Sonja Boet-Whitaker

Sonja has more than 12 years of experience developing and implementing capital infrastructure programs for large cities and transit agencies. She is known for her ability to span organizational divides in large, complex bureaucracies. Sonja worked on the implementation of both PlaNYC and Vision Zero at the New York City Department of Transportation and spent seven years at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). For the MBTA Automated Fare Collection 2.0 group, she served as a key translator between fare policy and technical system capability. As the deputy director and then director of the MBTA’s Capital Program Planning group, Sonja led the process of developing the five-year, fiscally constrained Capital Investment Plan. She also started the MBTA’s federal discretionary grants team to successfully pursue funding through Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act programs. Since joining Kittelson in 2023, Sonja has worked on a variety of transit projects (spanning small to large systems) and served as a subject matter expert on federal grants for municipalities, MPOs, and states across the country. Sonja holds a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Brown University and a master’s degree in city planning from MIT, with a concentration in environmental policy and planning.  Outside of work, Sonja, who was raised in a Dutch-American household in the Boston area, can be found on the nearest playground with her family or enjoying pastries from her latest favorite bakery.