Pronouns: She/her
Focus of Study: Transportation
Year Started in Program: 2022
Biography:
When I entered the workforce with my bachelor's degree in environmental studies, I was unsure of what my career was supposed to be, and spent some time working for a few environmental-adjacent firms doing pretty unsatisfying clerical work. I started volunteering with local bike advocacy and permaculture groups that better suited my passions, which is where I learned about urban planning and how it impacts all the issues that draw me to a place: bikability, walkability, and urban nature, to name a few.
The book Happy City by Charles Montgomery really opened my eyes to how planning can shape a city's health from an environmental scale down to the mental wellbeing of a person walking along a street. I resonated with the feeling of walking downtown among a lively streetscape filled with pedestrians, trees, news stands, coffee carts, music, and art, social interactions, sights and smells. These are the things that make me a "city person", and what make experiencing a city so impactful for me.
I would like to work toward improving the urban built environment to be both more climate resilient and a better user experience for the people living there. I want to encourage people to drive less by improving our public transportation system, as well as make active transportation more fun and safe. I also want to help make cities more enjoyable to experience outside of a car, by making them more fun, interesting, useful, and safe places to explore.