What drives me…

In an ideal world, people commute from home to work, to school, to play, and home again without any thought to the systems and policies that make these journeys possible – and efficient.  I play a role in helping to facilitate the frameworks that make all of those options available to users – ensuring the best use of our road, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian infrastructure and the dollars that are invested in it.

I have been a user of all these different modes for as long as I can remember.  By the time I left for college, I already knew that I wanted to make a career out of my interest in how cities are laid out and how neighborhoods connect to each other.

In the Urban and Regional Studies program at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, I wrote my honors thesis about the prospects of using road pricing to fund highway construction and maintenance in the United States.  After graduation, I decided to spend a postgraduate year in Israel.  I did not plan to stay in Israel for more than that one year, but the U.S. job market was difficult to break into in 2010 – so, one year turned into nearly five.

During this time, I worked as a GIS analyst for the Jerusalem Transportation Master Plan Team (JTMT).  It was an exciting time to work in transportation in Jerusalem; the city was awaiting the opening of the Jerusalem Light Rail’s first line, and JTMT was undertaking an associated bus network redesign.  I was responsible for developing new wayfinding standards and overseeing the installation of new signage at each of the city’s 1,500 bus stops.

In 2014, I returned to the United States to pursue my master’s degree in community planning at the University of Maryland.  During my studies, I began working at Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning, first as an intern and from February 2016 through July 2020 as a full time employee.  At Foursquare ITP, I was involved in a myriad of projects, including the planning, implementation, and maintenance of Baltimore’s bus network redesign, known as BaltimoreLink.  Since February 2021, I have been a Solutions Engineer with Optibus, a SaaS company that provides transit planning and scheduling software to transit agencies, operators, and governments in over 2,000 cities around the world.

I am deeply mindful of the role transportation systems play in giving people more time with their family and friends, as well as greater access to economic and educational opportunities.  Knowing that my work in Jerusalem, Baltimore, and points in between makes it possible for countless people to navigate their daily lives a bit more easily drives me to use the experiences I have gained to leverage new technologies and creative strategies to continue growing my skills as a transportation planner.

And other than transportation…

I am a Washington native who has lived in DC or its environs for my entire life, except when I was away at college and living in Israel.  When I am not working, I am probably on a long bike ride, watching Jeopardy!, cheering on the Baltimore Orioles, editing photos from my latest travels, or volunteering in my synagogue community.