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Committee Membership

Dr. Konstantina “Nadia” Gkritza is an Associate Professor in the Schools of Civil Engineering and Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. She has over 10 years of experience in the area of economic analysis of highway investments and modeling, transportation and energy interdependencies, highway safety and sustainability. She holds a PhD from Purdue University, a Master's from Virginia Tech and a Diploma from the National Technical University of Athens, all in Civil Engineering.

Co-chair, Konstantina "Nadia" Gritzka, PhD, Associate Professor, Purdue University (website)

Co-chair, Sharada Vadali, PhD, President, Economic Insights and Research

Dr. Sharada Vadali is the President of Economic Insights and Research. She has 20 plus years of experience in transportation economics, policy and evaluation analysis, regional and development economics, econometric and other computational and simulation methods of research. She is very active with TRB and several other professional societies. She is the current co-Chair of the Committee on Transportation and Economic Development.

Dr. Ogonowski has 19 years of professional experience specializing in economic/financial feasibility, economic impacts, and macroeconomic analyses of domestic and international transportation projects. Dr. Ogonowski earned his Ph.D. in Business from Capella University, Masters Degree in Economics from York University, has an Honors Bachelors Degree in Economics, Urban & Economic Geography, and Criminology from the University of Toronto, and is also a Licensed International Financial Analyst (LIFA) Charterholder.

Secretary, Peter Ogonowski, PhD, Principal Economist, HDR

Research Coordinator, Chad Miller, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Southern Mississippi

Chad R. Miller, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the College of Business, is Graduate Coordinator of the Master of Science of Economic Development program. He is Assistant Director of the Center for Logistics, Trade, and Transportation (CLTT). Chad has a Ph.D. from the Virginia Tech Center for Public Administration & Policy, a MBA from Boston University, and a BA in Government from the College of William & Mary.

Steve Bert is a Research Associate with ITRE. He specializes in economic appraisals, including economic contribution studies for North Carolina’s passenger rail, transit, ferry, bicycle-pedestrian, seaport, and airport facilities. He holds a master’s in Transportation Policy, Operations, and Logistics from George Mason University-Arlington, a bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of Illinois-Champaign / Urbana, and is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Communications Coordinator, Steve Bert, MA, AICP

Research Associate, Institute for Transportation Research and Education, North Carolina State University

Member, Gregory Bischak, PhD, Program Manager - Financial Strategies & Research, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund

Greg Bischak manages the Office of Financial Strategies and Research at the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund). He oversees research and analysis related to programmatic activity, development of performance data and strategic research to ensure effective implementation of the CDFI Fund mission. Prior to joining the CDFI Fund in July 2008, he was a senior economist for the Appalachian Regional Commission where he directed economic development research.

Mark Burton was awarded a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Tennessee in 1991. His professional career has included both academic and consultative research in the areas of regional, transportation, and telecommunications economics. In addition to authoring a number articles and monographs, Dr. Burton has provided testimony in connection with a variety of judicial and regulatory proceedings. In 2004, Dr. Burton was named as Director Transportation Economics at the University of Tennessee’s Center for Transportation Research.

Member, Mark Burton, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Member, Terry Clower, PhD, North Virginia Chair and Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University

Terry L. Clower is Northern Virginia Chair and Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and serves as director of the Center for Regional Analysis. Dr. Clower’s research focuses on regional economic competitive, including the role of transportation infrastructure and services in economic development. Dr. Clower also spent 10 years employed in private industry in logistics and transportation management positions.

James (Jim) Gillespie is a Senior Research Scientist at the Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC). He has done transport research for over 20 years on topics ranging from finance, forecasting, demand modeling, and cost-benefit analysis, to life-cycle cost analysis, equipment management, and innovative contracting.

Member, James Gillespie, Senior Research Scientist, Virginia Department of Transportation

Member, Daniel Graham, Professor of Statistical Modeling, Imperial College London

Dan Graham is Professor of Statistical Modelling in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Director of the Statistical Modelling and Economics Research group within the Centre for Transport Studies at Imperial College London. He is a statistician and economist and holds doctoral degrees from the Department of Mathematics at Imperial and from the London School of Economics. Dan has published over 90 papers in refereed journals and two books.

Darnell Grisby leads industry strategy and research for the American Public Transportation Association. He is an expert on the emerging urban mobility landscape and its impact on a wide range of industries, markets and brands. He has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio. Darnell is an experienced practitioner of the complete set of tools to influence policy: thought leadership, corporate contributions, philanthropic giving, diversity initiatives, direct lobbying, and grassroots and grasstops organizing.

