Kathy specializes in transportation planning, public involvement, and management consulting. With her background in city and transportation planning, she provides guidance to clients on long-range planning, corridor and project studies, and strategic management for all ground transportation modes. She enjoys working on large, complex transportation issues and identifying solutions that meet both client goals and community interests. Kathy assists clients in developing strategic plans, facilitating meetings of committees and multi-party coalitions, and identifying tactics to improve organizational effectiveness.

SPECIALTIES

• Long-range Multimodal Transportation Planning
• Corridor and Project Planning
• Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Public Involvement
• Conflict Resolution
• Strategic and Business Planning
• Management Consulting
• Training

EXPERIENCE
Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc.

• Kathy is Principal in Charge of many transportation planning, public involvement, and management consulting assignments, both in the Boston office and for projects around the United States.
• Her strategic planning efforts include:
  • the second phase of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) strategic planning process;
  • three iterations of the I-95 Corridor Coalition strategic and business plans, which featured detailed interviews with key stakeholders in and outside the Coalition;
  • the strategic plan for Trinity Railway Express for DART, Fort Worth Transit Authority, and the North Central Texas Council of Governments;
  • the global strategic plan for one of the largest U.S.-based transportation engineering companies;
  • two strategic planning retreats for the American Council of Engineering Companies;
  • the strategic plan for the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority;
  • the strategic plan for the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations; 
  • the strategic plan for the Transit Cooperative Research Program related to its identification and selection of funding priorities for transit research;
  • the Iowa Department of Transportation strategic planning process, which involved staff from all levels and units of the organization;
  • the strategic plan for New York University Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems; and
  • two iterations of the tactical plan for the American Public Transportation Association's Business Member Board of Governors.
• Kathy is a nationally recognized authority on public involvement in transportation planning, with special expertise in conflict resolution and consensus building. Her project experience includes:
  • leading the public involvement effort for the MassHighway I-93/I-95 Interchange Transportation Study, a major project that is highly charged with concerns about property takings in Woburn, Stoneham, and Reading, and about motorist safety in and around the interchange;
  • the Atlanta region's long-range multimodal transportation and land use planning effort;
  • the Q Bridge preliminary design project and the Tweed Airport Master Plan, both in New Haven; and
  • the St. Louis region's community engagement process for three major regional corridors.
• Kathy has also worked on long-range transportation plans for Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey.
• Kathy has led a number of research efforts on various transportation-related topics:
  • She served as Principal Investigator for several research projects under the Transportation Research Board's National Cooperative Highway Research Program. Recent efforts include Using Customer Needs to Drive Transportation Decisions; Customer-based Quality in Transportation; and Communications, Image, and Positioning in Departments of Transportation.
  • She led development of Public Involvement Techniques for Transportation Decision-making for the Federal Highway and Transit Administrations (FHWA and FTA), a manual widely used by practitioners around the country.
  • She has overseen numerous research projects on public involvement practices in the U.S. and Europe for Japan's Mitsubishi Research Institute.
• Kathy oversees the firm's work in intelligent transportation systems. Current clients include:
  • the I-95 Corridor Coalition, an alliance of states and toll authorities from Maine to Florida concerned with integrating the use of advanced technologies to manage the complex transportation network throughout the eastern seaboard. Kathy manages the Coalition's electronic payment services project, helped the Coalition prepare and update its strategic and business plans, and conducted in-depth interviews to help identify major issues and opportunities confronting member organizations and the Coalition.
  • She led the firm's work on strategic ITS deployment plans for Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Connecticut, regions.
  • She provided assistance to the Volpe Center in conducting workshops to help refine the U.S. DOT's ITS capacity-buidling training and related support services.  She aided the agency's Joint Program Office in developing its strategic plan.
• Her work in telecommunications and transportation includes:
  • serving on the Working Committee for the National 511 Coalition to respond to the Federal Communication Commission's designation of the 511 exchange for nationwide travel information;
  • facilitating the Wireless Enhanced 911 Steering Council, under sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is addressing the need to identify the location of 911 callers using wireless phones; and
  • conducting focus groups and preparing a white paper for Public Technology, Inc., on collaboration between local, state, and federal governments on such issues as transportation operations, telecommunications, technology, and public safety.
• Kathy is a skilled facilitator who helps people work together to solve problems and reach consensus. She is accomplished in working with large groups of diverse stakeholders, in "fishbowl" settings, and on complex, controversial topics.
  • She facilitated two workshops of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the greater New York/New Jersey region, to identify priority projects and issues of regional significance.
  • For NJ TRANSIT, she facilitated focus groups to provide rider input into the design of new bi-level rail coaches and to help name the new Hudson-Bergen line. 
  • She facilitated the University of Minnesota's first and second Oberstar Forums, working with state and national leaders to identify long-term policy.
  • For the Volpe Center, she facilitated an evaluation seminar for a course on capacity building for rural transportation planning.
  • Other assignments include the National Operations Coalition, a national workshop on Regional Operating Organizations, the American Public Transit Association Business Roundtable, and Transportation Chief Executives' Roundtables on emerging leadership and management issues confronting DOTs across the country.
• She enjoys working with organizations to help them address organizational, management, and performance issues. Some of her management consulting clients include:
  • Hostos Community College, where she assisted the new President and her faculty and staff in assessing challenges and future directions for the college;
  • the New York University Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, where she served on the Management Advisory Board;
  • NJ TRANSIT, assisting the agency in assessing its organizational design; and
  • the I-95 Corridor Coalition, for which she led a project that assessed organizational and operational options in order to identify those aspects of advanced transportation technologies that were most promising for collaborative efforts among agencies along the East Coast.
• Kathy is experienced in training adult learners for such clients as the National Transit Institute, the New York City Department of Personnel, the Chicago Transit Authority, the New Jersey and New York State Departments of Transportation, the Transportation Research Board, and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. Current and recent courses include:
  • Context-sensitive Design;
  • Public Involvement in Transportation Decision-making; and
  • Linking Planning and the National Environmental Policy Act: Working Toward an Integrated Decision Making Process.
  • Kathy is certified as a Continuous Quality Improvement instructor by the New York State Department of Transportation. Previously, she developed and taught courses in strategic planning, negotiation, and advanced management skills.

