Nicole Katsikides, Ph.D.

TTI Research Scientist

Education

• Ph.D., Public Policy and Administration, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 2019
• M.A., Public Policy and Administration, Johns Hopkins University, 2001
• B.A., Psychology, University of Notre Dame of Maryland, 1999

Short Biography

Nicole Katsikides is a research scientist for TTI.  She has twenty two years of public sector experience in transportation planning and policy analysis, logistics, economic development and land use/real estate planning with specific expertise in freight mobility and operations.  Prior to TTI, Dr. Katsikides served as the Deputy Director of the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) State Highway Administration (SHA) Office of Planning and Preliminary Engineering (OPPE) where she led strategic planning and implementation efforts for connected and automated vehicle programs, mobility analysis, performance based planning, freight and asset management.  Prior to that, she served as the Freight Performance Program Manager for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Freight Management and designed the freight formula program presented in the GROW AMERICA surface transportation proposal that formed the basis for the freight program in the FAST Act.  She also helped work with TTI and others to advance the data and analytics needed to evaluate multimodal freight analysis throughout the nation or Freight Fluidity.  Before joining FHWA, Dr. Katsikides was MDOT’s Director of Freight and Multimodalism providing freight performance, mobility, policy and planning leadership, as well as oversight of the state's short line railroad and project development for both freight and passenger rail. She has held positions in community planning and economic development with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, logistics management with the United States Air Force, and got her career start as a legislative aide for the Maryland House of Delegates (state legislature) handling constituent cases and legislative research for delegates representing Baltimore County.  

Dr. Katsikides serves on the TRB Freight Planning and Logistics committee, The TRB Truck Industry Research Committee, the TRB Freight Fluidity Task Force, and has supported other TRB efforts such as special workshops.  She has supported several NCHRP project panels.  She is a member of the Advisory Board for the Freight Mobility Research Institute at Florida Atlantic University and the Transportation, Distribution, Maritime Logistics Program  Advisory Board for the Community College of Baltimore County where she is also adjunct faculty teaching domestic and global freight courses.  In addition, Dr. Katsikides advises on freight, supply chain, and logistics issues, and enjoys volunteering with schools and youth organizations on career preparedness and environmental/air quality improvement efforts. 

She holds a Ph.D. from then University of Maryland Baltimore County, a Master's degree in policy analysis from Johns Hopkins, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame of Maryland.  Though a Baltimorean, she current resides in San Antonio, Texas.