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Ashley Simmons
Deputy Director at Coalition for Reimagined Mobility
Ashley Simmons is the Deputy Director at the Coalition for Reimagined Mobility (ReMo), an initiative of Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE). Here are some key points about her background and role:
Role at ReMo
Ashley Simmons is responsible for advancing ReMo’s mission, executing its strategic roadmap, and supporting day-to-day operations in public affairs, policy, and advocacy. She engages with government agencies, legislators, media, and partner organizations to promote ReMo’s vision of harnessing technology and policy to improve mobility outcomes for people and the planet.234
Professional Background
- Simmons has over two decades of experience in policy communications and public affairs, particularly in the transportation, technology, and telecommunications sectors.
- Before joining ReMo, she served as the Vice President of External Communications at the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), where she transformed TIA’s communications function and developed integrated strategies for policy, advocacy, and standards teams.12
- She was also the Director of Communications for the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), overseeing marketing, events, and communications, and led a successful campaign for the 2014 ITS World Congress in Detroit, Michigan.12
- Earlier in her career, Simmons held roles at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the Motion Picture Association, and as a communications advisor for mayoral and county political campaigns in Buffalo, New York.12
Education
- Simmons earned a Master of Arts in Media and Public Affairs from the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.
- She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Communication with a minor in Political Science from SUNY Buffalo State College.12
Other Ventures
- Ashley Simmons is the Founder and CEO of REVVIT Public Relations, a consultancy that provides media strategies and integrated communications campaigns to educate the public and policymakers on technology-centric legislative and regulatory policy issues.12
Current Responsibilities
- Her responsibilities include liaising with department leads, managing budgets, overseeing staff performance, and developing relationships with stakeholders across business, government, and academic communities. She also assists in framing key approaches to communications, public affairs, and advocacy in the U.S. and EU.2
Highlights
Coming off an energizing and fun week out in San Diego, CA with my colleague Allanté V. Whitmore, Ph.D. for the Transportation Research Board #ARTS2024 conference, I was proud to participate in session workshop 406 on National Collaboration Models Around Roadway Digital Infrastructure for Automation.
Thanks to John Corbin and Dean Deeter for pulling together a great group of speakers and to Julie Lorenz and Laurie Matkowski, PMP for framing the topic and leading the panels.
I took the opportunity to share our learnings at SAFE in creating, building, and sustaining the Coalition for Reimagined Mobility over the past three years, and how we convene a global set of public and private sector stakeholders to advance the future of #mobility. Furthermore, I shared some of the recommendations from ReMo’s report, Unlocking a 21st Century Mobility System, that this new era of mobility policy should 1. put people-first, 2. be designated an economic a national security priority and 3. include an all-of-government broader digital industrial strategy.
💡 Takeaways from the breakout groups on how best to approach a national collaboration model for roadway digital infrastructure in the US included:
• the recognition and need for "seed" money 💲 or investment to ignite the effort, most feeling it should initiate from federal funding source.
• that a partnership between public, private and non-profit organizations 🤝 together would be most successfully to advance a national collaborative enterprise for the development and deployment of digital infrastructure for AVs.
• the need for data exchanges/inventory standards 📜
• the urgent need for this collaboration because we’re behind our global competitors. 🌏
Thanks to my co-panelists Stephane Dreher, Jane Lappin, and Valerie Shuman for sharing your insights and experiences, and to Sue Bai, Larkin-Thomason Tracy, and the Federal Highway Administration's Brian Cronin for providing their unique perspectives on the need for national and continental scale collaboration.
Now it's time to get to work!
Lastly -- thanks to Julie E. for pulling together another great networking event for all the women attending ARTs! It was such an inspiring evening among such smart, talented, and ambitious women working in #transportation.
#TRBAutomated #futureofmobility #infrastructure
🎤 Looking forward to sharing my experience helping to build the Coalition for Reimagined Mobility and seeing many friends and colleagues at #TRBAutomated #ARTS2024 next week in San Diego!
➡ Join our session Wednesday afternoon where I'll discuss what we've learned about establishing and mobilizing a broad group of global stakeholders and how it can inform and help address the challenges that remain to revolutionize #mobility and prepare America’s infrastructure for the #AV era.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.