play in, we need to listen to, recognize, and understand the people that our transportation projects impact. Providing great engagement is simple: be authentic, be equitable, be honest, be humble, care about the people, take risks, talk with people who may not have the loudest voices, remember sometimes it’s not about the numbers, show up, and do good work.
What challenges should be prioritized because they offer the best potential outcomes for Minnesota’s transportation system and beyond?
I would like to see more priority given to designing and building transportation systems and infrastructure that are safe and reliable for all modes and that are community focused. Our reliance on driving a car may not change, but there are so many benefits to providing transportation infrastructure that supports and encourages people to walk, bike, roll, and take transit. A community-focused design improves safety; provides equitable transportation options; builds healthy, climate-resilient communities; and increases economic development opportunities.
How can U of M research help leaders address these challenges?
As more “Complete Streets” and community-based transportation infrastructure are being built in the Twin Cities and around the United States, U of M researchers can continue to study and report on the benefits and challenges from planning, design, and construction of these types of projects. It would also be good to collect qualitative data, such as community stories, on the benefits to the community and the influence of transportation mode choice.
—Olivia Hanson, CTS communications intern
