By Karina Ricks
Cityfi Partner Karina Ricks recently interviewed the newest member of our Affiliate Network, Robin Hutcheson, an all-star in the world of transportation. In the conversation, they touched on Robin’s unique, and very effective, perspective on how she has approached her work, lessons learned along the way in her expansive and successful career, and also what makes Robin who she is. We are super excited to have Robin join Cityfi as an Affiliate and cannot wait to work with her more!
Karina: Robin, I want to start with a recounting of your expansive career. You’ve led transportation in two different cities, chaired the National Association of City Transportation Officials, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at US DOT and Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and advised cities and communities both domestically and internationally. You have literally run the gamut from trikes to transit to trucks. So … what’s the throughline? What is your value proposition across these various dimensions?
Robin: Wow. Hearing you read that list, it sounds like I made it up. But it’s true. The throughline? Well, there are a few.
One throughline is that through everything I’ve done, I always boil it down to the person. You might think the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is all about big trucks and freight and the supply chain. And it is. But I really came at it from the perspective of the driver: How can we make the drivers safer and their employment conditions better? That’s how we improve the supply chain. Before that, when I was Deputy Assistant Secretary, I still oriented around the person: how can we make it less likely that people (pedestrians) will die in a crash? As Director of Public Works in Minneapolis, it was about the experience of the person who visits or lives in the city and how they interact with our infrastructure. All the way back in my experience, I have always oriented around the individual and how they relate with a policy or a piece of infrastructure.
Then there are throughlines that have to do with the things that I care about.
Every job choice, every change, every time I’ve taken on a new position and made a difference in that position, I am driven by my values. I care deeply about climate, safety, and equity. For me, it isn’t enough anymore to have impact on just one of these things. It has to have an impact on at least two of the three and hopefully all three, if not, then I’m probably not working on it. So that’s a throughline. I’ve sought to have an impact.
Karina: Yeah, I see that. We’ve known each other for quite a while now and I can say, unequivocally, that you are passionate about what you do. You are tough as nails taking on the issues that are important for those values.
That leads me to my next question. You and I both led city transportation departments through the pandemic and all the on-the-fly changes and adaptations we had to make to protect our workforce, support our residents and sustain our businesses. But you had the added challenge of being the Director of Minneapolis DPW when George Floyd was killed and the reckoning that followed. That was an incredibly tough time. What did you take away from that really extreme circumstance?
Robin: As if COVID wasn’t hard enough, then we added on a layer of anguish in the City of Minneapolis.
I am pausing here because there’s no crystal clear takeaway from a situation like that. It was so complex. I was leading a group of 1,200 people whose responsibility it was to care of the city even while the city was, in some cases, literally burning. My job was to make sure that they took care of the city and also to take care of them. It was so complicated. They needed to know that their leader was unequivocally anti-racist; that their leader knew it was hard and was also struggling; and that their leader was learning in real time, as it was unfolding.
So back to the throughline of the person: I felt like my first responsibility was to the people who worked in Public Works — to ensure they had a safe place and knew I was listening to them. I had front line employees — people who generally did not have daily access to the Director — who felt comfortable calling me to say, “The way you worded that all staff email was a problem and I want to help you.” I took that and I learned a lot.
Karina: I do want to call that out — humility! As an executive, that is actually a really big lesson, right?
Robin: Absolutely. You think you’re really in the right place but then somebody shows you that anybody has the capacity to teach you. That is deep humility. Yeah.
My next responsibility was to the people of Minneapolis, and that was tricky because passions were high. People had strong convictions about what happened to public space in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. It was tough. I listened to all viewpoints — with people on the ground who disagreed with what the city was doing, or how much or little the city could do. I received terrible things over email and to my face. You said I’m tough as nails, and that might be true because I just kept listening. I knew these people were hurting.
Honestly, I’m still processing it, and I actually think that’s a good thing. When you’re talking about racial justice and equity, you don’t just learn a little and move on. It is a deeper journey.
I learned so much, but I also got a sense you can pretty much throw anything at me. I can do really hard things and dig really deep in myself. My very first assignment at US DOT was not roadway safety — it was COVID response for the nation. I was the lead on mask wearing on airplanes. What do I know about aviation? I don’t. So I called up so much help and support from people who knew what they were doing that I had colleagues say, “Oh my god, I can’t believe it. How are you doing? Is everything okay?” And I felt like yeah, I mean, it’s hard, but yeah, I’m fine. Because I had been through a lot and that tough as nails thing is maybe a little bit real.
