Grace Belmont

Email: gracebelmont@ctuir.org
Title: Regional Transit Outreach Specialist
Organization: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation – Kayak Public Transit
Community: Greater Umatilla County region
Population: ~100,000
County Served: Umatilla, Morrow, and Union counties in Oregon; and Walla Walla County in Washington

Meet Grace Belmont:

Grace is from Egleston Square in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and the woods of Royalston, Massachusetts. Her Oregon goals include seeing elk, bighorn sheep, and the goat’s heads she’s been warned about. Grace received her MS in Urban Planning and Community Development with a concentration in Environmental Planning and Land Use at the University of Massachusetts. Now that she has entered the world of regional transit through the RARE program, she spends her days thinking about first and last mile transit solutions for the rural communities she serves.

Community and Organization:

Kayak Public Transit is a project of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, providing community and economic support through free regional transportation for rural communities in northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington.

Projects:

Over the course of her year with Kayak Public Transit, Grace will spearhead community outreach and education campaigns to re-build ridership that was lost during the Pandemic on existing bus routes while promoting new routes for underserved populations. Part of this outreach will include working with media, employers, and local government and stakeholder organizations, in addition to improving Kayak’s online presence so that regional transit information is more widely available. She will also develop and conduct community-based surveys studying public transportation use, obstacles, needs, and awareness to help inform Kayak’s transit planning and implementation going forward.