Sara Pennington, TDM Program Manager
Sara has been with the TJPDC for 12 years, she first started as Outreach Coordinator for RideShare, a transportation demand management (TDM) program. She now is the program manager and also assists with agency communications, including this newsletter.
Q: What led you to working at the TJPDC?
A: My background is in Public Relations and previously I worked at Marshall University as a Recruitment Coordinator, which involves visiting schools and college fairs to speak to counselors, students and parents about the academic programs we offered. So when I was looking to relocate to Charlottesville, I saw a lot of similarities in the positions. The information I was conveying was about commute options and the audience slightly different, but it felt like a good fit. Growing up my dad commuted 140 miles to work each day and I saw how much carpooling benefited him and our family. When most people are making a change in their lives, like choosing a college or switching modes of transportation, they really want to talk to a person to understand the choice that they are making, which is part of what we do at RideShare.
Q: What is a fun fact that you would like to share?
A: I’m a big kid at heart and a total Disney and Harry Potter fan. I’ve ran 3 races at Disney, ranging from 10-19.3 miles, and love going to the parks. Harry Potter (the character) and I share a birthday so in 2020 when we were all staying home I threw myself a Harry Potter birthday party. I watched all the movies (that took more than one day) and made recipes from the “Official Harry Potter Cookbook,” including a replica of the cake from the movie.