ITS is excited to announce the Inaugral Class of the ITS Senior Fellows. This academic year, we are pleased to welcome Ratna Amin, Mark Dowd, Steve Heminger and Jeff Morales to (or back to) campus. The group of fellows include alumni and covers multple facets of transprtation at the national, state and regional level, including Transportation Policy, Smart Cities, and High Speed Rail. Throughout the year, the Senior Fellows will be incorporated into our seminars, classes, activities and research. Students will be given multiple opportunities to interact with the Fellows also. Already, Steve Heminger and Ratna Amin have given Transportation Seminars and had the opportunity to meet with students in small groups.This new program promises to be a great addition to the Institute.
Ratna Amin: Ratna Amin is Transportation Policy Director at SPUR, the Bay Area’s leading urban policy organization. Her areas of focus include public transit, land use and transportation integration and systems change. In 2014, Ratna published SPUR’s first transportation policy report about Silicon Valley, Freedom to Move. More recently, she published Seamless Transit, an agenda to address the Bay Area's transit fragmentation problem and The Caltrain Corridor Vision Plan. She was named to Mass Transit magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" in 2015. Ratna's previous roles include chief of staff to the Oakland City Council president, senior associate at Environmental Science Associates and analyst at Cambridge Systematics. She has masters degrees in city and regional planning and transportation engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. She is an alumnus of the San Francisco Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs and of Teach for America.
Mark Dowd: Mark Dowd is currently a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley where he is helping cities accelerate to tomorrow's solutions, applying technology to stubborn urban problems. opening doors to innovation, and using data to show the path forward in the new mobility. Dowd is also leveraging the power of ten lighthouse cities by creating the Smart Cities Lab, where he serves as Executive Director. Previously, Dowd served as the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology and served as the senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, has extensive policy experience in transportation, technology, energy and environmental matters, and is leading a number of innovative initiatives including the Department’s Smart City Challenge. Before joining the Department of Transportation, Dowd was a senior member of President Obama’s Auto Task Force where he worked on the historic restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler from 2009 to 2011. He received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Gold Medal as well as awards from the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office (Southern District) for his work on the bankruptcies. More recently, Dowd served as a senior advisor to both the White House Council on Environmental Quality in 2012 and the Hurricane Sandy Task Force in 2013. Prior to joining the Department, he was a director and assistant general counsel at the Association of Global Automakers from June 2013 to June 2015. Dowd practiced law for 13 years in New York City at the law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel, specializing in transactions, restructuring, litigation, and regulatory matters as they relate to environmental and energy issues.
Steve Heminger: Steve Heminger is Executive Director of MTC and responsible for the administration of more than $2 billion per year in funding for the operation, maintenance and expansion of the Bay Area’s surface transportation network. As chairman of the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee, Mr. Heminger also oversaw construction of the new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge — the largest transportation project in California history. Mr. Heminger was appointed by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to serve on the “National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission,” which helped chart the future course for the federal transportation program. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Mineta Transportation Institute and of the Executive Committee for the Transportation Research Board. Mr. Heminger received his Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University.
Jeff Morales: Jeffrey Morales served as the Chief Executive Officer of California High Speed Rail Authority from May 29, 2012 to April 21, 2017. Mr. Morales served as a Principal Consultant of PB Consult Inc. Mr. Morales served as a Project Manager for the Congestion Pricing Operating Plan for Los Angeles County. He is an expert in strategic planning and program implementation. Mr. Morales, who worked as a Senior Vice President of Parsons Brinckerhoff, the Charlotte, N.C.-based transportation construction firm, takes over the high-speed rail project at a critical time. He joined PB after a strong public sector career focused on transportation policy and management. He served as an Executive Director of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) from 2000 to 2004. He has overseen the expansion of the largest transportation program in the State's history and through the development of new policies, greater efficiencies and innovative practices, has helped re-establish the Department as a national leader. At the Chicago Transit Authority, he spearheaded ridership and capital investment improvements and previously held key positions at the USDOT and in U.S. Senate. Prior to his tenure at CTA, he served as a Senior Staff Member with Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review. He served as Program Manager of Major Project Business Unit Interchange Programme at Transport for London (TfL), guiding delivery of a range of projects under development. He serves as a Member of Board of Advisors at Eno Transportation Foundation. From 1996 to 1997, he was Issues Director of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. Internationally, Mr. Morales is known for providing capital investment policy guidance to TfL in the development and implementation of its £10 billion ($18 billion) capital program. He has been Executive Director of California High Speed Rail Authority since May 29, 2012. He is nationally recognized for developing innovative policies and practices resulting in improved productivity and customer service across the federal, state and local agencies he served.