Fabián Armendariz currently serves as the Division Director of Operations for Kansas’s largest school district, the Wichita Public Schools. In that role, he oversees Nutrition Services, Supply Chain, Student Transportation, Print Center, and other initiatives.

Over his 24-year career with the district, he served in numerous roles at several schools before transitioning to district administration in 2007 as the Supervisor of Pupil Accounting. He became the Director of Student Transportation Services in 2011 and transitioned to his current role in 2018.

Chief Burton spent much of his law enforcement career working for the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office. He has over 15 years of law enforcement experience, most recently as the Chief of Police for St. George. He is also a military veteran and has dedicated over 22 years to the United States Army and the United States National Guard.  

Chief Burton has an active law enforcement voice in Safe Routes to School projects and efforts, and we’re looking forward to continuing to work with him on the Advisory Committee. His passion for serving others and dedication to building relationships is exactly what we’re looking for.

Michelle Coats is the Mobility Manager for the North Central Kansas region of Saline, Ellsworth, Ottawa, Lincoln, Cloud, Mitchell, Republic and Jewell Counties. 

When she started in 2016, she was the first full-time Mobility Manager in the state and has since worked to coordinate transportation options and services to improve accessibility for individuals and communities and has been involved in many successful projects. She is also very active in the Salina community as a member of the local Rotary, Noon Networks AMBUCS on the Solicitations Committee, and a member of the City of Salina Accessibility Advisory Board. 

Jeff Fischer works as a KDOT Area Engineer in District 4 – Southeast Kansas.  Southeast Kansas was also where he learned to love biking as a kid when his training wheels were taken off and he could bike to his grandma’s house three miles away. In college and graduate school, Jeff became aware of the hazards associated with walking and biking along roadways designed around much faster vehicles. He now helps to design and create roads that are safe for all users. 

Maura Fitzgerald has been a Behavioral Safety Coordinator for the Kansas Department of Transportation since 2022. In this role, she serves in the State Highway Safety Office and manages contracts and the following program areas: Vehicle Recalls, Railroad Safety, Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety, Motorcycle Safety, Underage Drinking and Driving, Teen Driving, Child Passenger Safety, Paid Media, and General Traffic Safety Education efforts across the state.

In 2023, Maura developed and implemented the Kansas Behavioral Safety Section’s Public Participation and Engagement plan for 2024–2026. She serves as the Kansas Behavioral Safety Section’s Equity chair and will continue to oversee the state’s Public Participation and Engagement efforts. Additionally, she serves as Kansas’s representative for the National Conference of Women Community Leaders for Highway Safety.

Laura Fox oversees BikeWalkKC’s education team and works to ensure program sustainability through cultivating strong relationships with community organizations, school districts, public health-focused workgroups, and others across the Kansas City metro area. She is also involved with the Women Bike KC initiative and coordinates the KC Women’s Bike Summit and the Greater KC Safe Routes to School Summit. Laura is a Licensed Cycling Instructor​, co-chair of the Healthy Communities Alumni Networking and Communications Team, Committee Chair for Climate Action KC’s Youth Advisory Committee, a 2017 alumna of the Healthy Communities Leadership Academy, a frequent bike commuter​, and a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia.

As if she could do anything more, Laura is also co-chair of the Healthy Communities Alumni Networking and Communications Team, Committee Chair for Climate Action KC’s Youth Advisory Committee, and has served as Council Member for the City of Westwood since 2020.

Andy Fry has been involved with Safe Routes to School efforts in Topeka since 2015. A volunteer with the Topeka Community Cycle Project, Andy has provided bike lessons and safety training and currently runs the Randolph Elementary Bike Train. Andy also works on promoting active transportation in his professional life — he works as a transportation planner for WSP, where he focuses on transit and transportation planning.

Nancy Gardner started her career as a Family and Consumer Sciences high school teacher before becoming a SNAP-Ed Nutrition Educator with K-State Research and Extension in the Sedgwick County office, where she’s been for the last 12 years. Nancy teaches Nutrition Education to 4th and 5th grade students in numerous schools in Sedgwick County to positively influence healthy eating and active living.

