Who We Are

Matt Miller works in the transportation planning and policy arena with a focus on transportation systems, management, and operations (TSM&O), resilience, knowledge management/strategic planning, and emerging technologies. He applies 16 years of experience in research, program management, project management, and stakeholder engagement in support of these transportation policy and planning arenas and associated focus areas. Matt conducts multimodal research at the national level with the NCHRP, ACRP, and TCRP programs, and follows a career path that tracks across research and planning programs at Cambridge Systematics, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and within the TRB SHRP 2 program.

Interests & Hobbies

In his free time (when he has it!), Matt has a growing portfolio of over 600 songs, recordings, and participates in live music events through multiple "band/projects". He also volunteers with the Austin Chapter of the Project Management Institute.

Ms. Sharmin joined Cambridge Systematics (CS) as a Transportation Analyst with specialization in Transportation Planning and Land-use Planning. She has more than three years of working experience in transportation safety planning, transportation policy planning, regional transit planning, and transportation and land use planning interaction.

Christina graduated from Boston University with a B.S in Communication and a minor in Computer Science. She worked in a variety of roles before starting at Cambridge Systematics, including a marketing internship for a local food truck, a content creator for a local Boston food publication, and a community moderator on a site teaching kids to code.

Interests & Hobbies

In her free time, Christina likes staying active and eating delicious food. You can probably find Christina at the local YMCA or exploring the city for the next best bagel.

Tom joined CS in 1987 and has developed and applied travel demand models in over 60 locations. He has been an expert adviser to federal, state, and metropolitan planning agencies on model development and validation. He is a past chairman of the Transportation Research Board’s Transportation Demand Forecasting Committee.

Interests & Hobbies

Tom loves spending time with his wife and family, and sometimes they like spending time with him, too. He enjoys watching baseball even though he was never any good at playing it. He likes playing classic rock music at his desk, which he is sure his colleagues love. He enjoys doing transportation related things even when he isn't working. He has many more interests too numerous to list here, which is why he never sleeps.

Rich has more than 27 years of experience in transportation planning at the Federal, state, and local levels. He provides strategic planning, policy analysis, and management advice to address complex transportation challenges, with a focus on metropolitan planning and performance-based planning and programming. He has worked with Metropolitan Planning Organizations and their planning partners across the country as staff, consultant, and association representative. He has expertise in developing and applying objective analytical methods to assess and select effective approaches to a range of transportation issue areas.

Interests & Hobbies

In his free time, Rich enjoys making cocktails for family and friends and spending time outdoors.

Ms. Charly Gutierrez is a Junior Associate of Cambridge Systematics (CS) with 2 years of experience in transportation safety planning, transportation policy planning, regional multimodal transportation and transit planning, urban planning, land use planning. Charly also has experience in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software and its applications to perform spatial analysis, data manipulation, and map production. 

Interests & Hobbies

In her free time, Charly enjoys boating, biking, and making homemade pasta. She lives in Tampa, Florida with her high energetic Australian Shepherd name Zara. 

Vanessa manages internal communications and plays an integral role in driving strategic alignment across Cambridge Systematics’ various functions and groups. With over a decade of communications and marketing experience, she builds relationships across CS to keep employees informed and foster shared understanding, connections, and engagement. Vanessa is passionate about people-centric communication and advancing positive employee experiences and workplace culture. 

Interests & Hobbies

In her spare time, Vanessa loves reading, cooking, trying new workouts and experiencing as much of the world as she can through travel.

Lily holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Texas State University in San Marcos, TX as well as a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. Prior to joining CS, Lily worked as a Management and Program Analyst Student Trainee with the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General where she supported the Procurement & Acquisitions auditing team. Prior to this, Lily managed the Alamo Commutes transportation demand management program at the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization in San Antonio, TX.

Interests & Hobbies

In her spare time, she enjoys all things food - eating it, reviewing it, cooking it, watching it, reading about it, and talking about it. She lives in Ithaca, NY with her fiancé and rescue dog.

