We’re excited to welcome Esmeralda Gaton to the NACTO leadership team!
NACTO’s greatest strength is our network of passionate transportation professionals and city leaders who work every day to transform urban streets. Supporting and connecting this community requires dedicated, visionary leadership—making Esmeralda Gaton the perfect fit as our new Director of Engagement.
Esmeralda brings over two decades of experience driving equity, leading systems change, and creating opportunities for low-income communities and communities of color to thrive. Throughout her career, she has operated at the intersection of strategy, engagement, and operations across both the local government and the nonprofit sectors.
Most recently, Esmeralda served as Director of Alliance Engagement at America’s Promise Alliance, where she led engagement strategies for a national portfolio of youth-serving organizations, cultivating strategic partnerships, leading member engagement, and helping organizations connect through collective action initiatives, leadership development opportunities, and peer learning communities. Prior to that, she spent over a decade in city government, including serving as Chief of Staff for the Office of School Wellness Programs at the New York City Department of Education.
NACTO’s mission to build cities for people relies on a vibrant, connected community of practitioners who can learn from one another and lead on forward-thinking transportation policy. As Director of Engagement, Esmeralda will guide our member engagement, capacity-building programs, and field-wide convenings. She will partner across teams to ensure our work directly reflects member needs while connecting local insights to NACTO’s broader strategy.
A native New Yorker, Esmeralda currently resides in the Bronx with her wife. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her niece, cooking, and staying active—you can catch her weightlifting, playing tennis, running, or riding her bike on the Bronx River Greenway.
Please join us in giving Esmeralda a warm welcome to the NACTO team! We look forward to working alongside her to strengthen our member community and design safer, more sustainable, and more equitable streets for everyone.
