South West Transit Association

Olivia Hook is the Statewide Transportation Coordinator at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, where she is responsible for implementing the new statewide Oklahoma Mobility Management Program. Previously, she served as the statewide mobility coordinator at the Ohio Department of Transportation, leading the nationally recognized Ohio mobility management program. During her time with the State of Ohio, Olivia empowered the mobility manager network to take accountability for their success in the state, allowing them to partner with ODOT to set the program's long-term vision. This effective management of the program improved the ODOT-subrecipient relationship. Olivia's expansive networking abilities allowed her to make connections with other national and state agencies, further promoting the importance of the Mobility Management program. Olivia is knowledgeable in federal transportation funding options, coordinated planning, building upon existing services, and the importance of person-centered planning to meet the mobility needs of all people. Olivia holds a Bachelor of Science from Franklin University resides in Oklahoma City with her husband and two beautiful dogs.

Education:

• B.S. – Franklin University, Cum Laude
• A.A.S. – Columbus State College
• Lean Six Sigma Certification

Relevant Experience:

Coordinated Public Transit Human Service Transportation Planning

Olivia led the development and implementation of the new Ohio statewide coordinated plan template setting the standard for improved human service transportation planning efficiency. This revised process elevated the planning beyond single-county strategies to cross-county coordination. She administered essential coordinated plan training for lead agencies resulting in improved plans, additional programs, inventory of resources for multiple agencies, and increased project funding. The strategy Olivia implemented assured that these coordinated plans with unresolved goals were active documents constantly updated and referred to for future service improvements.

In 2018, Olivia spearheaded the coordinated region pilot project to address gaps in service and organize the provision of transportation services. Ohio had few regional or multi-county service agreements, and services were duplicative and unable to meet community needs. The program goal was to maintain or improve the current level of service and the quality of transportation services available to each individual rider. The regional pilot program developed a coordinated committee consisting of nine counties, four mobility managers, one council of government, nine county commissioners, five rural transit agencies, and multiple human service transportation providers. The regional committee collaboration resulted in the launch of the mobility solutions center to assist individuals with mobility challenges. This new approach streamlines services through coordination and assists individuals with access to critical resources.

In Oklahoma, Olivia was made responsible for updating the four current regional coordinated plans for the state and devised a plan to train lead agencies in the writing and development of new coordinated plans. In addition, the responsibility for writing, updating, and maintaining the coordinated plans will fall on the mobility management program under Olivia’s leadership, saving the state a considerable amount of money by not having to hire a consultant.

Mobility Management

Olivia served as the statewide mobility coordinator for the Ohio mobility management program starting in 2017, and at the time, there were 23 mobility management programs under various host agencies. Prior to Olivia’s leadership, the Ohio mobility managers had found various learning resources and trained themselves the best they could. This lack of guidance resulted in program inconsistency from one mobility manager to the next, program confusion for the general public, transit agency frustration, program confusion for coordinating agencies, and projects that were not mobility management. Olivia began to enhance the mobility program with improved communications, building partnerships, and awareness. She developed and implemented a dual-training program focused on Ohio’s mobility management structure, organization, and capacity maximizing the learning process with field experience.

Olivia was also a key planner in the transportation policy alignment initiative supporting state-managed non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) in partnership with the Ohio Department of Medicaid. The initiative helped Ohio avoid the threat of a brokerage NEMT model that jeopardized the funding of the transportation providers. This was the first cross-state agency collaboration that sparked future mobility solutions across all state sectors under Olivia’s leadership. She partnered with the Department of Developmental Disabilities to provide statewide training for social workers in mobility resourcefulness, helping individuals with disabilities find employment transportation support. Olivia partnered with the Ohio Job and Family Services state agency, providing guidance for employers seeking transportation solutions in rural areas. She contributed mobility management information and coordination advice at the annual Housing and Urban Development conference in 2019, educating the program managers. Olivia also teamed up with the Ohio Department of Education to create a mobility management travel training program for youth to ensure safe travel and understanding of transit resources prior to getting a driver’s license. In 2019, Governor John Kasich appointed Olivia to the Ohio Statewide Independent Living Council as a transportation representative serving individuals with disabilities. In 2020, the Ohio Emergency Management Services Agency (EMA) needed a plan for transportation resource communications to support critical transportation needs while the COVID-19 pandemic had the state shut down. The EMA pandemic working group was referred to Olivia, who connected all emergency planners with mobility managers and initiated the launch of a new statewide transportation inventory. Multiple agencies contributed to the information to provide all resources from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Medicaid, the Department of Developmental Disabilities and Area Agency on Aging. The efforts resulted in individuals receiving critical transportation services without going to expensive ambulatory transportation and improved communications between transit and EMA. To sustain the inventory of providers, Olivia assigned the responsibility of maintaining and updating the list to the Ohio mobility managers. Through the EMA working group, Olivia was referred to the Ohio Department of Health, who also had mobility needs. Through the mobility management program, Olivia coordinated the distribution of over 10,000 cloth face masks from the health department to all rural public transportation providers. She also established communication between the mobility managers and the health department to determine the best accessible rural locations for COVID-19 testing sites.

Program effectiveness among forty mobility managers is something that Olivia identified as a critical need, and thus she developed a measuring tool for program reporting. The performance measure tool created a heat map identifying where each program was successful and areas that needed improvement. To enhance the mobility program, Olivia developed strategic mobility management committees that supported the combined initiatives of the program. This resulted in the sustainability of the mobility management processes and communications through the leadership changes. At the time of Olivia’s departure, there were 40 mobility managers in Ohio with a $3.4 mobility management budget.

Olivia has delivered many mobility management presentations and educated individuals on multiple levels about the importance of the program. She has spoken at the Ohio and Oklahoma Statehouses on multiple occasions, informing representatives and leaders about the program and the individuals who need mobility management the most. In 2021, Olivia came to Oklahoma to launch a new statewide mobility management program with lessons learned from Ohio. She created an onboarding process for program agencies offering education about mobility management and she established a statewide mobility committee that includes leadership from every state agency in Oklahoma. The program is set to launch in 2022 with consistency in training, implementation, supporting partnerships, and strategic placement.