Steve has spent the bulk of his career working to use technology to improve commercial vehicle safety and mobility. He has helped over two dozen states plan and/or implement their Intelligent Transportation Systems programs and has worked extensively with USDOT. While still working with some clients, Steve now spends most of this time overseeing CS' Operations as our Chief Operating Officer.

Interests & Hobbies

In his free time, Steve loves to spend time with his family and enjoys traveling. He anxiously awaits his family's annual vacation to Cape Cod (Cape Week!) and spends most long weekends during the summer with family on Saratoga Lake in upstate New York. An avid sports fan, Steve loves all New England sports teams and can often be heard talking about the latest results from his daughter's swim meets. Regardless of the time, you are apt to find Steve with a Cold Brew Nitro in hand as he looks to take on the next challenge of the day.

Raphael has over a decade of cross-functional experience in transportation and transit, in both public and private transportation organizations. At CS, he helps guide strategy for mobility information software and serves as a project manager for engagements involving customer-facing real-time data and multimodal trip planning.

Krista L. Jeannotte, a Principal of Cambridge Systematics located in Saint Louis, Missouri, has more than 30 years of experience in transportation operations planning and evaluation, ITS/TSMO, port and freight technology planning, multi-modal performance-based planning and performance measures, analysis tools and methods, project/strategy prioritization, benefit-cost analysis, and grant preparation, review, implementation, reporting, and agency support.

As an Associate Vice President at Cambridge Systematics, Dan Haake guides CS’s transit and shared mobility, safety, and technology practices. Before assuming this role, he served as the company’s first-ever Director of Project Delivery, where he reduced project overruns by 50% while enhancing client outcomes.

A national freight planning leader, Dan has worked with clients in 30 states and 4 countries to improve economic competitiveness and quality of life. Active professionally, Dan chaired two TRB freight committees and ITE’s Urban Goods Movement committee. He has written over 30 transportation-related articles, most recently a chapter in the textbook “Handbook on City Logistics and Urban Freight.”

Rachel Vierstra holds Master's degrees in Urban Planning and Design and Public Health from the University of Washington. Her transportation planning interests lie in transit and shared mobility, safety, and accessibility and their intersections with public health. She has worked on projects all over the country including successful grant applications in California, state Freight and Rail plans, fare policy analyses, transit agency customer satisfaction surveys, Vision Zero Action Plans, and more! Before beginning her career in transportation planning, Rachel helped manage farmer's markets in Seattle and worked on food access advocacy.

Interests & Hobbies

Outside of work you can find Rachel baking up a storm, biking around the Boston region (her preferred mode of transportation), reading, and picking up new hobbies. She also volunteers regularly at her local farmer's market - you can always ask her what's in season!

27 years of experience in transportation planning, traffic engineering, and travel demand modeling. I currently work onsite at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, where I provide a wide range of support and assistance to the technical group as well as to the planning, application and survey units.

Interests & Hobbies

Listen to fusion music and read books!

Raj is the CEO of Galatea Associates LLC, a boutique data management and software development consulting firm that specializes in financial services.  Galatea’s clients are among the largest banking institutions in the United States, UK, Europe, and in Asia.  The software and data management solutions built by Galatea help clients manage, monetize, and transact over fifty trillion dollars in assets each year.

Raj graduated with a Computer Science and Electrical Engineering degree from MIT in 2000 and has been with Galatea his entire career.  During that time, he has been involved in all facets of the business from hands-on software development and design, to data monetization, project management, sales, strategy, and operations.  He played a critical role in designing and developing software that transacted, managed and monetized petabyte scale data using both private and public cloud technologies.

Raj has an extensive network in software, data management, and financial services.  He regularly advises senior industry leaders across the globe on how to best monetize their software and data investments.  He is often at the cutting edge of industry trends.

Raj became CEO of Galatea in 2017 and has been focused on defining and executing on a sustainable growth strategy.  That strategy has allowed Galatea to double revenues, increase margins, and improve recurring revenue, despite the economic turbulence of the past few years.  Raj is most proud of being able to achieve those results while continuing to foster a culture centered on mutual respect, diversity, and open communication.