Member, Darnell Grisby, MPP, Director of Policy and Research, American Public Transportation Association

Member, Daniel Hodge, Principal, Hodge Economic Consulting

Dan Hodge is Principal Economist at Impact Infrastructure and Principal/Owner of Hodge Economic Consulting with over 20 years of experience in economic development, urban and transportation planning, and benefit-cost analysis. Previously, he was Director of Economic Policy Research at the UMass Donahue Institute, and was a Senior Economist at HDR Decision Economics and Cambridge Systematics where he led numerous economic development, benefit-cost, economic impact, and transit-oriented development studies.

Dr. Horst leads AECOM’s National Transportation Economics Practice. She has nearly 25 years of experience. Her work focuses on the application of quantitative information to support transportation decision making. She is an economist with significant experience assessing projects and developing defensible analyses of project feasibility, project prioritization, economic impact, return on investment and benefit cost assessments.

Member, Toni Horst, PhD, Director of National Transportation Economics, AECOM

Member, Mario Iacobacci, Vice President of Economics, Deloitte

Mario Iacobacci is a partner in Economic Advisory with Deloitte Canada. He has led a career at the intersection of economics, public policy, and business strategy. He has an international record of accomplishment in infrastructure economics, including cost-benefit analysis for the justification of publicly funded projects, infrastructure funding, and mode choice behavioural modelling. Mario has over 25 years of experience at board and executive levels with clients in North America and Europe.

Michael Iacono’s research interests center around travel behavior and transportation policy, planning and economics, with an emphasis on the evaluation of transportation systems. He received his B.A. in Geography, followed by Master of Urban and Regional Planning (M.U.R.P.) and Master of Science in Civil Engineering (M.S.C.E.) degrees from the University of Minnesota.

Member, Michael Iacono, Senior Research Analyst, Minnesota Department of Transportation

Member, Eirini Kastrouni, PhD, Research Scientist, University of Maryland, College Park

Dr. Eirini Kastrouni is a Research Scientist in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research expertise lies in the areas of transportation economics, with a greater focus on revenue generation policies, transportation infrastructure investment, economic impact analysis, benefit-cost analysis. Dr. Kastrouni has a strong background in data fusion, big data processing and analysis, statistical modeling, and econometrics.

Carrie Kissel serves as the Associate Director for the NADO Research Foundation’s transportation research and capacity building programs, RPO America, and wealth creation and other economic development work. Carrie initially joined NADO in 2005 as a graduate fellow and worked on various projects related to transportation, brownfields redevelopment, and environmental stewardship. Carrie completed a Master of Arts in Public Anthropology at American University and holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Ball State University.

Member, Carrie Kissel, Associate Director, National Association of Development Organization (NADO)

Member, Indraneel Kumar, PhD, AICP, Regional Planner: GIS and Spatial Analysis, Purdue University

Indraneel Kumar is a Regional Planner: GIS and Spatial Analysis with the Purdue Center for Regional Development at Purdue University. His two decades of work experience includes comprehensive planning for large metropolitan areas in Asia and U.S. with a focus on land use and transportation planning. In the last decade he has worked extensively on regional economic development programs funded by federal and state agencies in several U.S. states.

Mike is president of Jack Faucett Associates, Inc. He is an economist and public policy analyst with over forty years of experience conducting public policy research in the energy, transportation, and environmental sectors. His work includes the development and use economic analysis tools such as input-output, benefit cost, and financial models. He has participated in or been co-principal investigator on NCFRP and NCHRP research projects. He received economics and finance degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Member, Michael Lawrence, President, Jack Faucett Associates, Inc.

Member, Jenny Liu, PhD, Assistant Professor, Portland State University

Dr. Jenny H. Liu is Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning and Assistant Director of the Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC) at Portland State University (PSU). She received her Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics with concentrations in environmental, transportation and development economics from UC Berkeley in 2010. Dr. Liu is an environmental and transportation economist with a focus on public policy, urban issues and social equity.

Marie Louis is an interdisciplinary engineer and scientist with experience in civil engineering-transportation engineering, mathematics, freight logistics, computer science, sustainability, and engineering management. She is an International Road Federation (IRF) fellow and a member of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ). She earned a doctorate degree in civil engineering with a concentration in transportation engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Member, Marie Louis, PhD, Affiliate Faculty, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Member, Martin Markovitch, PhD, Senior Economist, Florida Department of Transportation

Martin Markovich is a Senior Economic Analyst with the Florida Department of Transportation. His portfolio includes a variety of economic, financial and planning projects. He occasionally teaches college classes in both economics and statistics. His educational credentials include a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis, an M.B.A. and a B.A. in Economics.

