Debra A. Johnson is a person in the people business, a transit executive guided by the knowledge that her decision-making has direct bearing on the public’s ability to make connections that benefit their lives. Johnson was selected as General Manager and CEO of Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD) by the agency’s Board of Directors on Aug. 25, 2020. She is the first woman to lead the agency in its half-century history.

Johnson joined RTD from Long Beach Transit, where she served as Deputy CEO of the Southern California agency from May 2014 to October 2020. Prior to that, Johnson held executive positions at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro), the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

An innovator in the space of zero- and low-emissions vehicles, Johnson was a charter member of the Zero Emission Bus Resource Alliance (ZEBRA) in Southern California. While serving as an executive with Long Beach Transit in 2020, she worked to develop and implement the agency’s Zero-Emission Bus Rollout Plan as part of the California’s Innovative Clean Transit regulation, a national model for large-scale emissions reductions plans among transit agencies. In her current role as General Manager and CEO of RTD, Johnson oversees an ever-growing fleet of alternative-fueled vehicles, with 36 battery-electric buses currently in operation with an additional 17 currently being procured. RTD is also a member of the Colorado Electric Vehicle Coalition (CEVC) and has taken a leadership role in forming the CEVC Transit Subgroup, which brings together stakeholders interested in transit electrification.

Johnson serves on the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) Board of Directors, as well as APTA’s Commuter Rail CEO’s Committee and Emerging Leaders Committee. She is a board member of the American Public Transportation Foundation.

Johnson holds master’s degree in public administration from California State University Hayward (now CSU East Bay), and a bachelor of arts degree in international relations from the University of California Davis.