Flora Castillo has over 20 years of experience as an accomplished and nationally recognized healthcare executive and a mobility and public transportation thought leader. Castillo is the President of Pivot Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm serving the infrastructure, aviation, healthcare and insurance industries. Her executive leadership in healthcare has led to transformative customer engagement, acquisition and health promotion strategies for the nation’s leading healthcare companies, including UnitedHealthcare and AmeriHealth Caritas. As former Vice President of Transportation for UnitedHealth Group, Castillo led innovative pilots to address social determinants of health barriers and spearheaded a medical transportation services program. Castillo also brings decades of experience as a former member of the board for multiple non-profit equity, transit and media organizations including National Urban Fellows, Rail-Volution, WHYY and others. In addition, Castillo was the first Latina and sixth woman elected chair to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). In this role, Castillo represented APTA as an industry spokesperson in the U.S., Canada and other international associations. Serving as a senior policymaker and board member of New Jersey Transit between 1999 and 2019, Castillo was a champion for equity and affordability for transit-dependent riders and an advocate for service expansions and emerging technologies. Castillo holds a B.S. in Management Business Administration from Long Island University.

Lauren has over eight years of experience overseeing and administering transportation planning programs. Prior to joining CS, Lauren was a Senior Planner at a mid-sized MPO in New York, creating and analyzing data to support sustainable transportation and land use policies. She specializes in data analysis, public engagement, and multimodal planning.

Interests & Hobbies

Lauren loves reading, staying active, and exploring new places. She lives with her husband and two dogs in the Mid-Hudson Valley.

Pearl graduated from UCLA Master of Urban and Regional Planning in June 2023. During her graduate studies, she worked with various public transportation agencies on environmental planning for transportation projects and active transportation projects. Pearl completed her Master program with the awarded capstone project on addressing gender-based violence on public transit.

Interests & Hobbies

In her free time, Pearl enjoys traveling and exploring different cultures. She's a regular at the reformer pilate workout classes!

Sarah has over 17 years of experience in statewide planning, regional and urban transportation planning, and financial project management.

Interests & Hobbies

A lifelong Floridian, Sarah lives in Tallahassee with her son. Outside of work, Sarah is reliving Kindergarten again with her six-year-old son as he learns to read. She also enjoys doing art and Legos with her son, working in the yard, and reading.

Rachel Copperman leads the Analytics group, which leverages planning, engineering, market research, statistical analysis, visualization, and product development techniques to provide insights into existing transportation conditions and problems, forecast alternative outcomes, and explain complex traveler behavior.  Rachel also has expertise in developing regional and statewide travel demand models, with a focus on intercity rail and transit forecasting; and is a leading expert in incorporating uncertainty and risk analysis within the travel forecasting process.

Robert Skinner served as the Executive Director of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine from 1994 to 2015. Prior to becoming Executive Director, Skinner directed TRB’s policy study activities. Before joining TRB, Mr. Skinner was a Vice President of Alan M. Voorhees and Associates, a transportation consulting firm.

In a volunteer capacity, Skinner served on the Metrolink (Los Angeles) Commuter Rail Safety Review Panel and chaired the Special Advisory Panel for the Stem-to-Stern Safety Review of the Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project. In addition, he has served on a number of university and other research advisory groups. Current assignments include the advisory boards for the MIT-Portugal Project; the University Transportation Center, a joint research center of Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pennsylvania; UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies; the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers; and NCE, a Nevada-based engineering firm.

Skinner earned his bachelor degree in civil engineering from the University of Virginia and received a master degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A registered professional engineer, Skinner has received the Director’s Research Champion Award from the Texas Transportation Institute (2011), the James Laurie Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (2003), and the P.D. McLean Memorial Award from the Road Gang (2001). He was the 2015 recipient of the Frank Turner Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Transportation and the 2016 recipient of the George S. Bartlett Award.

Prior to joining CS, Josué served as a Senior Corporate Accountant, where he managed general ledger operations, handled month-end close, revenue recognition, invoicing, and led process improvement efforts including ERP implementation and automation. He’s worked closely with cross-functional teams to improve reporting processes and enhance overall financial operations. At CS, Josué will be responsible for support within the Accounting department in areas such as financial accounting and reporting, accounts payable, month end journal entries, account reconciliation, expense report processing, and general ledger support.

