Charles Drane
Chief Maintenance Officer
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
Charles Drane serves as Chief Maintenance Officer at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), a role he has held for seven years as part of a distinguished 27-year career with the City.
Charles oversees more than 300 employees responsible for maintaining one of the most complex urban rail systems in the United States — 71.5 miles of track, seven light-rail lines, three tunnels, and twelve subway stations serving over 500,000 riders daily.
In 2019, Charles created Fix It! Week, a groundbreaking cross-divisional maintenance initiative that gives crews an extended work window to complete a month's worth of critical infrastructure repairs in just five to seven days. Since its launch, moderate delays on the Muni Metro system are down 62% and long delays are down 59%.
Fix It! Week has not only transformed the reliability of San Francisco's transit system, but has fundamentally shifted the culture of collaboration across the entire SFMTA.
Dr. Luke Rodda, Ph.D.
Chief Forensic Toxicologist and Director of the Forensic Laboratory Division
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
Dr. Luke Rodda, Ph.D. serves as Chief Forensic Toxicologist and Director of the Forensic Laboratory Division at the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Under his leadership, the Forensic Laboratory Division has been transformed into a nationally recognized leader in forensic science. Dr. Rodda expanded the lab's toxicology screening panel from 100 to over 1,000 substances, reduced turnaround times from 75 days to less than two weeks, and secured over $6 million in grant funding. He also led the in-house development of CLIO, a custom case management system that has saved the City hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
San Francisco is now the only medical examiner's office in California to hold all three national accreditations of excellence. Dr. Rodda has mentored over 40 students and published more than twenty peer-reviewed publications, cementing the OCME's standing as a national thought leader in forensic science.
CalFresh Grocery Card Team
Rod Finetti, Teresa Young, Cindy Lin, Rose Johns, Shane Balanon, Cindy Sanchez (not pictured)
SF Human Services Agency
In November 2025 the federal government suspended SNAP food benefits for the first time in the program's 60-year history; 112,000 San Franciscans, one in seven residents, faced immediate food insecurity overnight.
This team of exceptional managers led a targeted, equitable, and strategic response ensuring people would not go hungry. In just one week, they built an unprecedented $18 million public-private partnership with the Crankstart Foundation and financial technology company GiveCard, using grocery-restricted debit cards to preserve vital food access for San Francisco's most vulnerable residents.
The result? One week after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Crankstart’s Board of Directors approved the funding, 18,000 San Franciscans claimed their emergency grocery gift cards, followed by 53,000 recipients two weeks later. By the gift card activation deadline just 8 weeks later, over 65,000 CalFresh households had claimed $14.4 million in emergency grocery gift cards.
SFO AIOC Team
Anthony Nguyen, Ralf Ruckelshausen, Nancy Byun Riedel, Andrea Caporale, Jacob Ehrenberg
San Francisco International Airport
Established in January 2024, the SFO Airport Integrated Operations Center (AIOC) is a 24/7 customer-centric nerve center that enhances coordination and management of all facets of airport operations at San Francisco International Airport. This development team brought the vision to life, building a collaborative environment that enables faster, smarter decision-making for every person who travels through SFO. Spanning more than 22,000 square feet in a state-of-the-art facility, the AIOC unifies security, 911 dispatch, facilities, airlines, customer solutions, and operations and planning into a single, collaborative environment — enabling shared situational awareness and faster, smarter decision-making. By integrating people, technology, and real-time data, the AIOC sets a new national standard for airport efficiency, responsiveness, and safety.
Since going live, the AIOC has delivered measurable results — security wait times consistently under 20 minutes, a 20% improvement in aircraft delay times, and over $120,000 in additional monthly revenue through operational optimization.
