Howdy from the whole Transit Mobility Team!
Please scroll down to read about each team member.
(From left to right: Jonathan Brooks, John Overman, Suzie Edrington, Linda Cherrington, Meredith Highsmith, Matt Sandidge, and Jian Shen; Shuman Tan, Todd Hansen, Lauren Cochran, and Zachary Elgart not pictured)
Linda Cherrington
Research Scientist, Program Manager
Ms. Cherringtonjoined TTI in 2003 as a Research Scientist and Program Manager for TTI’s Transit Mobility Program. Ms. Cherrington’s career in the transit industry spans 35 years. Ms. Cherrington has 10 years experience with Houston METRO, where she held senior management positions in regional transit service planning and scheduling, transit operations, vehicle maintenance, procurement, and bus facility development. Ms. Cherrington moved into the private sector of the transit industry in 1986 when she founded LKC Consulting Services, Inc. For 17 years, LKC Consulting provided transportation planning, transit operational analysis, and facility planning for cities, transit agencies, and school districts nationwide. In her capacity as a consultant, Ms. Cherrington managed numerous projects relating to all transit modes in metropolitan and small urban operating environments. Since 2003, Ms. Cherrington has been a moving force behind the Texas initiatives to improve performance in public transportation and to advance the concepts of regional transportation coordination. She represents TTI on the research teams for national TRB projects addressing performance measures for transit. She was a researcher for TCRP Report 141 Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison, and she is a member of the research team developing Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual, 3rd Edition (TCRP A-15C).
You can learn more about Linda by viewing her resume.
John Overman
Associate Research Scientist
Professional Experience: Mr. Overman is an associate research scientist with TTI’s Transit Mobility program and is located in Arlington, Texas. He has 18 years of experience in transportation and environmental policy, planning, and project management. He concentrates his research on policies and issues affecting transportation planning, programming, project development, and public transit. Mr. Overman is a certified instructor for the National Highway Institute (NHI)/National Transit Institute (NTI). He is co-developer and instructor for NTI/NHI course Statewide Transportation Planning, and instructor for Metropolitan Transportation Planning. He is a skilled instructor and facilitator with more than 33 NHI/NTI course deliveries in 30 cities/states. He also conducts workshops on environmental planning and public involvement to transportation planning practitioners and policy boards. He has taught at the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority in Mumbai, India as part of federal delegation of transportation experts. Click here to see a map of where John has taught NTI, NHI, or rural planning workshop courses.
Relevant Projects: Mr. Overman’s research projects include examining rural planning organizations, regional coordinated public transportation planning, and notable practices for rapidly urbanizing areas. Recent environmental projects include integrating right-of-way and environmental processes, analysis and integration of spatial data for transportation planning, investigating non-road construction emissions, estimating cost effectiveness of CMAQ projects, and environmental compliance for small urban and rural transit systems. Mr. Overman also assists in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental clearance processes, document preparation, and NEPA training for transportation project development.
Publications and Presentations: Mr. Overman has authored and collaborated on numerous reports on transportation planning, project development, and environmental processes, compliance and management.
Previous Experience: Prior to joining TTI in 1996, Mr. Overman was a project manager on public works projects for a top 100 national engineering firm. Mr. Overman also served for with the Texas Water Commission, as an Environmental Quality Specialist, and as a geologist for an oil and gas exploration company.
You can learn more about John by viewing his resume.
