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Michelle Rasmussen, All Star Coach

Rides the Bus! June 2016
Employer: Eastern Washington University
Occupation: Director of Parking & Transportation

Michelle Rasmussen is the Director of Parking & Transportation Services at Eastern Washington University (EWU). She’s been the ETC for over a year and a half and promotes her CTR program to over 1900 staff and faculty members.

Currently Michelle has a 26 mile one way commute and walks her talk by riding the bus as often as her schedule allows.

Currently EWU offers a free bus pass to all faculty, staff, and students. They also offer a guaranteed ride home program, monthly prize drawing for EWU bookstore gift certificates, beverage coupons for dining services and gift cards for their “TOY” Thinking of You program. She also plans to add two bike fix-it stations within the year.
Soon after becoming the ETC, Michelle began requiring all those riding the bus to campus, to fill out their calendar on MyCommute.org. She also created a marketing campaign incorporating Swoop (the Eagle) to promote the CTR program and educate employees on their commute choices.

When Michelle took over the program, there were 142 employees filling out their calendars, now she has nearly 425 logging their trips each month! Her biggest challenge is communicating with all her employees. Utilizing the messaging center in MyCommute.org she sends reminders for employees to update their calendars.

Currently Michelle is revamping the universities parking program, looking at ways to make the most of their space and increase the rates for the premium parking areas. Her hope is that increased parking rates will encourage employees to start riding the bus and help save them money.

Michelle’s words of wisdom to other ETCs is “Never give up trying to get the word out, consistency pays off!”