After six years as MARTA’s chief of staff, Melissa Mullinax left the transit agency last week. MARTA has named Steven Parker, assistant general manager of external affairs, as the interim chief of staff.
“On behalf of MARTA, Melissa, I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done. Words cannot convey the support, the guidance, the vision, and the leadership that you’ve provided for this organization and for many of us as individuals, myself among them,” MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood said during the MARTA board meeting on Oct. 10.
Mullinax’s last day was Oct. 11.
“It hardly seems real to be leaving, but I know it’s time,” Mullinax said at the board meeting.
She decided to move on from her current role during a summer writing class in Oxford, she told the Atlanta Business Chronicle, where she realized that she wanted to do more writing day-to-day and learned that MARTA had won the Agency of the Year award from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
“Working in any sort of 24/7 operation, which MARTA is, is very hard,” she said, thanking MARTA staff for their dedication. “We all are part of something bigger than us, and the various roles that we play are all important.”
Before her time at MARTA, Mullinax served as former Mayor Kasim Reed’s senior advisor and worked briefly under former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. She plans to now pursue roles that are more focused on corporate communications.
Parker took over the interim Chief of Staff role on Monday.
He previously served as chief innovation officer for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and prior to that he was the general counsel at marketing company Storybrand, political director for Jon Ossoff’s U.S. Senate campaign, and Senior City Attorney, handling commercial real estate and municipal law for the City of Atlanta.
Assistant General Manager of Labor and Employee Relations LaShanda Dawkins stepped in as interim Chief Administrative Officer on Monday.
Dawkins has more than 18 years of experience with MARTA across administrative support departments. She has advised executive management on human resources, labor and employment matters, and litigation.
Prior to her roles at MARTA, Dawkins served as an assistant general counsel for the city of Jacksonville, Florida and worked on the superintendent’s leadership team as general director of policy and compliance for Duval County Public Schools.
Dawkins also serves as the Chair of APTA’s Workforce Development Committee and is a Leadership APTA Class of 2015 graduate. She is a member of the State Bars of Texas, Florida, and Georgia and is a Certified Retirement Pension Fiduciary.
These leadership changes come in the weeks following the city’s audit of the More MARTA program, which found that the transit agency may have misallocated about $70 million of taxpayer dollars. Mullinax said her decision is not related to the audit.
Leave a comment