Umesh Somrah's engineering educational career commenced at the secondary school level at the High School for Construction Trades, Engineering, and Architecture, where he graduated as valedictorian. Subsequently, Umesh attained his Bachelor's in Civil Engineering with a minor in Construction Management at the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering in May of 2014.
Jesse Vogl is currently enrolled in the Masters of Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University at Albany, SUNY concentrating in transportation planning. His research focuses on the similarities and differences between passenger transit and urban freight operations in an attempt to develop a more efficient system for urban freight deliveries. Namely, as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems attempt to emulate passenger rail in order to achieve efficient movement of people, so too could trucks be made to mimic freight rail.
Lerone Savage is an incoming graduate student at Hunter College where he has enrolled in the Geography Master’s program. For his graduate research project, Lerone proposes to build a framework in a Cloud Server for a transportation model for New York City under Professor Hongmain Gong’s supervision. The framework will link together several existing transportation-related research components at Hunter College.
Lily Gordon-Koven is a Master of Urban Planning Candidate at NYU Wagner, with a Environment, Infrastructure, and Transportation specialization. She is currently a Planning Intern at the New York City Department of Transportation with the Research, Implementation, and Safety group and a Research Assistant at the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management. She holds a B.A. in Geography and Urban Studies from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Before coming to Wagner, Lily worked as a subsidized housing case manager in Chicago.
Najwa Doughman is currently pursuing a Master of Urban Planning at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service with a concentration in International Development. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia and has since acquired 5+ years of design, planning and construction project management experience in Egypt, Lebanon, Washington D.C. and New York City.
Sandy Johnston is a student in the Master’s of Regional Planning program at the University at Albany, concentrating in Transportation and planning to complete a certificate in Urban Policy as well. He arrived in Albany after living previously in Portland, OR; a small town in Iowa; New Haven, CT; Chicago; Jerusalem; and New York City, and so considers himself well-versed in different kinds of urban forms and personalities.
In August 2014, Ethan started as a Master's of Regional Planning student at SUNY Albany, with a concentration in transportation. After his undergraduate program in Sociology at SUNY Binghamton and an Americorps term with Mobility Management of South Central New York, Ethan decided he wanted to pursue planning as a career. He hopes to center his research project around how best to serve disadvantaged populations and promote equity through transit-oriented development.
Gary Jordan is pursuing a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from SUNY-Buffalo’s Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering Department, with an Area of Study in Transportation Systems Engineering. UB’s Transportation Systems Engineering program focuses on improving the efficiency, safety, sustainability, and resiliency of surface transportation systems. This program integrates research in intelligent systems, advanced computing, hazard mitigation, simulation and econometric modeling.
Debra Nelson is a Strategic Policy Advisor with the NYS Department of Transportation. Deb has more than 20 years’ experience in environmental leadership in the transportation realm. As a state leader, she co-chairs NYSDOT’s Statewide Sustainability Team that brings the sustainability triple bottom line to all aspects of NYSDOT’s business. Deb serves as Project Director/Team Leader on the I-81 viaduct project in Syracuse, in which sustainability, economic competitiveness, social equity and environmental stewardship are central to looking at how best to meet our transportation needs.
Elliot Ward is pursuing a Master's of Urban Planning at NYU Wagner, specializing in International Development Policy. Interested broadly in the role of transportation to support economic growth and environmental sustainability, Elliot has worked in China for the Beijing University Lincoln Institute for Land Policy and interned with the Energy Foundation's China Sustainable Transportation Center. For the AITE Scholarship Elliot will research public bus system service differences in mid-sized American cities
