Tribal and Rural Transit Mini-Conference

When and Where:  October 14-16, 2025, Rapid City, South Dakota

Instructors: Chelsea Champlin, FTA; Steven Escobar, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe; Ron Hall, UGPTI; Jill Hough, KFH Group, Jonnie Kusek, Open Plains Transit; Robert Mills, Yavapai-Apache Nation; Bennett Powell, KFH Group; Darrel Williams, Ninilchik Village Tribe

Session Presentations:

• Bridging Distances: Practical Strategies and Tools for Rural & Tribal Intercity Bus Planning
• Doing More with Less: Cost Savings through Productivity, Communication and Service Design
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for Indian Tribes
• National Transit Database Rural Data Reporting Fundamentals and Modules
• Providing Public Transportation in Rural, Frontier & Tribal Communities
• Procurement - Tribal and Rural Transit
• Transit Planning 1 - Foundations
• Transit Planning 2 - Implementation
• Tribal Transportation Workforce Peer Exchange
• Yavapai-Apache Nation Transit Operation and Funding

National RTAP provided three (3) full days of Tribal and rural transit training. The mini-conference kicked off with a plenary roundtable discussion of attendee agencies’ best practices and challenges, then continued with 90-minute breakout sessions covering a wide range of transit-specific and hot topics by experts in Tribal and rural transit program development, including, but not limited to: Transit Planning I and II, long range transportation planning, National Environmental Policy Act I and II, procurement and the use of National RTAP’s ProcurementPro tool, grant writing, the latest research on right-sizing your fleets, as well as how transit agencies can “do more with less” in this new environment of uncertain future Federal funding.