Interests & Hobbies

Outside of work, Josué enjoys staying active—whether he's training for marathons, or going fishing when he gets the chance. He’s also into photography and always has a DIY project in the works. When he’s not tackling something hands-on, he’s likely spending time with loved ones.

Karen D. Nocito, CPA, serves as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Cambridge Systematics. Ms. Nocito serves as a key member of the Executive Leadership Team of Cambridge Systematics. She devises and implements growth and profitability strategies, helps to further strengthen the firm’s internal accounting controls and processes, and identifies cost reduction strategies. She has more than 25 years of experience in accounting, including strategic planning and implementation; team leadership; stakeholder relations; government contracting; audits; forecasting and budgeting; compliance; business process improvement; and policies and procedures. Before her appointment as CFO in 2016, Ms. Nocito served for 19 years as CS’ Controller; in that capacity she led a comprehensive re-engineering of the CS Accounting department that elevated the Accounting team’s role as a partner to the firm’s business lines while optimally organizing it around the functional needs of the firm and its clients. Prior to joining Cambridge Systematics in 1997, Ms. Nocito held positions of increasing breadth and responsibility in the professional services and manufacturing sectors. She earned a bachelor of science in accounting from Fitchburg State College and is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Massachusetts.

Interests & Hobbies

Karen enjoys reading, cooking, gardening, and most importantly time with family. The best part of life is when all those line up together. Karen has participated in a book club with her sisters for the past several years. Some of those books are discovered by randomly picking a letter in the alphabet for an author's name and wandering the shelves of the local library for an interesting jacket cover. Favorite recipes at those meetings include those passed down through generations via old school recipe cards and new options with local, seasonal ingredients.

Russ has over 15 years of experience in traffic safety, public policy, advocacy, communications, strategic planning, and association program, meeting, training management, and traffic records. He assists CS clients in developing and implementing impactful traffic safety programs on the National, State, regional, and local levels, including Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSPs), Highway Safety Improvement Programs (HSIP), Triennial Highway Safety Plan (THSPs), Vision Zero and Safe Streets and Roads for All Safety Plans, as well as research initiatives for the National Cooperative Highway Safety Research Program (NCHRP) and Behavioral Traffic Safety Research Program (BTSCRP). He is a national expert on behavioral aspects of traffic safety. Prior to joining CS, Russ was Senior Director of Policy and Government Relations at the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), where he represented GHSA's state and territorial highway safety office members on the national level and supported the implementation of impactful state and local traffic safety programs. Russ also served at AAA National where he helped AAA's network of motor clubs advocate to improve state traffic safety laws and initiatives. Throughout his career, Russ has partnered with a constellation of policymakers, advocates, government agencies, insurers, automakers, tech companies, criminal justice and public health authorities, researchers, engineers, and other stakeholders to improve transportation for all and prevent crashes, deaths and injuries on our roads.

Interests & Hobbies

Russ lives in Northern Virginia and enjoys listening to and making music, visiting bookstores, cooking at home, and spending time with family.

David Ferreira has more than 30 years of corporate and consulting experience across a wide range of industries, companies and business cycles. He has held senior positions at GE, KPMG, and Beneficial; founded Back Bay Consulting; and most recently served as Chief Administrative Officer for Abt Associates. His primary focus has been helping companies grow and improve performance through roles in business strategy and planning, organizational assessment and talent management. Earlier in his career Mr. Ferreira worked as a Prosecutor for the Massachusetts Attorney General and a Public Defender for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Social Venture Partners and is a past board member of the Harvard Medical School Bio-Medical Science Career Program, the American Financial Services Association, and the Somerville New Jersey Home for Temporarily Displaced Children. Mr. Ferreira received a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Michigan, a Master’s in Law from the University of Amsterdam, a Juris Doctorate from New England Law, and a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University.

