Movement-building
Clean RIDES Network
Co-founded and co-lead a network of advocates working to ensure state transportation infrastructure spending reduces pollution—and household costs.
Governor's Playbook to Transform Transportation [Forthcoming]
Affordable, clean transportation for all
I work to align transportation policy and public investment with real-world outcomes that matter—healthy people, thriving communities.
This is what I do
Policy advocacy and strategy
NRDC Transform Initiative
A multi-jurisdictional body of partnership-building, policy development, and direct advocacy to grow government investment in public transit, safe streets, and zero-emissions vehicle infrastructure, while shifting spending away from ineffective highway boondoggles.
Program delivery
American Cities Climate Challenge
Catalyzing implementation of low-carbon transportation policies and programs in direct partnership with 25 U.S. cities.
Best practices
TransitCenter research
Identifying and synthesizing timely practitioner expertise into actionable policy insight.
Writing. Speaking.
The Intersection of Climate and Housing Policies
Capitol Weekly
A live-recorded conference panel on housing and climate policy and coalition dynamics, especially in California.
California Transportation Infrastructure Testimony
California State Senate
My testimony for how states could best leverage the Biden Infrastructure Law dollars to advance climate and other policy priorities.
Derailed
TransitCenter
My case study write-up of lessons learned from the 2018 failure of Nashville's ambitious transit plan at the ballot.
How Much Time Was Spent on the Subway? M.T.A. Can Now Tell You.
The New York Times
Zak Accuardi, a senior program analyst with the Transit Center, a research organization, has suggested that the M.T.A. measure performance using a tool used in London called excess journey time. “The A Line has a 12-month weekday wait assessment of 71.9 percent, but what does that mean for riders?” Mr. Accuardi wrote to board members this summer. “Wait assessment is indifferent to how late a train is or how many riders are affected by its lateness.”
Clarity that drives impact
I am drawn to messy, complex systems—understanding what drives them, and what changes might help align their machinations with public good. For more than ten years, I've focused on the built environment, working to leverage public investment in transportation infrastructure to promote more affordable, more vibrant, and less-polluting communities. At NRDC I lead U.S.-based policy advocacy at local, state, and federal levels to grow investment in public transit, sidewalks, and safe biking infrastructure.
In past professional lives, I wrote or co-wrote national policy best practice reports; led a range of quantitative analysis projects; and managed a million-dollar technical assistance consultant to accelerate transportation project and policy implementation in more than twenty U.S. cities. My work has been cited in a cover story in one of my hometown papers ( Street Roots ) and in the New York Times. I studied environmental engineering at Columbia and hold a MS in technology & policy from MIT.
At home in Berkeley, California, the strongest pro-transit voice belongs to my toddler, to whom anything with wheels is called a BUS! I do, in fact, enjoy walking, biking, and taking buses and trains—especially when they help me access beauty in the natural world (or perhaps in a modern art museum). I make beautiful coffee at home in a rebuilt espresso machine—though less ice cream now than I did when I was writing Churning Man (come to think of it, I don't drink nearly enough affogatos). I have inconsistent musical and mindfulness practices, and I believe in leaving things better than we find them.
A note on AI usage. All of the words on this website were written by me. None of the website's code was written by me—it was built by an AI-based tool that I prompted.