Yanira Garcia Brings Community Voice to Public Transit
For Yanira Garcia, public transportation is personal.
Long before she had a seat at the table helping shape Omaha’s transit system, Garcia was a young person relying on that system to get where she needed to go.
Garcia grew up in South Omaha’s Upland Park neighborhood and used public transportation throughout her years at Omaha South High School and periodically while attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha. That experience, which she shared in her biography during her campaign for the Regional Metropolitan Transit Authority Board, gave her firsthand knowledge of what reliable and accessible transportation can mean for a community.
Today, Garcia represents District 3 on Metro’s seven-member, nonpartisan elected Board of Directors. The board sets agency policy, oversees budgets and reviews procurement contracts, responsibilities that affect how thousands of people move through the Omaha area.
It is work that often happens outside the spotlight but can have an impact on everyday life.
For families without a vehicle, young people traveling to school, workers commuting to jobs and older adults getting to appointments, public transportation can be a connection to opportunity. Decisions about routes, services and investments ultimately become decisions about who can get where they need to go.
Garcia brings another perspective to those conversations: communication.
A bilingual and bicultural communications professional, Garcia has more than a decade of experience in communications, public relations and advertising. Her career has included communications work for Union Omaha, where a 2021 USL League One media guide listed her as the club’s communications and content manager.
Today, she serves as director of communications and development for the Heartland Workers Center, an organization focused on leadership development and civic engagement among immigrant and underrepresented communities. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Latino Economic Development Council.
Her connection to immigrant advocacy is also deeply personal. Garcia has publicly shared her experience as a former DACA recipient. An Omaha Magazine feature about Dreamers in Nebraska documented Garcia’s experience with DACA and her journey as an immigrant from Mexico.
Those experiences add another layer to what representation can mean in civic leadership.
It is not simply about having a Latino name on a board roster. It is about bringing lived experiences, cultural understanding and professional knowledge into spaces where decisions are made.
Since joining Metro’s board, Garcia has participated in decisions involving budgets, contracts, transit services and infrastructure. Metro records also show her serving on the board’s Operations Committee and as an alternate on its Planning & Policy Committee.
Garcia’s journey from riding public transportation as a South Omaha student to helping govern the system is one of those stories.
It is a reminder that representation can come full circle.