Eileen Collins

On a mission to build the best paratransit program in the U.S., Eileen Collins is the Director of Accessible Transportation Programs for Portland, Oregon-based TriMet. She is responsible for the leadership and daily operations of paratransit services for the 533 square mile TriMet Service District, focusing on customer experience, system efficiency and innovations in the paratransit space. Eileen is also leading efforts to improve and enhance the accessibility of TriMet’s systems and service.

She has a unique 25+ year background in public transit, American’s with Disabilities Act compliance, public policy, communications, leadership, strategic planning and team development.

It all started for Eileen when she met President Jimmy Carter as a child. He shook her hand and told her that one day, she could be President. She grew up believing that anything was possible and set out on a course to engage locally to make the world better. As the first youth member of the American Red Cross Board of Directors, she grew her advocacy work in roles with the Oregon Legislature and then as a Legislative Assistant with Representative Margaret Carter while in college pursuing a degree in Political Science from the University of Portland. Seeing how communities were impacted and enhanced through local civic engagement, Eileen worked to rally support on local college campuses for Vera Katz’s initial run for Mayor in 1992. The campaign was successful and Eileen started working for Mayor Katz upon college graduation.

Working for Vera Katz was life changing for Eileen. In Mayor Katz, Eileen saw the nexus of advocacy and action; leadership personified. Eileen determined to obtain her Master’s Degree to continue her advanced path in public service, so she moved to Eugene and continued down the path to obtain her MPA in Public Policy, with a minor concentration in Community and Regional Planning. 

After graduate school, Eileen undertook a position with the Oregon Department of Transportation, analyzing and implementing legislation. This opportunity unveiled the complexities and challenges to independence for older drivers who must forfeit their driving privileges. Coupled with the birth of her son, who is on the autism spectrum, ignited a fire in Eileen to champion the cause of accessible transportation as a social determinant of health for all members of the community who are not able to drive or access public transportation.

For the past 20 years, Eileen has dedicated her career pursuits to improving access, enhancing services and finding ways to reinvent the antiquated paradigm of paratransit. Eileen is a collaborator and a problem-solver. She continuously strives for innovative approaches to today’s problems, and also recognizes that the only way to really make innovation attractive to her team and co-workers is to adopt a systematic policy of abandoning practices that are outworn, obsolete or no longer productive. Organizations will have a high spirit of performance is they, and the people who compose them, are consistently directed toward opportunities rather than problems. With that perspective, the teams Eileen leads have the thrill of excitement, the sense of challenge, and the satisfaction of achievement because their energies are placed where the results are, and that creates a cycle of opportunity.