Dr. Martin-Mahar has more than 20 years of experience covering a wide range of interests from forecasting state and local revenues to performing economic impact modeling. Currently, she directly overseas 3 staff and manages others who run forecast models on gasoline and diesel consumption/ revenue, licenses permits and fee revenue, federal funds and conduct economic impact analysis on Washington state’s transportation investments to communicate to the public the wider economic impacts of transportation investments.

Member, Lizbeth Martin-Mahar, PhD, Associate Director of Economic Analysis, Washington State DOT

Member, Stefan Natzke, Team Leader, National Systems and Economic Development, FHWA

Stefan Natzke is the Team Leader for National Systems and Economic Development at the Federal Highway Administration. Among its responsibilities, this office examines how transportation investments influence local or regional economic growth. Stefan has nearly 30 years of experience in a variety of policy and planning positions at the U.S. Department of Transportation and in consulting an international management consulting firm. He holds a Master of Urban Planning degree from the University of Michigan.

Mr. Padilla provides agency officials with expertise on matters related to legislative affairs, international transportation and trade, foreign policy and geopolitics, supply chain security, and the global liquid natural gas trade. In doing so, he works with the U.S. Congress, foreign governments, multilateral institutions, and the maritime industry to promote market access, economic growth, and security. Mr. Padilla worked in both chambers of Congress, during which he served as an Asia and Middle East foreign policy advisor and transportation policy advisor.

Member, Tony Padilla, Senior Advisor for International Affairs, Maritime Administration, USDOT

Member, Stephen Perkins, Head of Research and Policy, OECD

Stephen Perkins is the Head of Research and Policy Analysis in the International Transport Forum at the OECD. The ITF Transport Research Centre undertakes economic research in support of transport policy development. The Centre’s work covers all transport modes and most aspects of transport economics. Stephen’s work at the Forum has focussed on issues of regulation, competition, investment, pricing and taxation, congestion, environmental protection and road safety.

Binyam Reja at UCI Roundtable-Cropped.jp

Binyam Reja is the Practice Manager for the Transport Global Practice based at the World Bank Office in Beijing. Dr. Reja oversees the Bank’s transport lending program totaling US$8 billion for China, Mongolia, and Central Asia covering all sub-sectors, including urban transport, BRT, metros, highways, railways, PPP, and intermodal freight transportation and logistics. Dr. Reja also directs an extensive technical assistance program and analytical studies and leads policy dialogue with senior government officials in client countries.

Member, Binyam Reja, PhD, Practice Manager, The World Bank

Member, Naomi Stein, Senior Analyst, EDR Group

Naomi Stein is a Senior Analyst at EDR Group where she works with communities to incorporate economic development trends, goals, and needs into the infrastructure and economic development planning process. Her skills include benefit-cost and economic impact analysis, spatial analytics (GIS), and engagement of business and community stakeholders in economic visioning and scenario planning. In all her work, Ms. Stein seeks to organize and synthesize qualitative and quantitative data into informative and actionable insights.

Jason is a senior transportation specialist at the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) – a regional economic development agency that represents a partnership of federal, state, and local government. He works for ARC’s transportation program including federal-funded Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS). He is also the program manager for the Appalachian Local Access Road (LAR) program responsible for review, recommendation to the commission and implementation of LAR projects across 13 states.

Member, Jason Wang, Senior Transportation Advisor, Appalachian Regional Commission

Member, Christopher Williges, MCRP, MS, Vice President, HDR

Chris Williges is the Director of Economics and Finance and oversees a 35-person strong practice at HDR, Inc. He has more than 25 years of experience covering a wide range of interests from economic impacts and financial models to transportation operations and asset management. Currently, he focuses on conducting benefit-cost analyses, incorporating wider economic impacts, and estimating changes to economic productivity.

Stephen M. Woelfel is the Office of Transportation Planning’s Deputy Executive Director. Previously, Steve held the role of Director of Strategic Planning. In this position, he provided oversight over a wide range of activities in the areas of modal and regional planning, sustainability, and research. Prior to MassDOT, Steve served in various roles at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).

Member, Stephen Woelfel, Deputy Executive Director of Planning, Massachusetts Department of Transportation

Open Member Position, View the "Get Involved" page if you are interested in joining our committee

Express your interest in joining as a formal member of the committee at the first opportunity. Each committee has a required turnover of one-third of its members every 3 years, and committee members may not continue for more than three consecutive 3-year terms if other individuals wish to join. As a result, opportunities occur at least every 3 years (more often for many committees)