About Us

President + CEO

Barbara Hurst

A background and career in social work started in 1987 working with the GA Department of Family & Children Services in public assistance services and later in social services working with child protective services assisting families in need.

In 2001, a career shift led to the Area Agency on Aging working as a Quality Assurance Specialist to ensure compliance with state and federal regulations by human service providers that provide services for the elderly. During that time, a need was identified for human services transportation and rural public transit services for anyone in need of transportation to help them maintain their independence and continue to live independently within the community.  

In 2005 once the need for transportation services was validated, work became entirely focused on creating a multifaceted human services and rural public transit program that would coordinate transit services and eliminate county boundaries to provide more cost effective and efficient transit services that would close the gap and make services available to anyone in need of transportation in the rural areas. In 2009 one of the first coordinated transit programs was implemented in the ten counties and 35 municipalities in the eastern region of the state. This program operated a regional call center for scheduling and dispatching approximately 1,200 trips per day on a fleet of 85 transit buses.  The program provided transit services for 5,311 rural public transit passengers and DHS consumers on one fleet of vehicles.

In 2013 the Transit Alliance Group, Inc. was established to further expand mobility options statewide.  

Executive Vice-President + Director of Operations

Diana Smith

Diana adds an additional 15 years of experience in the public and private sector. Diana began her career as a paralegal while deciding if she wished to pursue a career as an attorney. After deciding that was not the career field she wished to choose, she began working in the public sector with Camden County as the County Clerk. Diana worked her way up to the Director of Strategic Planning where she was responsible for writing grants, creating the County’s Strategic Plan, preparing an annual legislative profile, writing white papers, and advocating for county projects in Atlanta and Washington D.C. She then assumed the role of Town Manager in Dewey Beach, Delaware where she was solely responsible for the day-to- day operations of the town. Marriage brought her back home to Georgia where she began working with the Coastal Regional Commission in the Transportation Department as the Contracts Administrator. There she had a successful track record of contracts awarded from grants she submitted. Recently, she achieved recognition for a National Award of Excellence for transit programs and operations and wrote the only capital grant awarded in the State of Georgia as well as one of only two marketing grants awarded from the Veteran’s Administration for development of a website and resources to assist veterans and their families with location of and access to services.

Operations + Compliance Manager

Stephanie Dotson

Stephanie joined the Transit Alliance Group, Inc. (TAG) team in September of 2016, in the role of Operations + Compliance Manager.  She comes to us from the human services sector, where she has over 15 years of experience in working with a non-profit integrated health care system. Stephanie has a wealth of knowledge and expertise that have paired well with her role at TAG. She’s been working diligently over the past several months learning transportation regulations and familiarizing herself with the transportation programs we operate. Stephanie maintains and oversees the contract renewal process with our subcontractors, as well as ensures compliance in areas ranging from onsite personnel file auditing to vehicle inspections. In addition to her compliance role, she is also a certified instructor in Passenger Service and Safety Training by the Community Transportation Association of America and the Driver Improvement Program through AAA. Stephanie offers training courses to subcontractors who work directly with TAG, as well as with outside sources who need the training sessions to maintain certification for their associates.