January 6, 2023 10:06 am

Meet Nina Kin, the Newest Member of the MobilityData Board of Directors

MobilityData members voted in favor of expanding the three-person Board of Directors to include two more seats. After this, there were a number of candidates who contested for these two seats, with Brede Dammen (Entur, Norway) and Nina Kin (LA Metro, Los Angeles, USA) joining the Board.

We asked both our new Board members a few questions.

First up, we have Nina Kin!

Nina is the Digital Services Tech Lead at LA Metro. She creates rider-facing web tools and optimizes the data that powers them. With 15 years as a technologist in local government, she is a passionate advocate for improving government technology in order to better serve the public.

She aims to grow communities at the intersection of government and technology. This has led her to take on leading roles in a variety of groups and events, notably: Hack for LA (a volunteer civic tech group), the Code for America National Advisory Council, Data + Donuts LA (a local government-focused lecture and networking series), and the LA Arts Datathon.

As a resident of Los Angeles, a city known for its reliance on cars, she is also an enthusiastic advocate for transportation alternatives and frequently enjoys taking buses and trains as well as bicycling and walking throughout the city.

Tell me a little more about yourself

I have a large range of creative hobbies (knitting, crocheting, modular origami, etc.) and I always love picking up new ones. I grew up in a family of Chinese opera performers and I’m a lifelong musician currently playing piano, Chinese erhu, violin, and Japanese taiko drumming. One of my great joys is combining my programming background with my creative side, like when I led a workshop that used embroidery to map non-institutional art in the local community.

Why did you want to join the board?

I strongly believe in MobilityData’s mission and I would love to contribute my experience from working within government.

What are you most excited about being on the board?

I am excited to do whatever I can to support MobilityData employees!

What experiences do you bring to the board?

I bring my 15 years of experience working within government, as well as my background as a programmer who has had plenty of experience playing with data and massaging it into a user-facing web interface.

What is something you love about MobilityData?

I love that MobilityData is doing the work to expand mobility data standards, make them more usable, and promote their adoption.

What has been your most memorable transit / shared mobility experience?

I’ve commuted to work by train for nearly my entire career and I would usually use those 45 minutes on the train to knit! It prompted a lot of comments. Some people would reminisce about their childhood when they would watch their grandmother knit. Others were concerned that I would stab my eyes out if the train suddenly stopped. The most fun was finding other knitters and showing off our projects to each other!