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Transportation 2025: MONICA BACKMON
CEO, NORTHERN VIRGINIA TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, FAIRFAX COUNTY
Virginia Business //September 2, 2025//
Transportation 2025: MONICA BACKMON
CEO, NORTHERN VIRGINIA TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, FAIRFAX COUNTY
Virginia Business //September 2, 2025//
This year, the NVTA released a draft action plan for a regionally connected Bus Rapid Transit system, identifying up to 28 potential routes in Northern Virginia. The authority has already committed more than $880 million toward five BRT segments.
Backmon was named the authority’s CEO in 2021, after having served as its executive director in 2014. Established by the state, the authority has invested more than $3.8 billion in 140 regional projects.
Backmon was one of 10 honorees for the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials’ Women Who Move the Nation recognition in 2024. In 2022, she received the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) D.C. chapter’s Woman of the Year Award and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Ronald F. Kirby Award for Collaborative Leadership.
The two-time graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign serves as a member-at-large on the WTS board of directors.
FIRST JOB: Church’s Chicken — I started as a cashier and later [became] a fry cook.
MOST VALUED POSSESSION: Time. It’s the most precious resource we have — once spent, it can’t be reclaimed.
