Liz Kniss
VTA Board Member

Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Liz Kniss serves on the VTA Board of Directors representing Group 5 (County of Santa Clara), having done so since 2005.   She serves on VTA’s Administration and Finance Committee, and is that committee’s chairperson for 2009.  She also serves on the Executive Evaluation Committee.  Member Kniss previously served on the Congestion Management Program and Planning Committee and on VTA’s Policy Advisory Committee representing the County of Santa Clara.  She served as chairperson of the VTA Board of Directors during 2008 and as vice chairperson for 2007.

Member Kniss serves on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.  Elected in 2000 and again in 2004 and 2008, she represents Supervisorial District 5, which includes the cities of Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Cupertino, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, portions of Sunnyvale and West San José, the southern portion of Sunnyvale, and the area encompassed by Stanford University.   For 2009, she is serving as the president of the Board of Supervisors.

Prior civic service includes the Palo Alto City Council, where she served twice as mayor, and the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Directors.   Her community service includes the League of Women Voters, the United Way Board of Directors, the Rotary, and multiple community organizations and non-profits.

Member Kniss was born in Massachusetts and received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Simmons College in Boston and a M.P.A. in Public and Health Care Policy from the California State University system.   She has also completed graduate work in Health Policy and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.   Member Kniss worked as the Marketing and Communications Manager at Sun Microsystems until 1999.   As a Registered Nurse, her work included acute care and public health for San Mateo County, and school-based care for the Cupertino Union School District.