AORTA Leadership
AORTA is led by a team of organizational officers and by a board of directors. Board members are elected by AORTA members, and officers are appointed by the board.
Board of Directors
Matt Krabacher, President
Matt Krabacher is a software engineer working on food waste prevention and climate solutions. He grew up in north Idaho regularly riding the Empire Builder and now lives in Baker City, Oregon, where he represents a significant portion of his community that is invested in restoring the Amtrak Pioneer Line.
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Karl McNair, Vice President (Western Oregon), Medford
Karl MacNair is a Civil Engineer with a focus on transportation. He is currently working as a Traffic Engineer in Southern Oregon. He previously worked for TriMet on light rail construction and as a consulting engineer to Class I railroads . Karl grew up in the Applegate Valley in a very car-dependent environment. He went to Drexel University in Philadelphia, where he lived for 5 years without a car and saw first hand the benefits of living in a transit rich and pedestrian friendly environment. Karl believes that a high-quality rail and transit system is the key needed for Oregon to realize the vision set out in its state planning goals.
Doug Allen, Vice President (Portland Metro), Portland
Doug Allen has been a passenger rail and transit advocate since the early 1970’s. With degrees in mathematics and civil engineering, he worked for TriMet for 35 years providing technical support in the Operations Division. He also co-owned an intercity bus company for six years, serving Portland, Tillamook and the north Oregon Coast. He wants to see an integrated ecosystem of local transit and intercity bus and rail that provides an attractive alternative to automobile travel.
Marian Rhys, Secretary, Portland
Marian Rhys has been an ‘alternative transportation’ advocate for 30 years, ever since she recovered from automobile addiction in 1995, serving first on the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee for the city of Novato, California, and becoming a passenger rail advocate in 1998, when she started riding the Coast Starlight to Portland to visit relatives here. She also served on Portland’s Pedestrian Advisory Committee from 2009 to 2013.
Marian has been an AORTA member since moving to Portland in 2003, and has served as board Secretary since 2022. Now retired, Marian had a career in Information Technology from 1968 to 2000, and still works part-time as a free-lance technical writer and edit
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RJ Sheperd, Treasurer
RJ Sheperd is a passionate advocate in Oregon for communities to better connected, resilient, and sustainable. As Co-Chair and Chair of Bike Loud PDX, he pushed for increasing access to transit by bike, investing in better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in long-ignored parts of Portland, and allowing more housing to be built across Portland. Recently, he helped Bike Bus PDX obtain funding to jump-start Bike Buses in East Portland, and hosted a student design competition for Single-Stair buildings.
Mike Morrison, Director, Portland
After a federal career, Mike now devotes his efforts toward elevating the quality of Northwest life through connected pedestrian, bicycle. urban transit, and intercity rail networks.
Dan McFarling, Director, Portland
Retired after a career in health care regulation with the State of Oregon, is a life-long advocate of passenger and freight rail and public transportation. He recognizes that rail and public transit provide the safe, economical, environmentally sound and equitable transportation we all need for a strong economy and healthy communities. He believes quality public transportation should serve both urban and rural Oregon. He is a fifth generation Oregonian, and a graduate of Oregon State University and Portland State University.
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Art Poole, Director, Coos Bay
Art is retired from a 30-year career as a cooperative extension service agent in West Virginia and Oregon. He grew up in Boston but has lived most of his life in rural Oregon. After a stint in the Peace Corps he enrolled at Oregon State University where he earned two degrees in the agricultural sciences. Art is an advocate for freight and passenger rail transportation. He chaired the Coos County Area Transit Advisory Committee for several years, and now he makes the business case for rail as a member of the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee.
Bob Krebs, Director, Salem
Robert Krebs, is an Oregon native with over 50 years of experience as a passenger transport professional. He represents AORTA on the ODOT Rail Advisory Committee and the Oregon Rail Users League. Served 12 years as an elected Director on the Salem/Keizer Transit Board and 20 years as president/CEO of Grand National Tours, Inc. a ICC licensed transportation broker. In 2004 he retired after 12 years with the Oregon Department of Transportation as the Intercity Passenger Rail Coordinator. Activities included the Amtrak Cascades project, renovation of corridor railroad stations and improving the Oregon Intercity Bus Network
Xavier Stickler, Director at Large
Xavier is a transit planning and community engagement professional dedicated to building holistic, multimodal, people-centered mobility networks in the PNW. A lifelong Portlander and transit rider, he understands firsthand the critical role transit and rail play in building transportation systems which work for everyone regardless of wage, age, or stage of life. His focus areas include governance, passenger-experience, and environmental sustainability.