Suzie Edrington
Assistant Research Scientist
Suzie is an assistant research scientist for the Transit Mobility Program at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and has over 20 years of transportation experience with 16 years of hands-on public transit experience with the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) in both the paratransit and fixed route operations and maintenance divisions. During her METRO career, Suzie’s responsibilities included operational performance analysis, service forecasting, manpower planning, capital investment forecasting, ADA compliance, financial analysis, contract management, and National Transit Database reporting. Since joining TTI in 2006, Suzie has applied her practical experience to a variety of projects. Suzie annually conducts a Texas transit district performance data evaluation for each of the 68 state-funded rural and urban transit districts and provides technical assistance on an on-going basis. Suzie has provided program reviews for several rural, small urban and large urban transit providers evaluating performance measurements, providing recommendations regarding the operations efficiency and effectiveness, assessing the current and future economic viability, and examining internal operating procedures and staffing levels. Recent projects and publications include: FTA Rural Transit Livability Performance Measures, NCHRP Rural and Specialized Transit DOT Data Reporting; Peer Grouping and Performance Measurement to Improve Rural and Small Urban Transit in Texas; Facilitating Creation of Rural Transit System Technology User Groups; Estimated Impact of the 2010 Census on Public Transit Funding; Quantifying the Purchasing Power of Public Transportation; and Dispatching Demand-Response: Guidebook to Increasing Productivity and Saving Money.
Suzie recently received a master in urban and regional planning with a certificate in transportation: studies include designing for sustainable transportation, complete-streets, form-based codes, transit-oriented development, transportation investments, shared parking generation.
Areas of expertise include: transit operations performance evaluation; ADA paratransit; rural community transportation; transit operations/operational analysis–staffing strategies and operating procedures; operational and capital budgeting and forecasting; and contract management and public/private partnerships.
You can learn more about Suzie by viewing her resume.
Meredith Highsmith
Assistant Research Scientist
Ms. Highsmith offices in TTI’s Austin office. She has over eight years experience in transportation and land use planning at regional, corridor, and project-specific levels. She joined TTI’s Transit Mobility Program as an Assistant Research Scientist in March 2011. Prior to her current position, Ms. Highsmith spent six years working for Capital Metropolitan Transit Authority (Capital Metro), specializing in both strategic and long-range transit planning for Austin, and the surrounding cities and counties in the capital area. Specific rail and bus projects include: assisting cities in service expansion planning for rail and bus, including environmental impact studies and alternatives analysis, long range plans, and downtown circulator systems. Additionally, Ms. Highsmith was Capital Metro’s liaison to the Regional Transit Coordination Committee (RTCC) in Central Texas, which involved coordinating transit with other agencies, including TxDOT as well as rural transit providers, medical transportation, and private providers. She also has two years experience with the Texas Department of Transportation, compiling and analyzing transportation data for the highway inventory project, and analyzing legislation for the department.
You can learn more about Meredith by viewing her resume.
Lauren Cochran
Assistant Research Scientist
Lauren Cochran, based at TTI’s Houston office, is an assistant research scientist for the Transit Mobility Program at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. She spent four years with Veolia Transportation on the Foothill Transit contract in West Covina, California, deploying the world’s first full-size, heavy duty, electric transit bus and its associated fast charge infrastructure into commercial operation. She secured the largest federally-funded clean transportation grant in the nation under the Transit Investment in Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction II program in the amount of $10.2 million dollars for additional electric buses and was also responsible for driving the agency’s sustainability efforts, developing and implementing International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001-certified environmental and sustainability management system for the bus operations and maintenance facility. As the youngest Director in the agency’s 25 year history and first female Director of Maintenance and Vehicle Technology, Lauren oversaw bus procurement and fleet replacement processes for the second largest transit operator in Los Angeles County.
The University of Southern California, where she focused her studies on public-private partnerships and government contracting, awarded her a Masters in Public Administration in 2009. Lauren’s master’s work also included environmental sustainability and organizational leadership. She received a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2007 from the University of Texas at San Antonio where she was a member of the Institute for Law and Public Affairs and Phi Mu Fraternity.
Areas of expertise include: alternative fuels, public-private partnerships, environmental management systems, environmental sustainability policies and programs, vehicle procurements, grants administration, contract compliance, and contractor management.
You can learn more about Lauren by viewing her resume.
