This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Dr. Adonia Lugo to the California Transportation Commission. Lugo’s appointment still needs to be confirmed by the CA Senate.

Lugo is a longtime transportation equity advocate, and currently a professor at Antioch University Los Angeles. She has been instrumental in furthering many transportation equity initiatives – from Untokening mobility justice gatherings to Southern California’s wildly popular open streets festival CicLAvia. Lugo is the author of Bicycle/Race: Transportation, Culture, & Resistance. She currently serves on Metro’s Community Advisory Council.

Under Newsom’s leadership, the composition of the CTC has shifted dramatically. Car-centric, pro-sprawl, and pro-status-quo commissioners who have dominated commission proceedings for years – including Fran Inman and Lucy Dunn – have gradually cycled off. New commissioners – among them Hilary Norton of FastLink DTLA, Santa Ana elected official and safe streets advocate Michele Martinez, CEO of the Coalition for Clean Air Joseph Lyou (who was appointed by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon), (former) executive director of TransForm Darnell Grisby, equity advocate Tamika Butler (too briefly), and now Lugo – bring a broader focus that includes multi-modal transportation, environmental justice, equity, and climate change.