CXO Profiles - Shanika Johnson, Pittsburgh Regional Transit

June 2026

Welcome to the next profile in our series highlighting innovators leading Customer Experience in public transit. Today, I am thrilled to feature Shanika Johnson, the Director of Customer Experience at Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT). Shanika draws on a deep passion for transit and works to improve rider experiences through human-centered design, data-driven insights, and converting insights into action.

Shanika’s connection to public transportation is rooted in her personal history. She has been riding the bus since she was a teenager, which gives her an appreciation for the essential role transit plays in our daily lives. For Shanika, transit isn't just a service—it’s a vital lifeline connecting people to work, school, and opportunities.

Building Expertise from the Ground Up

Over an impressive two-decade tenure at Pittsburgh Regional Transit, Shanika has built her expertise in customer engagement, operations, and service delivery from the ground up. She began her professional journey right on the front lines in 2003 as a Customer Service Representative, eventually working her way up to Lead Representative and Customer Service Supervisor, where she managed the call center and customer complaints. Her unfiltered view of where the system succeeded and where it fell short sparked a powerful realization: she didn’t just want to react to issues; she wanted to proactively shape the decisions that enhance the overall rider experience. Following successful stints as an Assistant Manager and Manager of Transit Amenities, Shanika was promoted to her current role as Director of Customer Experience in September 2022.

As the Director of Customer Experience, Shanika and her staff of four take on a wide range of responsibilities. At a high level, the Manager of Customer Experience leads training, internal digital communications, and community engagement. Two Customer Experience Advocates support this work by delivering training, conducting ride checks, and gathering employee feedback to inform employee experience initiatives. Behind the scenes, a Customer Success Program Manager turns customer feedback into action, leading data insights, recognition efforts, and the operator mentor program to strengthen the rider experience.

Like many transit agencies, Pittsburgh Regional Transit experienced a significant drop in ridership during the pandemic. Recognizing that rebuilding trust required a more intentional focus on the customer, Shanika stepped up to elevate the agency's approach. Situated within the Operations Transportation Division, Shanika and her team balance both "doing" and "catalyzing." Their dynamic scope ranges from collecting and analyzing customer feedback to leading CX training and employee engagement initiatives, all while providing a rider-centered perspective on major planning efforts.

From Reactive to Proactive: Rate Your Ride and CX Days

One of Shanika’s proudest accomplishments is revolutionizing how the agency listens to its community. Partnering closely with the Communications team, she helped shift the agency from relying solely on annual surveys to utilizing real-time QR code feedback. Drawing on her human-centered design expertise, she launched the "Rate Your Ride" initiative and real-time feedback dashboards. This innovative approach allows Pittsburgh Regional Transit to pivot from reactive responses to proactive decision-making, addressing issues and seizing opportunities much faster.

Furthermore, Shanika launched weekly CX Day training sessions to provide performance coaching for frontline operators. During CX Day, new and experienced operators—along with new maintenance employees—come together to explore what Customer Experience truly means within the organization. The training walks them through real-world moments, covering transit professionalism, crisis prevention and de-escalation, customer journey mapping, and the key operational KPIs that shape every rider interaction. By connecting individual performance indicators—like on-time performance, real-time tracking, and customer complaints—to broader organizational goals, she helps every employee see the direct impact their role has on service quality.

Leading a transformative CX program certainly comes with its hurdles, particularly the ongoing challenge of balancing new customer experience enhancements with daily operational needs and limited resources. Shanika is sensitive to these tradeoffs and uses a democratic, influence-based leadership style that pays attention to the needs of her staff and other departments. She has learned the invaluable lesson of driving impact without direct authority by building strong cross-functional relationships with Operations, Maintenance, Customer Service, Strategic Planning, and Innovation teams, and influencing strategy through reporting mechanisms focused on employee and rider satisfaction.

Words of Wisdom for CX Practitioners

Shanika's advice to fellow CX practitioners is a testament to her positive and collaborative outlook: "Resilience and patience are essential... your passion should invite collaboration, not resistance". She firmly believes that by pairing operational realities with customer perception data, agencies can cultivate the idea that customer experience is something everyone owns.

Beyond her day-to-day role, Shanika helps cultivate cross-agency networking and serves as co-chair of the APTA CX Forum (alongside me).

And if you think Shanika's talents stop at public transportation, think again! In a delightful twist that might surprise her industry peers, Shanika is a passionate music lover and a talented singer. She has been performing since she was just six years old, including solos in her church choir.

Kudos to Shanika and PRT on their commitment to CX. Shanika is not only a singer but also a harmonizer who elevates the voices of riders and employees!