Professional Experience

I hold a Master’s of Science in Geography and Environmental Systems and have nine years of experience in spatial data analysis, GIS, and technical and non-technical writing on urban policy, history, and transportation issues. This includes work as a researcher at the Brookings Institution and at the US Department of Transportation. I have also authored a over sixty articles on Washington, DC-area geography, transportation, and history topics for two local organizations. In addition, I have teaching experience as a college-level chemistry instructor.

My research has focused on using spatial data to better understand the economic, social, and transportation geography of urban environments. I have considerable experience developing data-driven typologies and classifications of communities and neighborhoods. My technical expertise includes mapping, geospatial data analysis using QGIS and R, and producing ESRI ArcGIS Online web maps.

Contents

My résumé is available for download as a PDF.



US Department of Transportation

I worked as a program analyst in the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT), Office of the Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Policy (OST-P) from late 2023 to mid-2025. At OST-P, I was the primary spatial (GIS) and data analysis contributor in support of the US DOT equity portfolio. I calculated US DOT Strategic and Equity Action Plan Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). I also and prepared briefing materials, including web maps, for the Undersecretary for Transportation Policy in preparation for Congressional hearings. In addition, I performed spatial data analysis for the January 2025 US DOT white paper “Land Use as a Strategy for Transportation, Housing, and the Environment: Opportunities for State and Local Governments.”

At US DOT, I was technical lead for major updates to the Equity Transportation Communities (ETC) Explorer Index and web tool. The ETC Explorer was US DOT’s tool for identifying disadvantaged communities as part of the Biden Administration Justice40 Initiative. In this role, I selected variables and developed an improved methodology to integrate data from dozens of sources to quantify transportation insecurity, environmental burden, and social vulnerability for communities across the United States. I rewrote the R code base used to calculate ETC Explorer index scores and authored the technical documentation for the updated index. I also designed and built an intuitive, user-friendly web tool in ESRI ArcGIS Online to display public-facing data.

While the ETC Explorer was taken down from the US DOT website when the Biden Administration’s Justice40 Initiative was shut down in January 2025, I have made available an extensive summary of my work, as well as the technical manual and data for download.



Brookings Institution

Starting in summer 2020, I worked as a researcher at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program in Washington, DC: part-time for my first year while I completed my graduate degree, and then as a full-time senior research assistant from mid-2021 through mid-2023. My work at Brookings encompassed both quantitative/spatial analysis and authoring reports based on my analysis.

I performed spatial (GIS) analyses of place-level assets and their relationships to regional economic and built ecosystems. Urban structure, transit, and disinvestment in minority communities in the United States were primary focuses of my work. I authored ten reports (seven as lead author) and delivered an invited talk on US demographics to a gathering of EU diplomats. My research topics included:

My largest project at the Brookings Institution was the development of a methodology for identifying “activity centers”—clusters of economic, cultural, and other resources—in US metro areas. A summary of my approach is available here.



Local Advocacy Work

Alongside my full-time work, I have used my writing and GIS skills to contribute to advocacy projects in the Washington, DC region for almost a decade:

Since 2016, I have been a regular contributor of articles and research to Greater Greater Washington, a non-profit publication and advocacy organization that works on land use, housing, and transportation policy in the Washington, DC region. A list of my over sixty articles published at Greater Greater Washington can be found here.

Additionally, between 2017 and 2020, I wrote nearly twenty articles for the D.C. Policy Center, a Washington, DC think tank focused on urban issues in the Washington, DC region. These articles covered a number of topics, including Metrorail’s service cuts and ridership issues in 2017-2018, proposals for improved suburb-to-suburb transit in the DC region, and the demographic history of the region. A list of these articles can be found here. My series on improved suburb-to-suburb transit resulted in an invited presentation to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Board.

In 2021, I provided mapping and GIS analysis guidance for the grassroots movement opposing the Prince George’s County, Maryland county council’s attempt to gerrymander their electoral districts. My work included three articles analyzing redistricting options and the issues with the council’s proposed districts, as well as an invited talk at an NAACP- and Common Cause-organized event opposing the gerrymander.

In 2022, I served as vice-chair of the City of College Park, Maryland Redistricting Commission. I was responsible for the commission’s GIS analysis work, including developing potential district options consistent with legal requirements and preparing maps of our proposals for the public and city council. The commission’s final report can be found on the city website.



Graduate Student in Human Geography

For my Master’s thesis in Geography and Environmental Systems (University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2021), I developed a data-driven typology of US metropolitan areas and their neighborhoods. My typology was based on k-means analyses and characterization of local built environment through GIS analysis performed in R.

A major component of this project was the development of a measure of the effects of street network connectivity on density, which I published as an article on City Observatory, “Mapping Walkable Density.”
I also proposed and implemented methods to interpolate US Census data into 400-m radius hexagonal cells to address the issues the modifiable areal unit problem poses for analysis at the Census tract or block group level.

My Master’s thesis, the slides from my thesis defense, and an extended discussion of my methodology and results are available.



Chemistry Instructor

Before my career in GIS and human geography, I worked for several years as a college instructor in chemistry. During the 2015–2016 school year, I served as an Adjunct Professor of Physical Science at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland, where I taught remedial physics and, general chemistry lecture, and introductory physical science lab courses. Then, from 2016 to 2019, I worked full-time as a Visiting Lecturer in Physical and Analytic Chemistry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

At UMBC, I taught general chemistry labs and lectures using a flipped-classroom approach and upper-level analytical and physical chemistry. In analytic chemistry, I taught a lab-and-lecture course for juniors focused on error analysis and wetlab technique as well as an instrumental analysis lab course for seniors. I also taught a two-semester physical chemistry lab and lecture course for juniors, covering instrumentation techniques, MATLAB programming, and formal report-writing. Additionally, I supervised graduate teaching assistants for all of these courses.

During summers, I helped organize UMBC’s SCIART program for undergraduate research at the intersection of chemistry and art conservation. I mentored students developing methods of identifying the species of origin of ivory artifacts and removing tarnish from gilded silver.

In addition, while working as a chemistry instructor, I was a freelance tutor of high school and college students. I tutored students in math (pre-algebra through calculus), chemistry, physics, and writing.