Matt Nichols was selected by Mayor Libby Schaaf to serves as the Oakland Mayor’s Office’s first-ever Policy Director for Infrastructure & Transportation. For two decades, Matt has been a leader in sustainable transportation policies and projects implementation in the Bay Area and has a proven track record in major fundraising, Safe Routes to Schools, transit oriented development, disability access, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, transit pass programs and innovative parking management. He served as Principal Transportation Planner for the City of Berkeley for 13 years and as the Sustainable Transportation Program Director for the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign in the U.S.

He served on the Board of Directors of Urban Ecology and City CarShare.  Matt earned a Masters in Urban Planning from UCLA, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and African Studies from UCLA. Matt is deeply committed to integrating social, economic and environmental goals into public policy, and has worked on numerous transportation justice projects. A native of Sacramento, California, Matt does not own a car and lives with his wife and two teenage sons in south Berkeley at the corner of two Bicycle Boulevards, four AC Transit lines and a BART Station.