Sound Transit appoints new Chief Administrative Officer

Sound Transit Executive Director Joni Earl today announced that Joann Francis will join the agency as the new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). As CAO, Francis will oversee the Real Estate, Contracts, Diversity, Safety and Security, and Human Resources divisions of Sound Transit.

Francis is currently an attorney at Foster Pepper & Shefelman PLLC, where she chairs the Employment and Labor Practice Group and serves on the Municipal and Public Finance Group and the Government Relations Practice Group. She recently completed a term as the Northwest Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration and has also worked as a Special Assistant to Mayor Charles Royer of Seattle.

"Joann's depth and diversity of experience make her an ideal addition to the Sound Transit management team," Earl said. "Her work background includes experience in transportation issues and diverse expertise in areas such as public finance and municipal law, employment and labor, government procurement and contracting, corporate law and real estate."

Francis is very active in the community and has been involved in Women in Unity, the Municipal League of King County and the Seattle Art Museum African Arts Council. She is a member of the Washington State Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association and the Loren Miller Bar Association (a statewide organization of African American attorneys).

Francis will begin work at Sound Transit on October 1, 2001.

Voter-approved in 1996, Sound Transit is implementing a three-county regional transit system plan known as Sound Move. Sound Move includes three transportation systems: Sounder commuter rail, running from Everett to Tacoma/Lakewood; Link light rail, a system connecting the cities of Seattle, Tukwila and SeaTac and a 1.6 mile system in Tacoma; and Regional Express, featuring 19 new ST Express limited stop, long-haul bus routes and numerous improvements to transit centers, park-and-ride lots and HOV lanes throughout the region.

For more information on Sound Transit or its projects, visit www.soundtransit.org or call toll-free at (800) 201-4900 or (206) 398-5000 for local calls.

# # #

Sound Transit plans, builds and operates regional transit systems and services to improve mobility for Central Puget Sound.