Dorothy Dugger is the sitting General Manager of the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency — the administrator in charge of day-to-day operations of one of America’s busiest heavy rail systems for a metropolitan area.
Dugger, 57, was selected as BART’s GM in August 2007, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Previously, she held the position of Assistant General Manager for 13 years.
Dugger oversaw the agency during the New Year’s Day 2009 videotaped killing of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station by former transit agency police officer Johannes Mehserle.
In the days and weeks following the incident, she, along with former BART Police Chief Gary Gee, became a lightening rod of criticism from community members and several members of the BART Board of Directors over the agency’s handling of the shooting.
A protester who attended a BART Board meeting following the shooting splattered red paint over Dugger. The man, who was tackled and arrested by BART Police, said the paint was supposed to represent Grant’s blood.
BART Board Director Lynette Sweet, a vocal critic of Dugger, called for her resignation in the weeks following the shooting, saying that Dugger intentionally downplayed the severity of the incident and deliberately withheld information about the case from the Board of Directors.
But there were concerns from within the agency regarding Dugger’s familiarity of the law enforcement arm of the organization. She primarily focused on the transit operations of BART and may not have been privy to police tactics and protocols. When she was hired in 2007, her goals focused on the running of the agency’s trains.
Few, if any, of them focused on BART Police.
Dugger has been with the transit agency since 1992. She graduated from Rutgers University and previously worked at the Port Authority of New York before joining BART.
She lives in the Grand Lake District of Oakland.
Information compiled from Beat research and news services
