The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority has named a former transit director for CyRide in Ames as its interim CEO following Elizabeth Presutti’s announcement last month that she will leave the agency in late January.

The DART commission this week approved the appointment of Sheri Kyras as interim CEO. According to the commission’s meeting packet, Kyras will coordinate with Presutti to ensure an “appropriate transition that will last through January 2023.”

Presutti is leaving DART after 14 years, 11 of them as the transit agency’s CEO.

Kyras worked for DART and its predecessor organization, the MTA, for 21 years before she left to join CyRide in 2006. Kryas retired from CyRide in 2019.

The DART commission also created a CEO search committee, made up of current DART commissioners.

Search committee members include Josh Mandelbaum, Kelly Stearns, Bridget Carberry Montgomery, Joseph Jones and Paula Dierenfeld. The committee will be tasked with hiring an executive search firm, which is scheduled for the commission’s meeting in January.

Presutti announced in early November that she will be leaving DART to join her husband, who accepted a position at Collins Aerospace at its new manufacturing facility in Monroe, N.C., near Charlotte.

An open house for Presutti is scheduled for Dec. 19 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Cheese Bar, 2925 Ingersoll Ave. in Des Moines.