Jonathan Brooks
Associate Transportation Researcher
Jonathan grew up in Pampa, TX – a remote rural town northeast of Amarillo, TX. Although he grew up in Texas, as an adult Jonathan has lived in Utah, Alaska, Connecticut, Australia, and Scotland. He has used public transit in more than 15 countries and hopes to add more to that list soon. Mr. Brooks offices in TTI’s Houston, TX office. Prior to joining TTI, Jonathan earned his Bachelor of Science in Geography: Urban, Rural, and Environmental Planning from Brigham Young University. While working toward his degree, he worked one semester in the Scottish Parliament as a policy analysis intern, one summer as a motor-coach driver, and another summer as the dispatch supervisor responsible operations for Holland America-Princess in Fairbanks, Alaska (managing about 65 drivers). Jonathan enrolled in the Master of Urban Planning program at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX and during his first year of graduate studies interned with the Bryan/College Station Metropolitan Planning Organization. He began working at TTI during his second year of graduate studies and has continued since that time. Jonathan’s experience at TTI includes public transportation research in several areas: some examples include (1) case study research of the impact of changing funding formulas for rural transit in Texas, (2) a comprehensive review of current services and transit need in rural Henderson County, Texas, (3) leading transit origin/destination surveys in several locations (most recently Omaha, Nebraska), (4) co-authoring NCHRP 20-65 Task 28 “A Toolkit for Reporting Rural and Specialized Transit Data – Making Transit Count”, (5) providing on-site technical assistance to the Bridgeport, Connecticut Board of Education in implementing routing software to reduce costs and improve school bus transportation services, (6) leading the development of rural transit elements for the most recent statewide long-range transportation plan in Texas, and (7) working with a team of researchers to develop rural transit livability performance measures suitable for use a national level for the Federal Transit Administration.
You can learn more about Jonathan by viewing his resume.
Zachary Elgart
Associate Transportation Researcher
Zachary Elgart possesses a Master of Planning degree from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts in Recreation from California State University, Long Beach. Before joining the Transit Mobility team at TTI, Mr. Elgart held a 6-month Transportation Finance Research Fellowship with the Southern California chapter of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. Prior to his fellowship, he worked as a research assistant for the METRANS Transportation Center at The University of Southern California’s Price School for nearly 2 years. Mr. Elgart is dedicated to innovative planning concepts that promote active and alternative transportation as well as complete mobility solutions. He is increasingly interested in the promotion of positive urban development strategies and the rejuvenation of disused urban space. Mr. Elgart’s education focused on the intersection of urban design and transportation planning with an emphasis on active transportation. Mr. Elgart was born in Colorado and grew up in Los Angeles, CA. He is an avid cyclist and lives car-free in Austin, Texas.
You can learn more about Zachary by viewing his resume.
Shuman Tan
Graduate Assistant Researcher
Ms. Tan offices in TTI’s College Station office. Prior to joining TTI, Shuman earned her Bachelor of Urban Planning degree from Hohai University in China. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree, Shuman worked two years as assistant marketing manager for Shanghai Shengshixinrong Real Estate Co. Ltd. Her responsibilities included investigation and feasibility studies, obtaining necessary land use rights and permits, and managing construction and contracting of projects with third-party contractors in her branch office. Shuman joined the Master of Urban Planning degree program at Texas A&M University in the Fall 2011 term and is now applying her keen interest and experience as a graduate assistant researcher in the TTI Transit Mobility Program. She assists fellow HTM staff researchers with GIS spatial analysis, data review and collection, technical documentation, and literature reviews.
Todd Hansen
Graduate Assistant Researcher
Mr. Hansen offices in TTI’s College Station office. Prior to joining TTI, Todd earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M University. Todd is currently pursuing a Master of Urban Planning degree from Texas A&M University. Prior to joining TTI, Todd completed a transportation planning internship at the Brazos Valley Council of Governments; where he provided research and support to staff in the economic development department. Todd spent nearly three years working for the TAMU Department of Physics and Astronomy and also has administrative assistant experience. At TTI, Todd assists fellow HTM staff researchers with GIS spatial analysis, data review and collection, technical documentation, and literature reviews. Todd has also successfully taken over several research project tasks requiring full-time researcher level of expertise.