Karina: So Robin, not only are you a leading transportation thinker and innovator, you are also an extreme athlete (at least to those of us who don’t ski 50 km races or swim ocean crossings). Tell us about that side of you.
Robin: That’s the side that makes me how I am, who I am when you like dig way, way down. In my core there is drive and the desire for achievement and competitiveness — and adventure! You know, it starts with adventure. I just love the physical activity that fulfills the need for adventure, and the drive and achievement and competition. I fulfill those needs through skiing and open water swimming. I love to be outside in nature. It calms me. I’m not a super laid back person. It’s important to know oneself and I know it would not be enough for me to run on a treadmill. I have to be in nature when I’m doing these things and it is deeply fulfilling to me. It’s a part of who I am. It’s an expression of what’s inside.
Karina: Next we will go to the PSA portion of the interview. You and I both moved from major coastal cities to under-appreciated places. I moved from DC to Pittsburgh and fell in love with it. You went to DC but could not stay away from Minneapolis. Why is that?
Robin: One thing about Minneapolis that people don’t realize is that if you’re someone like me where nature is important to you, it is a city that is full of natural spaces that have been preserved for the enjoyment of the public — and that’s rare. I don’t know what the statistic is, but Minneapolis residents have access to parks very close to them. They have the ability to get into green space and lakes and parks very easily. That’s important to me because it’s good for my mental state. And it makes me a whole person.
That’s one part of it. A second reason why Minneapolis is so fantastic is because it is under-recognized. It is still both affordable and full of potential. There is so much potential in Minneapolis to be the most inventive, environmentally conscious city. It’s a city of green and parks and so there is this deep commitment to maintaining the environment. It is also a city that is, very obviously, both struggling with and working very hard to right past wrongs and to be more equitable and to close achievement gaps. And, you know, I want to live in a city that prioritizes that. It’s a city that attracts people with such a sense of loyalty. People from Minneapolis, they leave but they come back. People who moved to Minneapolis have a hard time moving away because they end up having a deep love for this city.
Karina: Sorry — a critical question — is Minneapolis, Midwest or North Country?
Robin: Minneapolis call themselves The North. They don’t like being Midwest. If it is midwest, it’s definitely upper midwest. But preferable is north.
What’s Pittsburgh? Is that Midwest or East Coast?
Karina: Well, we’ve been accused of being East Coast and some call us Midwest, but I think we are solidly Rust Belt turned Tech Belt.
Karina: Last question — you have had a stellar career, which is not over! You have touched so many aspects of so many different things. Now you are wanting to apply that expertise and insight and passion and knowledge to a whole array of other things. You are now an Affiliate to Cityfi, in addition to your own consulting entity. What do you want to do with this accumulated wealth of knowledge that you have to share?
Robin: You’re very kind and very complimentary, Karina. Yes, I have had a really diverse set of experiences in transportation, infrastructure, policy and on the ground implementation. I focused on moving people for so long then switched to focus on moving goods.
I thought a lot about what I wanted to do next, where I wanted to have an impact, and how I wanted to work. It was very clear to me that I want a portfolio of activities because I have this tapestry of experience. There is very little that I would not want to do. I want to see if I can have a diversity of work where I can be engaged in a whole array of transportation and infrastructure efforts. That might range from policy development, financing technology for safety, climate and equity benefits to advising on on the ground implementation. I would like to engage in leadership development and organizational development — and mentoring women! We haven’t talked about that at all yet, but I’ve been building women in transportation my whole career. I founded a WTS chapter in 2008. Most of my closest colleagues are women. As you know, we have this incredibly strong network of women who support each other.
I have a really diverse set of skills and areas where I can have an impact so, with a portfolio of work, I can continue to do a little bit of all of these things and continue to weave this tapestry. I hope to do some advisory consulting, where I can have impact.
I am really excited to be an affiliate with Cityfi. I think Cityfi is doing some of the most groundbreaking and interesting work. And I really look forward to partnering and supporting you, Karina, and being a part of really interesting work.
Karina: We are super excited about having you as an Affiliate, too. You have a knack of being the right person in the right place at the right time. And I think right now is a time when there is a need for people that can bring together the human element, the commerce element, the safety element, technology and policy leadership elements. So there’s still a lot of work that we, as a country and a nation and world, have to do and you are going to be a big contributor to that. I know.
So, thank you. Thank you. I’m looking forward to doing some more together.