Chris Gralapp is the Manager of Planning for Olathe Public Schools and has a background as a city planner. Much of his work with the school district is focused on understanding where students currently live and future development to determine how this impacts the schools in terms of boundaries and school staffing.   This gives him a unique perspective as he balances learning from yesterday, understanding what’s happening today, and planning for the future.

Jenny Lancaster is the Program Manager for the Kansas Traffic Safety Resource Office (KTSRO) at DCCCA, Inc. KTSRO educates Kansans about traffic safety in a variety of ways, including school-based programs aimed at improving student safety. She is also a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician and Instructor.

She loves working with Seatbelts Are for Everyone (SAFE) and planning events like the Kansas Teen Transportation Safety Conference, Child Passenger Safety Update, and the Impaired Driving Conference. She recently sat on the Advisory Committee for the Holton Safe Routes to School planning grant process as part of the inaugural SRTS Planning and Programming grants, and she looks forward to continuing her SRTS work.

Leah Maugans has a master’s degree in occupational therapy, and she is passionate about plans and programs that work for all abilities and environments. She’s also a parent who has experience with her child being involved in a vehicular/pedestrian crash (he’s okay!), which further fuels her advocacy for both transportation safety and ensuring children and young people get a voice at the table.  

Along with work and parenting, Leah is a Parent Leadership Training Institute Alumni, BikeWalkKC member, is involved in her children’s school PTA, and is working with BikeWalk Leawood to update the community’s 10-year-old plan.

Yazmin Moreno is the Public Information Officer for KDOT in Southwest Kansas, where she oversees communication for 19 counties. With a strong background in city and county government roles, she takes great pride in her western Kansas roots as a lifelong resident of the area.

Yazmin is actively involved in her community, having volunteered with numerous nonprofit organizations, including United Way, the Western Kansas Community Foundation, and Local Emergency Planning Committees.

Lisa Mussman has worked as the Public Information Officer in District 3 – northwest Kansas – for a decade, serving as the voice of the Kansas Department of Transportation in her community. Outside of work, Lisa volunteers at the Wellness Center in Phillipsburg, which is a volunteer-ran, local fitness center that serves the community and surrounding area. She has deep ties to northwest Kansas and brings a rural perspective that is extremely important as we design and implement Safe Routes to School programs for all Kansas students.

Kim Negrete joined the Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WAMPO) in March of 2024 as the Multimodal Transportation Safety Planner. Prior to joining WAMPO, Kim served as the Executive Director at Bike Walk Wichita, served on many WAMPO committees for the past seven years, and has worked in public health for the past 23 years, focusing primarily on health policy and system improvements. Kim also gets extra SRTS brownie points because she bikes to work most days!

Meredith Slan is the Community Health Specialist at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, serving the Northeast Kansas region. In this role, she assists communities in identifying and leveraging resources to advance health promotion, build capacity, and develop local coalitions aimed at chronic disease prevention, including active transportation and healthy food access.

Previously, Meredith worked at the Kansas State Department of Education, where she managed the Active Schools: Let’s Move Kansas initiative to increase physical activity throughout the school day. As a member of the Kansas Safe Routes to School Advisory Committee, Meredith hopes to increase awareness of Safe Routes to School so more youth will bike, walk, and roll to school. 

Joan Vitt started with the City of Parsons as a part-time assistant and, during her tenure, has become a decision maker who works with the City Engineer and City Manager on all aspects of community needs. Joan is also the Director of the Parsons Land Bank, under the umbrella of the city’s Economic Development.  She also assisted in applying for a Planning and Programming Grant, which funded the creation of the City’s first Safe Routes to School Plan.

 Joan also has over 20 years of experience running a biometric company, building teams that work together to develop and manage software programs used in law enforcement and military programs.

Curtis Whittit is an avid runner, an inconsistent biker, a board member at Run Wichita, the founder of Exploration Place parkrun, and a devoted father to two school-aged sons. As an electrical engineer in the architectural design industry, he has witnessed how influential a single voice can be over the course of a project and how important it is to participate in local projects.

As a parent, Curtis understands the challenges of providing transportation to school every day. He believes Kansas Safe Routes to School is a great first step to promoting physical activity and ensuring a more reliable mode of transportation in the safest way possible.