Congratulations to the new PPT Board Members, elected by our general membership to lead us 2025-2027!
Pittsburghers for Public Transit is a democratic, grassroots, member-led union of transit riders and workers.
Each Spring into Summer, our members participate in a democratic process to determine a new group of leaders who will join our organization’s highest decision-making body: our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors is responsible for guiding the direction of PPT’s campaigns and organizational development. The democratic, participatory process that our members choose our leaders is at the heart of our organizing. It keeps a core team of enthusiastic and committed members at the helm.
To review our election process
- During May and June, PPT members nominate fellow members to run for the Board. If the nomination is accepted, the nominee is placed on the ballot with other nominees.
- At our July Monthly Meeting all nominees have a moment to introduce themselves and make their case for why they should be elected to join the Board of Directors.
- The ballot stays open from our July Monthly Meeting to our Summary Party in August. During this time all PPT Members in good standing have a chance to submit their ballot.
- Votes are all tallied and winners are announced to serve a 2-year term!
And now….drumroll please…with all of that grassroots democratic process and participation behind us, PPT is excited to welcome this amazing community of new and returning Board Members!
- Teaira Collins (she/her)
- Tom Conroy (he/him)
- Alisa Grishman (she/her)
- Gabriel McMorland (she/her)
- Paul O’Hanlon (he/him)
- Paul Vereb (he/him)
- Abhishek Viswanathan (he/him)
These leaders will all serve from 2025 to 2027! Read a little more about these leaders below!
Teaira Collins (she/her)
First elected to lead 2023-25. Reelected to lead 2025-2027.
Teaira Collins is a lifelong transit rider, a Hazelwood community leader, a mother and foster mother, and now a grandmother to six grandchildren. Ms. Teaira met Laura Chu Wiens while at Port Authority testifying for improved transit service in Hazelwood, and has since become a leader in PPT’s Our Money, Our Solutions campaign for weekend service on the 93 and the extension of the 75. Ms. Teaira spoke at the City Council Capital Budget hearing press conference about the Mon-Oakland Connector alongside Barb Warwick, and on behalf of PPT during the Poor People’s Campaign Jubilee Caravan. She recently traveled to Atlanta on behalf of PPT on a delegation to connect with other Human Rights organizers across North America, and raise the important connections between public transit, housing, healthcare and food access. She is very active in the community, volunteering with The Mission Continues to help veterans and with the Hazelwood Family Support Center to uplift young mothers. Ms. Teaira also runs her own non-profit to advocate for those like her son Judah and other families with children who have Down Syndrome, and fundraises for the National Kidney Foundation to help research related to her daughter’s health.
Ms. Teaira’s motivated to fight for more and better transit service alongside the need for more funding, and has been leading annual lobby and visits to legislators in Harrisburg to educate them on the impact and need for transit funding. She is dedicated to continue organizing for a free low-income fare program because it is needed now more than ever for all communities. Ms. Teaira Collins has been:
- A Hazelwood leader in PPT’s Our Money, Our Solutions campaign to create a resident-based mobility alternative to the Mon-Oakland Connector. She was integral in winning weekend service on the 93 for Hazelwood residents during that campaign.
- A PPT organizing fellow for the FairFares campaign and helped sign up dozens of riders for the pilot program
- A Volunteer and community advocate for The Mission Continues, Hazelwood Family Support Center, PPS PTA, and for people with Down Syndrome and Kidney Disease.
- A Member of the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council Board of Directors
Tom Conroy (he/him)
First elected to lead 2025-2027.
Tom Conroy has both a strong Union background and an entrepreneurial spirit. Tom was a bus operator for PRT for 19 years, the last six years of his employment as the union Boardman at Collier garage which gave him a seat on the board of ATU local 85. He was also the shop steward at a small union medical supply company for Teamsters local 249 for a year in the mid-1970’s. He helped my wife manage a successful hair salon from 1980 until she retired in 2022. They both took many classes and seminars on not only the technical side of our profession as barber/stylists but also classes on communication and people skills.Tom Conroy was involved with PPT when it formed. He attended the rallies to bring back service to South Baldwin, helped at a neighborhood workshop to organize those residents to fight for restored service. He’s travelled to Harrisburg several times with PPT and Local 85 to protest and rally for funding, and testified at PRT board hearings and attended a city hearing for affordable housing. He’s recently attended marches to support our immigrant community and to fight back the MAGA agenda. He completed the Organizing Fellowship with PPT this past winter/spring, and intends to remain a member of the organizing committee. Tom was also a past member of the ACLU (now signing back up!), and is becoming active in the newly formed block watch in his community.
Alisa Grishman
First elected to lead 2025-2027.
Alisa has been a member of PPT for many years now, and has participated in many campaigns including the Fair Fares Campaign and Transit For All PA! She has served on the Board of Directors for four non-profits, so brings a lot of experience from that sector as well. She hopes to continue PPT’s efforts to be inclusive and equitable in all that it does.
