S1/E1: Why Building Your Brand is Essential to Your Success - Keith Benjamin

Keith Benjamin serves as the Director of the Department of Traffic and Transportation for the city of Charleston, South Carolina. In his position he oversees all transportation maintenance, planning and partnerships at the local, county and state level. He is also the city’s representative on the CARTA Transit Board, Charleston Aviation Authority and the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments’ Policy Committee. Previously he served in the Office of Policy Development, Strategic Planning and Performance as well as led the Office of Public Liaison at the US Department of Transportation.

Prior to his Federal service, Keith was Community Partnership Manager for the Voices for Healthy Kids Community Consortium with the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. In this role, he was responsible for the recruiting and developing of public and private partners that were dedicated to creating healthy accessible and safe communities across the nation. At the national, regional and local level, Keith provided technical assistance to policy campaigns in underserved communities, built coalitions, increased leadership capacity, engaged elected officials, created advocacy resources and led The Nation Active Transportation Diversity Task Force.

Keith has also previously represented the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO advocating on behalf of 200,000 members and retirees and also served on Capitol Hill with Senator Carl Levin, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, the Committee on House Administration, Representative Kendrick Meek, and the late Representative Donald Payne.

A 2019 NACTO Leadership Fellow, and delegate to Kenya and Ethiopia with the American Council of Young Political Leaders, he has served as 2018 Next City Vanguard Fellow, a member of the National League of Cities Advisory Panel on Health Disparities, the Better Bike Share Partnership Equity Panel, the National Working Group on Healthy Food access and the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, Citizens Advisory Committee.

Keith Benjamin is a graduate and Deans awardee of Swarthmore College, and comes to Charleston with his wife Tiffany Nicole and son Kingsley Randall.