Supervisor Spotlight: Highlighting those who keep us moving

Expert Metro staff work tirelessly to deliver service across 150 routes and over 300,000 boardings a day.  You don’t see them, but they’re essential to making sure your trip goes smoothly every day.

They help train the operators you see everyday, keep track of buses throughout the region and support drivers and the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

They are the supervisors, instructors, and coordinators  who put their backgrounds from other fields into good use.

We want to introduce you to the staff that help keep the wheels on the bus going “round and round” everyday.

James Shipp, Training Instructor

James is the youngest boy of six siblings from a close-knit family. During his early years, he and his family lived in Lakewood before moving to University Place. James went to Curtis High School and has an associate degree in Automotive Mechanics.

James is a second-generation Metro employee whose dad worked at Atlantic Base as a mechanic. James was a mechanic at a car dealership but grew tired of getting dirty. He decided to drive for Metro so he could work with his dad.

He started his career at Metro in 2004 as a part-time operator. He drove the first trip of the day from downtown on the Route 174 after the night owl runs ended. During the span of his driving career, he worked out of South and Central bases, but he made Atlantic Base his home. As an operator, his favorite route was the 11, since it had a layover by Lake Washington. His favorite memories were instances where he and his dad’s jobs intersected. Occasionally, they would test drive a coach together or his dad would work on James’s coach if it had a problem. He feels blessed to have had the opportunity to work with his dad and cherishes those moments along with many others.

James has been a first-line supervisor since 2016. He opted to become a supervisor to challenge himself and gain additional knowledge and experience. For the past four years, James was a coordinator in the Transit Control Center (TCC). Initially, he was nervous about working in the TCC, but it grew on him and he liked the challenges that came with that role. He is now in Training as a classroom instructor.

James comes from a long line of public servants (doctors, firefighters, nannies and police officers) and he feels right at home in his role. One of the things he enjoys about his job is knowing he can provide assistance to an operator or supervisor in the field, or help a young person get safely from one place to another on our service. James shares that being a first-line supervisor has given him the chance to figure out new ways to communicate with different people regardless of language, years on the job, or other differences.

James travels a lot in the summer. He has been to Mexico, Thailand, Brazil, New Zealand, Fiji, and Puerto Rico. When not traveling, he rides his motorcycle with his son. He owns a Harley Road Glider and rides with a group. His most recent ride was to Beartooth Pass. James also enjoys scuba diving and boating around the Puget Sound.

James and his wife have three kids. Knowing that his family is provided for keeps James motivated day-to-day.

Cheryl James,  Service Supervisor

Cheryl grew up in Joyce, Wash., a community located on scenic State Highway 112 near Port Angeles. Growing up, her school had a total of 365 students from K–12, and an eight-man football team. Before moving to Seattle, she spent eight years at the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department as a records specialist. While there, she worked with the DWI Task Force and the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program.

In 1998, Cheryl moved to Seattle to study commercial photography. After finishing the program, she worked as a studio manager at drugstore. com until it closed during the dot-com bust. She then freelanced as a horse show photographer, web designer and graphic design photographer.

In 2009, she started driving part-time for Metro to help pay for tuition and earn benefits after returning to school for graphic design. Cheryl spent two and a half years as a part-time operator at East and Bellevue bases. When she went full-time, she was already pursuing a Bachelor of Science in computer science at the Art Institute of Seattle. She later worked at Atlantic and Central bases before returning to East Base.

Given her background in computer science, Cheryl wanted to apply her skills in other areas and saw stepping out of the driver’s seat as the way to do that. After being at Metro for a couple of years, she applied and tested to become a first-line supervisor, but it took another two and a half years before she got the position. Her original goal was to become a dispatcher, since it involved more computer skills. However, after completing training in Service Quality (SQ), she stayed.

Cheryl considers operators her first customers and tries her best to make their jobs easier. She understands that the transit environment has changed since her time as a driver, so she does what she can to support operators on the job.

As a supervisor, Cheryl spent six years in downtown Seattle before moving to the Eastside, where she has worked for the past year and a half. She has served in multiple roles as a first-line supervisor, including special events coordinator, scheduler, SIT trainer, TCC-qualified supervisor, and contributor to the SQ SharePoint redesign. In addition, she was the incident commander for the Torchlight and Pride parades for six years.

What Cheryl finds most fulfilling about her role is being part of once-in-a-lifetime events, like the openings of SR 99 and the SR 520 bridge, and successfully coordinating events that run smoothly.

Cheryl enjoys sewing, knitting and pottery. She also shows Scottish Terriers, which she co-owns and co-breeds. Her love for Scottish Terriers has taken her around the world. She often travels to deliver or retrieve dogs, which has led her to build friendships globally. Her next Scottish Terrier related trip will be to New Zealand.

Cheryl’s advice to Metro employees: “Remember that when the public gets mad at you, they are yelling at the logo on your uniform. They are yelling at you because of what you represent. You see people during their good times and bad times. Do not take it personally.”

Casey Schenk, Service Supervisor

Casey Schenk has been a First-line Supervisor for nine years. While he has done some work in Base Operations as a Trainee, and in the TCC, he calls Service Quality (SQ) his home. Currently, his assigned shift covers the U-District and Northgate (shift 33A).

Casey always had a childhood fascination for anything with wheels – trains, planes, buses etc. While at Bellevue College, he rode the bus often and got to know some of the operators. His experience and interaction with operators increased his interest in buses and driving.

When he turned 21, Casey started as a part-time operator at East Base and spent time at Central, Bellevue, and North bases. He enjoyed driving Sound Transit Route 554 because it had a nice long trip on the freeway between Issaquah and Seattle. He also loved driving in the tunnel downtown when it was operating with buses.

As an operator, he worked a lot on the Extra Board – where drivers substitute on routes for drivers on vacation or long-term absences –   so he saw many new customers. He loved the customer interactions and making sure he got people where they were going.

When Casey joined Metro, his plan was to become a First Line Supervisor. Some of his favorite aspects of the role are problem solving and getting the opportunity to assist operators and customers. He comes to work every day to make a difference, whether it is making the day better for an operator or passenger. “Sometimes we go to assist operators or passengers on their worst days. So hopefully I can get the situation resolved or get an operator through an incident.”

A challenging part of the job is responding to calls that involve conflict or security incidents. Nevertheless, he wants operators to know that he is there to assist them through any situation.

In addition to his regular work, Casey is on the SQ Safety and Security Committee and also assists and supports construction and special events. He is the lead supervisor for Husky football service, and the SR 520/ Montlake Boulevard replacement project. He is looking forward to that construction project wrapping up. He tries to keep the schedule of operators and customers in mind whenever he is involved in service revisions. He feels like his work can make things better for everyone when it is done right and efficiently.

One of Casey’s interests outside of work is auto racing. He watches a lot of Formula 1 and IndyCar racing and attends some of those events. Casey, his wife and his two kids like to utilize their yearly Disneyland Pass quite a bit, so they plan a couple of trips there each year. Casey loves flying and has a special interest in planes.

 

Interested in becoming a part of Metro? Visit “Start your Metro career” to explore well-paying positions with full benefits and a pension in transit operations, trades, rail operations, customer information and countless other fields.