Joey brings over 23 years of experience working in the IT space, managing all aspects of IT strategy for various high-growth, multi-location on-prem and fully-remote companies. He takes a human/user-centric approach to IT, evaluating the benefits of technology to corporate goals, but also focusing on how the user experience can be improved, improving productivity as well as comfort for those interacting with technology.

Interests & Hobbies

In his free time, Joey is a songwriter and pianist. He is also an avid bowler, and is one strike away from a perfect 300.

I work in traffic operations and I have been with CS for over three and half years. My work areas include transportation system management and operations (TSMO), intelligent transportation systems (ITS), traffic signal design and analysis, travel time analysis, traffic safety studies and transportation data analysis. I have been involved in diverse projects focused on areas such as integrated corridor management, managed lanes operations, connected and autonomous vehicles, DTA simulations etc. My simulation/intersection analysis skills include AIMSUN, VISSIM, TransModeler, VISTRO and SYNCHRO, spatial analysis skills include QGIS and ArcGIS, and my programming and analytical skills include Python, MATLAB, R Studio, Tableau and JMP.

Interests & Hobbies

My hobbies include playing and watching cricket and soccer; photography; watching movies; and travelling. I am a fun loving person and I like to make new friends.

Mae Lewis-Workman is a Junior Analyst with experience in transport policy and economics. Before joining CS, she was an economist at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, where she gained experience analyzing travel behavior and assessing transportation project and policy impacts using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Mae holds a Master's of Public Administration from Columbia University, and degrees in Economics and Mathematics from Barnard College.

Interests & Hobbies

Mae lives in Manhattan and enjoys spending her free time exploring new places, taking long walks, and discovering great food.

Nick Caccamo is a Principal of Cambridge Systematics. With more than 10 years of experience, Nick has served as Director of Contracts since 2017 and Corporate Counsel since 2019. As Director of Contracts, Nick is responsible for oversight and management of the Cambridge Systematics Contracts Group functions. This includes reviewing and negotiating contracts with public and private sector teaming partners and clients; providing guidance on contractual issues and risk assessment; providing assistance with the RFP and proposal process; and contractual, legal, and regulatory compliance. As Corporate Counsel, Nick is responsible for the renewal and maintenance of CS’ corporate insurance policies; administration, compliance, and enforcement of CS' Ethics and Business Practices Policy; general risk management; and providing legal advice and guidance to corporate leadership and staff as needed. Nick has a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Rhetoric from University of Illinois.

Interests & Hobbies

In his free time, Nick enjoys writing, running, and attending as many concerts and Cubs games as possible. Nick lives in the Chicago area with his wife and two kids.

Mark is a Senior Assoicate at Cambridge Systematics with expertise in Travel Demand Model application and development, transit ridership forecasting, discrete choice models, and toll road studies. Mark has been involved in a wide variety of projects since he began his transporation planning career in 2005, many of them utilizing his background in applied math and statistics.

Interests & Hobbies

In his free time, Mark enjoys playing his electric and acoustic guitars, running, hiking, playing board games, and spending time with his 12-year-old daughter Allison (with two Ls) and his partner Alison (with one L).

Tyler Tucci is an Analyst Jr I (Professional) with three years of experience based in the Tallahassee, FL office. Her experience includes transportation planning, policy research, data analysis, GIS mapping, public engagement, and land-use planning. Tyler supports state, regional, and local agencies by conducting technical analyses, developing planning documents, and advancing coordination between transportation and land-use planning efforts.

Interests & Hobbies

In her free time, Tyler enjoys hanging out with her friends, family, and her cat Fishie.

Leah Mooney is a Senior Project Manager (Sr. Associate) with close to 20 years public sector experience and over 15 years in strategic transportation and transit planning and project financing. With a background in infrastructure and operations, she has supported large scale planning efforts, including oversight of preliminary engineering, NEPA and FTA approvals. Leah has overseen significant visionary projects, including the CTA’s path to ADA accessibility: the All Stations Accessibility Program (ASAP) and the Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) plans. She also provides tactical, hands-on support for securing grants and funding, with successful submissions for Capital Investment Grants, including Full-Funding Grant Agreements (FFGA), Federal, state, and local competitive grants, as well as value capture funding, such as Chicago’s Tax-Increment Financing program (TIF).

