by Bailey White
Staff Writer
As the new chair of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority Board of Directors, local businesswoman Donna Harper, the owner and CEO of Systems Logics, has grown accustomed to the almost full-time hours of the volunteer position.
“I spend a lot of time with the JTA during the week,” said Harper, who has served on the board for four years. “I’m constantly on the phone with Michael Blaylock [JTA’s executive director] or attending JTA functions or workshops. It’s quite a commitment.”
But juggling several activities isn’t new for Harper. She went back to school for a master’s degree when she had two children and a growing company to care for.
“It was interesting; it wasn’t easy,” she said of her second go as a student.
Harper brings the insight of someone who has owned two companies to the JTA board. Her company, Systems Logic, is a commercial development firm with a couple of projects underway. She also served as president and partner of First Coast Systems, an information and technology firm she sold in 1999.
“The thing I feel I have the ability to do is to look at a company and realize how it’s changing and how to implement the necessary changes,” said Harper.
The seven-member board is dealing with 32 projects JTA will address in the next decade thanks to the Better Jacksonville Plan.
“We’re involved in policy making. We support the executive director and make sure we’re going in the direction we need to be going,” she said.
Harper is also on the JTA’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, a federally mandated program that includes representatives from Clay and St. Johns counties and City Council members.
“We look at our resources and decide what roads will be scheduled for improvements,” said Harper. “It’s not different from any other organization — you spend a lot of time planning and making sure you hit your goals or that you adjust them as needed.”
After four years on the JTA board, where she served as secretary and vice chair, Harper has a better understanding of transportation needs.
“Transportation is very complex,” she said. “There is a learning curve.”
To keep herself abreast of new technology and current transportation issues, Harper attends conferences to learn how other cities deal with roads, transit systems and technological advances.
“It’s interesting to hear different organizations being criticized for their members going to conferences and spending public money, but if we didn’t, I don’t know that we could get over the learning curve,” said Harper. “You’d have to serve on the board for 15 years to get the amount of knowledge that you would from attending a couple of conferences a year.”
During a trip to Las Vegas, Harper examined a bus that used optical technology to follow its track, and in Ottawa, Canada, board members studied the rapid bus system that is widely used there.
Both are forms of transportation that could someday be implemented in Jacksonville, possible along J.Turner Butler Boulevard.
“We use the knowledge from these conferences to make sure what we design and develop is a wise use of the public’s money,” she said. “The purpose of all of this is so we don’t make any mistakes. We have a responsibility to know what we’re doing.”
Harper is also working to improve her business skills. She attended a week-long core business class at Harvard to further her education.
“One of the things I learned there is that UNF did an incredible job of preparing me,” she said.
Harper is on the board of trustees and a member of the Foundation Board at UNF.
Despite her commitments, Harper does find some time to slip away. She has a home in Colorado where she goes to ski and snowmobile in the winter and mountain bike and hike in the summer.
She also rides horses and plays tennis.
“I have a lot of hobbies,” she said.