Alisa led the effort to make PRT revise its views on allowing open strollers on buses, leading to their creation of their first official policy on priority boarding for people with disabilities. She participated in multiple Harrisburg trips with Transit For All PA! to secure funding for the continued working of public transit in the state. Alisa has spoken at PRT Board meetings, amongst other events, to help pass the Fair Fares program. She is the founder of Access Mob Pittsburgh, a disability justice organization that seeks to improve the lives of people with disabilities through positive advocacy such as education and economic incentives. Alisa co-hosted the Week Without Driving with PPT, BikePGH, and AARP to bring awareness to the 30% of people who don’t drive and advocate for better sidewalk, road, and transit accessibility.
Gabriel McMorland (she/her)
Gabriel served on PPT’s Board while Director of The Thomas Merton Center, PPT’s Fiscal Sponsor 2017-22. Then she was first elected to lead 2023-25, and reelected 2025-2027.
Gabriel is a white trans woman, who is also blind and transit-dependent. She has been active with PPT since 2015, and was previously on the Coordinating Committee from 2017-2022. Gabriel was very involved with the Don’t Criminalize Transit Riders campaign and early service campaigns, and on the current campaign around scooters and sidewalks. She was the Community Organizer at The Thomas Merton Center from 2014-2017, and TMC’s Executive Director from 2017-2023, doing work that ranged across racial justice, ecological defense, labor solidarity, immigrant rights, and other moves towards liberation. She is also a musician, and played bass in the live performance of Wheels on the Bus at PPT’s end-of-year celebration.
Gabriel invests time and leadership into PPT because she needs PPT to succeed. She has seen many times how PPT includes the sidewalks, curb cuts, and crosswalks as part of the overall transit system, and how PPT has centered people with disabilities to ensure that everyone’s needs are served. She believes that the outcomes of PPT’s work are practical, tangible, and truly affect peoples’ lives: PPT enacts its radical values of racial justice and worker justice, and makes them real through organizing. Gabriel’s vision for PPT is to ensure that organizing and leadership development continue to be at the heart of PPT’s work.
Paul O’Hanlon (he/him)
First elected to lead 2021-23. Re-elected 2023-25 and 2025-27.
My name is Paul O’Hanlon, I’m a retired lawyer. From 2001 to 2014, I worked for a disability rights law firm, and before that I was the Senior Housing Attorney and Housing Unit Chief with Neighborhood Legal Services Association in Pittsburgh.
I caught the “transit bug” in 1991. At that time Port Authority began the long process of becoming accessible to passengers in wheelchairs. Since that time I’ve been involved in advocating for the best, most accessible, area-wide and affordable public transit.
I have been involved in a number of advocacy issues in Allegheny County, particularly around housing, accessible public transportation, and voter engagement.
Paul Vereb (he/him)
First elected to lead 2025-2027.
Paul is a retired transit maintenance supervisor who stressed safety and efficiency while employed at PRT and he understands the importance of keeping transit affordable and reliable. Paul realizes the need of effective transit for people who rely on our system, and the personal and communal affect any changes could have on our region. He also brings a worker’s perspective to the table. Although Paul’s retired, he’s a firm believer in riders and transit worker’s rights, safety, and the pursuit of a thriving system.
Paul recently participated in the PPT Fellowship program which included a rally/press conference concerning the Bus Line Redesign. He’s rallied in Harrisburgh with ATU Local 85 and spoken to Representatives and Senators in support of sufficient funding for transit. He partcipated in the spring training, giving an important and often overlooked worker’s perspective. He circulated a petition to save our routes, jobs, and service, while visiting the garages during Transit Worker Appreciation Day, garnering nearly 100 petition signers to fund transit.
Abhishek Viswanathan
First elected to lead 2025-2027.
Abhishek is a lifelong transit rider (in various cities and countries) and he’s invested in making Pittsburgh’s transit system accessible, equitable, and exciting to use. He have been working with PPT for several years in various capacities, always ensuring that transit riders and workers are the main priority. His background is in data science and I have used my skills to create maps and tools for riders to better understand the impact of changes to the transit system. Abhishek also introduces his students to local transit datasets so they can work with data that is grounded in services that thousands of people (including many of them) use daily.
Abhishek also has experience with labor, environment, and anti-carceral-tech organizing in Pittsburgh. His vision for PPT is to bring more riders and students into the fold, amplify rider and operator voices through data storytelling, and use our broad base to push for increased accessibility and affordability. He also hopes that through intersectional organizing, PPT can connect with other social justice organizations to build a city that we can all thrive in.
Some key campaigns in which Abhishek has played a vital role include
- Securing equitable infrastructure, particularly for improved bus shelters
- Evaluating the Bus Line Redesign to ensure it works for All
- Developing the Riders Vision for Public Transit
- Developing a Transit Fellowship in the South Hilltop
- Banning Facial Recognition and other surveillance at CMU