Interests & Hobbies

Leah is a gardener, a hiker, a biker, a baker, a reader of mysteries, and (together with her better half) is the parent of two children and two dogs.

Cameron is a Transportation Analyst with experience in the public and private sector of transportation planning. She enjoys creating meaningful, digestible maps and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data. Cameron holds a Master's of City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Interests & Hobbies

Outside of work, Cameron loves going on long, meandering walks. Some of her hobbies include drawing (especially trees and urban landscapes), baking (loves a good chocolate cake), and finding any opportunity to laugh with her friends.

Joe has around a decade of experience in travel demand modeling and transportation data analysis. Prior to joining Cambridge Systematics, he worked for MPOs in Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and San Diego. He holds bachelor's degrees in mathematical statistics and brain and behavioral sciences from Purdue University and master’s degrees in civil engineering and applied mathematics from the University of Washington.

Interests & Hobbies

In his free time Joe enjoys hiking and exploring new places, watching sports (primarily rugby, soccer, and baseball), occasionally making music, playing board games, and more recently competitive Pokémon video game battling.

Scott Meeks has more than 30 years of software experience and has served as Architect, Technical Lead, and Principal Engineer on a wide variety of software projects for transportation agencies.

Interests & Hobbies

In his free time, Scott enjoys reading, playing board games, camping, hiking, and attending science fiction conventions.

Levon Mikaelian specializes in spatial and network analysis using GIS and scripting tools, as well as transportation safety analysis, performance measurement, and data visualization. His previous research includes spatial statistical analysis of the relationships between multimodal transportation networks and socioeconomic outcomes. For his work at CS, he regularly uses R, Python, and SAS, and has a working knowledge of several other programming languages in addition to data visualization expertise using Tableau, Power BI, and R Shiny.

Interests & Hobbies

In his spare time, Levon likes to read, ride his bike, and watch Star Trek. He also enjoys exploring the trails and waterways around Tallahassee.

Danny Shopf is an Associate with Cambridge Systematics, Inc. He has experience in long range policy planning and safety planning. Danny provides support for the development and implementation of Florida's statewide long range plan, the Florida Transportation Plan (FTP) and Florida high-priority transportation network with the Strategic Intermodal System (SIS) Policy Plan. Danny has also developed Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSPs) for multiple states and currently supports multiple traffic safety coalitions focused on SHSP implementation. Danny is also the Team Leader for Florida's Analyst support team.

Suseel Indrakanti, AICP is a Principal and the Practice Lead for Resilience and Sustainability at CS. Over his 16 years of experience, Suseel has provided leadership and expertise on projects pertaining to transportation resilience, climate action planning, and climate finance. He has worked on major practice-leading climate resilience and greenhouse gas mitigating projects in various settings, including local, State, regional, and international efforts and for a variety of clients. His extensive experience involves conducting climate change vulnerability and risk assessments, including the design of tools that support the integration of adaptation planning into broader transportation project life-cycle and development processes. He supported several FHWA resilience pilots over the years. He has led various efforts on mainstreaming climate change considerations into transportation policy-making and enabling agencies to create frameworks for making climate-resilient transport investments.

Interests & Hobbies

Suseel loves music and likes to spend time with family.

Over 20 years of experience in facilities and office services management.  Has worked in various industries including banking, financial services and retail technology.

Interests & Hobbies

Enjoys live music, traveling, exercising, horror movies/shows and Persian culture/language/foods.

