Lynda Tran is a longtime organizer and communicator with more than two decades experience advancing public policies, building winning campaigns, and supporting movements that improve people’s lives.

As Senior Advisor to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Director of Public Engagement for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), she helped activate stakeholders to secure passage of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) — also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — and played a critical role in shaping the policies and programs that determine how these historic resources are allocated in communities nationwide.​

Lynda is a nationally recognized leader in transportation and infrastructure policy. She serves on the Board of Directors for STV, a leading professional services firm that plans, designs, and manages infrastructure projects across North America, and is a senior advisor to LSN Partners. During her tenure at DOT, Lynda also served as the agency’s official designee to the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawai’ians and Pacific Islanders, an especially significant effort in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising hate crimes against these communities. 

Lynda returned to federal service after co-founding 270 Strategies, where she developed public engagement strategies for a variety of campaigns, companies, and causes across the globe – including the Environmental Defense Fund, Oxfam America, United Way Worldwide, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), the Black Economic Alliance, the Economic Security Project, Ready for Hillary, OneVoice, D.C. Public Schools, and some of the country’s most-watched congressional and gubernatorial races. She served on the Advisory Board for political technology incubator Higher Ground Labs and for Battleground Texas, where she helped guide the grassroots organization’s national communications efforts. Prior to serving in the Biden Administration, she was a senior strategist for Breakthrough Energy, Bill Gates’ network of climate-focused investment funds, nonprofit and philanthropic programs, and policy campaigns.

A CBS News Political Contributor and columnist through the 2020 campaign cycle and frequent commentator, Lynda regularly appears in major national and international broadcast, print, and interactive news media. She has been featured on Glassceiling.com as part of its running series on female leaders and was also profiled by Modernae Woman.

Lynda has shaped national media coverage and served as the primary spokeswoman on hot button issues throughout her career. Prior to co-founding 270 Strategies, Lynda managed high-profile communications operations across government, politics, and labor – leading teams at the federal and state levels, the Democratic National Committee, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Over four presidential cycles, she worked as both an organizer and a communications lead on political campaigns in the key battleground states of Virginia and Ohio, and in the red clay turf of East Texas.

During the Obama Administration, Lynda was director of communications for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation. As one of the five presidential appointees at the helm of the nation’s top automotive safety agency, she steered NHTSA through numerous communications crises and helped inform key policy decisions by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, NHTSA Administrator David Strickland, and White House officials. In this role, Lynda oversaw the agency’s nationwide earned and paid media efforts, including messaging on federal regulations, new automotive safety technologies, and vehicle fuel economy, as well as nearly $30 million each year dedicated to NHTSA’s “Click It or Ticket” and “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaigns.

As national press secretary for Organizing for America – the campaign organization created after the 2008 presidential election – she helped build grassroots support for President Obama’s top policy initiatives, most notably the Administration’s successful drive to pass historic health care reform. During her tenure as communications director to then-Governor Tim Kaine, Lynda developed a comprehensive public messaging strategy to cement the Administration’s legacy and managed breaking news on some of the most prominent events in the history of the Commonwealth. Over eight years in the labor movement, Lynda served as spokeswoman on issues including banking reform and health care, and she helped lead organizing efforts such as the Houston Justice for Janitors Campaign.

Lynda earned a Masters degree in International Policy and Development from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania. She speaks Vietnamese, French, and conversational Spanish. An avid hiker and outdoor enthusiast, she lives just outside Washington, D.C. with her growing family and their rambunctious German Shepherd.