New Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission Executive Director Jeremy Holmes is excited to champion collaboration between localities for regional solutions to regional problems.
After working at the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission for more than 15 years, Jeremy Holmes assumed leadership of the organization last month. He replaced retiring executive director Wayne Strickland, who worked at the commission for 42 years.
In 2006, Holmes joined the commission when he was appointed director of the RIDE Solutions Commuter Assistance Program. Prior to that time, he worked in the circulation department at The Roanoke Times as a data analysis manager.
When the San Diego, California native who has lived in Roanoke since 1989 saw the posting for the director position, he immediately knew he wanted to pursue the opportunity. His family only maintained one car and he rode his bike to work, so the idea of leading a rideshare program was right up his alley.
“I was very interested in the environmental side of reducing vehicle travel,” he says.
As director of the program, his job was to examine what reducing the number of cars on the road in the region could mean and how to make the idea a reality. Some of his initial work with the program looked at air quality issues, carbon reduction, quality of life and active living.
“We saw a huge growth in interest in and support of active transportation options, particularly bicycling,” Holmes says.
One of the program’s biggest accomplishments while under his leadership was the 2018 launch of the first bike share program in the Roanoke Valley. The program aligned well with the Roanoke Regional Partnership and Roanoke Outside’s efforts to brand the region as an outdoors destination.
Another thing Holmes is especially proud of was the program’s success in bringing more awareness to transit options. One of the ways it went about doing so was through the Art by Bus initiative, which brought visual arts, musical performances and writing onto the local bus network.
Holmes acknowledges that the program’s mission has been overlooked by some throughout the years due to the fact that it has been viewed as the “carpool program.” In fact, it’s a robust program that services the Roanoke Valley, the New River Valley, Lynchburg and Martinsville.
“We did a lot of work with employers that a lot of people probably didn’t see. We assisted employers and built programs to better understand how to help commuters get to work,” he says.
While he wants to allow room for the incoming director, who has yet to be established, to come up with his or her own vision for the program, Holmes says it will likely continue to tackle workforce transportation issues. Specifically, he notes, there is a need to assist people in rural areas be able to travel for employment.
“There is a whole range of opportunities with the continued support of our economic development strategy and interest in resiliency coming out of the pandemic because our transit agencies were hit pretty hard,” he explains.
In January of last year, Holmes was given another title and a considerable amount of responsibility. When he assumed the role of associated executive director, he became more involved in the broader work of the commission. He specifically engaged with the commission’s local government partners to determine what would be feasible over the course of the next year given the complexities of the pandemic.
After getting that additional leadership experience under his belt, Holmes decided to throw his hat into the ring when Strickland announced his plans to retire.
“I felt that I had good relationships with our localities and saw opportunities that went beyond the work of the commuter assistance program,” he says. “For me, it was a greater opportunity to serve. I saw it as an opportunity to do more with the economy, housing and other projects that I’m interested in supporting.”
Simply put, Holmes views the role of the commission as being a convener of localities with the goal of championing collaboration to come up with regional solutions for regional problems.
“There are lots of things that our localities do within their borders, but there is a ton of stuff that doesn’t end at a jurisdictional boundary,” he says. “A big function of what we do is transportation. A lot of folks don’t know when you cross from a city to a county or a town because they’re trying to get to work or a service and the roads need to get them to those places. Our job is to get everyone to the table to make sure we find the best solutions to regional problems as possible.”
Even though he’s still settling into the job, Holmes already has a strong vision in mind for the direction he would like to steer the commission in. “I want to continue being of service to the community that I’ve lived in the majority of my life and raised my family in. This position now provides me more opportunities to help my community,” he says.
In the short-term, he sees the commission playing a strong role in dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, helping the 11 localities that comprise the commission utilize funding from the American Recovery Act.
“We’re in a pretty remarkable time. We’ve never seen the kind of money and opportunities that are now coming in after such a tragic period. It’s a time of change and a time for us to rethink what we want to be when we come out of this,” he says.
In the long term, he hopes the commission will play a role in establishing a plan for preventing the kind of strain the pandemic has caused on the community the next time a disruptive force like this comes along.
Additionally, he says there is an opportunity for the commission to help address housing and workforce needs.
About the Author:
Aila Boyd is an educator and journalist who resides in Roanoke. She holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University.