Ken White is a Senior Associate with expertise in strategic planning, finance, grant writing, program delivery, and transit operations. An experienced leader of complex plans and programs, Ken has led complex planning projects across the country for state, regional, and local clients across Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Texas, and more. His work has included the development of two asset management plans, three Statewide Transportation Improvement Programs (STIPs), Safety Action Plans, financial analyses, and more than 20 successful Federal grants winning over $700 million. Prior to joining CS, Ken led RIDOT’s Office of Transit and Capital Programming where he managed the state's $9 Billion STIP, coordinated the programming and analysis of Rhode Island’s Federal funds and programs, oversaw the state’s asset management efforts, and represented RIDOT on the Northeast Corridor Commission (NECC). He received a Special Achievement in GIS Award in 2023 for his work developing map-based transportation planning tools. Ken holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Brown University, where his research focused on the organizational and institutional drivers of sustainable redevelopment strategies leveraged through transportation projects, and dual Bachelor's degrees in Political Science and Economics, summa cum laude, from Union College.

Interests & Hobbies

Ken enjoys cooking, gardening, basketball, and exploring new restaurants with his wife, Allison, and their dog, Franklin.

Latasha has 20+ years of marketing experience, serving in various roles such as customer loyalty marketing manager, marketing coordinator, and bid analyst. In these roles, Latasha led or co-led conference and event planning; participated in tradeshows around the country; crafted marketing communication, including company newsletters, mailers, brochures, and website content; and partnered with numerous sales teams in the coordination and development of proposals. At CS, Latasha leverages her extensive proposal experience as Marketing Manager, leading a team of high-performing proposal specialists who partner with consultant teams for the pursuit of new business.

Interests & Hobbies

Latasha lives in metropolitan Atlanta with her husband and son, and enjoys reading, theater, the arts, and attending outdoor events. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and is a member of APMP, the Association for Proposal Management Professionals.

Ms. Valenti has more than 17 years of experience and serves as a Senior Designer and Section 508 Specialist. At Cambridge Systematics (CS), she conceives and creates a full range of design products, including infographics, logos, product overviews, brochures, print ads, posters, and cards—integrating new design concepts and themes to meet the unique requirements of individual clients. She edits documents for grammar, spelling, punctuation, format, and overall consistency according to the firm’s style sheet or client guidelines. She creates special formats and templates from client specifications and proofreads documents for revision quality and correct formatting. Ms. Valenti is well versed in Section 508 requirements, including WCAG 2.0 Level AA; develops templates with fonts, color palettes, graphics, and tables that meet these requirements; and prepares final deliverables in both 508-compliant HTML and accessible PDFs. In addition, she has written internal and client-facing guidebooks on how to prepare deliverables with accessibility in mind and has delivered multiple educational presentations on this topic, focusing on the importance of accessibility. She also has provided voiceover for a range of efforts, including training materials for the National Highway Institute. Ms. Valenti is an effective communicator and collaborator and is able to advise clients on best practices in design and 508 accessibility. She is fluent in Spanish.

Interests & Hobbies

In her free time, Angela enjoys cooking, travel, and going for walks. In the summer she spends as many days as she can at the beach.

Wendy has more than 19 years of experience coordinating and developing strategic proposals for state and local transportation agencies. She supports the firm's new business activities in the Western region.

Interests & Hobbies

In her free time, Wendy coaches her daughters softball team and enjoys watching her kids play baseball, hockey, soccer, and softball.

Marlene has 30 years of experience in transportation management and planning. She blends private and public sector experience with an intense personal commitment to improving transportation policy. She was previously the chief executive officer of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority in Springfield, MA where she directed numerous changes in service delivery, consolidated the fixed route and paratransit services programs, and implemented a systematic financial improvement process that improved efficiency while enhancing mobility. Following her time at PVTA, Marlene was a Director of Planning at CDM Smith and at Urbitran Associates. In 2015, Marlene launched her own consulting business (Marlene Connor Associates, LLC) which works primarily with public sector clients to improve public transportation and mobility.

Her experience includes a wide range of public transportation planning projects in modes from ADA paratransit to Bus Rapid Transit as well as studies that include operations, policy development, management and organization, IT, and financial analysis and review. Marlene is Past Chair of the American Public Transportation Association’s Mobility Management Committee and also Chair’s the Legislative Committee’s Intergovernmental Issues Subcommittee, and the Access Committee Subcommittee on Emerging Technology committees. Marlene is also a member of the TRB Study Committee on the Role of Transit and Mobility Management

Alan is an Associate Planner with Cambridge Systematics. He holds a master's in Urban and Regional Planning form Florida State University. He supports Florida’s Traffic Safety Coalitions and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) State Safety Office through the coordination, facilitation, and documentation of the Traffic Records, Impaired Driving, Occupant Protection, and Teen Safe Driving Coalitions while providing support to the development and update of each coalition’s strategic plan. Alan supports the development and update of Florida’s Highway Safety Plan (HSP) and Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) Implementation Plan.

Interests & Hobbies

While not working, Alan maximizes his time outdoors by cycling, camping, hammocking, hiking, rock climbing, and playing ultimate frisbee. He also enjoys attending live music performances and reading about history and current events. He regularly travels across the country to play in hardcourt bike polo tournaments and vacations in the Appalachian Mountains. He lives in Tallahassee, FL with his cat and his growing collection of bicycles.

Antoinette is an Associate dedicated to resilience and sustainability planning at CS. She brings strong expertise in research, policy and climate adaptation planning, environmental analysis, and risk assessment to a variety of national, statewide, and MPO studies and long-range plans. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering with a Sustainability focus from Cornell University.

Interests & Hobbies

Outside of work, Antoinette is a huge dog lover who enjoys sewing, cooking, and playing tennis.

Crystal brings 20 years of experience in transportation planning, traffic operations, and safety, which includes many years in the public sector. She has managed numerous traffic operations, traffic safety, and connected and autonomous vehicle readiness studies. She has also prepared highway safety studies to meet NHTSA requirements and contributes to Vision Zero Action Plans for multiple states.

Interests & Hobbies

In her free time, Crystal enjoys travelling and being involved in her kid's extracurricular activities

Marisela Cruz is a Certified Federal Contract Manager who possesses a broad knowledge of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. She has more than eight years of experience providing advice and guidance on a wide range of contractual activities, serving as an expert in all matters involving the interpretation of contract requirements and company policies.

She has successfully negotiated and managed GSA, IDIQ, T&M, FFP, and CPFF contracts of products and professional services supporting the Department of Defense and the United States Forest Service.
She has exceptional track record in reviewing RFPs; assisting in preparation of cost proposals and budgets; developing competitive and profitable rates and overall pricing strategies; negotiating pricing and rates with government clients; and responding to pre-award/post-award audits.

Interests & Hobbies

In her spare time, you can catch Marisela tasting different cuisines with her friends at restaurants in downtown Chicago or hiking with her husband and Gunther, their basset hound/bloodhound mix. When Marisela isn’t dining or hiking, she’s solving Sudoku or watching one of her favorite TV shows, Game of Thrones (only up to the seventh season).

Katie has 10+ years of experiencing partnering with state and local agencies nationwide on a variety of multimodal transportation initiatives. She specializes in freight and rail planning, goods movement policy, industry and market trend analysis, strategy development, and investment prioritization. Katie has led or had a leading role on freight and rail planning projects in over 10 states. Her recent work centers on complex rail and maritime planning efforts, including a regional freight rail efficiency study for St. Louis, a market assessment and seaport plan for the Port of Oakland, and the inaugural master plan for the Illinois International Port District (IIPD). Katie uses her unique expertise to distill highly technical analysis to decision-makers and the public, helping her clients both "get it done" and make meaningful, lasting improvements in communities across the U.S.

Interests & Hobbies

Katie loves puzzles, podcasts, and taking brisk walks in and around her neighborhood. She is happiest reading a novel on a beach with a big bag of Snyder's honey mustard & onion pretzel pieces. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Pelham, NY.

Heath Lupton joined Cambridge Systematics as a Travel Demand Modeler with experience in data analytics and travel demand modeling practices. Heath also has experience in transportation planning and is proficient in QGIS, ArcGIS, R, and Python.

Dr. Serigos is an infrastructure management specialist using his expertise in statistical analysis and modeling asset performance and traffic data to support transportation asset management and system performance improvement. He has extensive experience developing databases and analyzing infrastructure asset data to develop performance models, interactive tools, and visualizations to conduct the scenario analyses for the performance target setting process and investment strategies development.