Prior Experience

• As Director and Deputy Director of Transportation for the New York City Department of City Planning, Kathy was responsible for managing a staff of 38 and an annual budget of over $2.5 million, proposing and securing funds, and overseeing implementation of plans for transportation and related land use and environmental improvements. She worked closely with public officials, agencies, and community groups; prepared and implemented the Division's work program, including overseeing consultants; evaluated a ten-year capital program for transportation; and managed transportation impact reviews of development projects and land use changes (1984-87).
• Kathy was Manager of the Planning Field Staff and Department Leader for the City of Boston Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS), responsible for planning and coordinating transportation projects throughout the Boston region; for relating transportation to land use, development, and environmental concerns; for community participation programs; and for preparing regional transportation certification documents (1976-83).
• She was a freelance planning consultant, analyst, writer, and community liaison (1974-76).
• As a Community Liaison Planner for the Boston Transportation Planning Review, Kathy was responsible for technical assistance, community liaison, and public information for restudy of controversial highway plans throughout the Boston region. She developed and implemented innovative means to involve the public in making transportation plans, especially to incorporate social and community concerns and values into technical planning processes (1971-73).

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

• With HSH: 23
• Other: 16

EDUCATION

• University of North Carolina
  Chapel Hill, North Carolina
  Master of Regional Planning, Social Policy, 1971
  Urban Studies Fellowship
• Mount Holyoke College
  South Hadley, Massachusetts
  B.A. with distinction, English Composition, 1969

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• National Research Council of National Academy of Sciences:
  Chair, Project Committee on Data Needs for Place-based Decision-making, Committee on Geography for the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, National Research Council. The committee's work led to the book Community and Quality of Life: Data Needs for Informed Decision-making, published by the National Academy Press in June 2002.
• Transportation Research Board of National Academy of Sciences:
  Member, Synthesis Panel on Strategic Planning in Transportation Agencies, 2002-03
  Chair, Division A Council, oversaw TRB's 180 committees, 1995-99
  Chair, Management and Productivity Committee, 1991-97
  Chair, Strategic Management Committee, 1985-91
  Chair, Social, Economic, and Environmental Factors Section of twelve committees, 1982-84
  Chair, Citizen Participation Committee, 1976-82
• Member, Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, Management Advisory Board, 1998-2001
• Member, Women's Transportation Seminar
• President, Women's Transportation Seminar of Greater New York, 1983-85

AWARDS AND HONORS

• National Woman of the Year, Women's Transportation Seminar, 2003
• Boston Chapter Woman of the Year, Women's Transportation Seminar, 2003
• Lifetime National Associate, National Academy of Sciences, December 2001 forward

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• "Communication, Participation, and Consensus Building."  Northeast Region Context-sensitive Design Workshop, November 2001.
• "Social Dimensions of Infrastructure Technology."  International Symposium on Innovative Technology, Civil Engineering Research Foundation, August 2001.
• Public Involvement for Transportation Decision-making.  Federal Highway Administration/Federal Transit Administration.  1996.
• "Emerging Challenges in the Management of Transportation Organizations."  Presented at Visiting Scholars Seminar, University Transportation Research Center of The City College of New York, April 1995.
• "Total Quality Management."  Presented at joint meeting of TRB's Maintenance Committee and Management and Productivity Committee, 1995.
• "Collaborative Planning: The Q Bridge Process."  Presented at WTS Connecticut Chapter Annual Meeting, 1995.
• "Customer-based Quality in Transportation."  Transportation Executive Institute, Visiting Scholar Seminar.  Conducted strategic planning module for this course for DOT executives from around the country.  University of Virginia Division of Continuing Education, October 1994.
• "Cultural Diversity and Organizational Change."  Presented at AASHTO Annual Meeting, 1993.
• "Public Involvement Under NEPA."  Presented at conference on Scientific Challenges of NEPA: Future Directions Based on 20 Years of Experience, 9th Oak Ridge National Lab Life Sciences Symposium, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1989.
• "How Local and Regional Public Participation Affect the EIS Process," in Working Papers in the Preparation and Review of Environmental Impact Statements, for conference sponsored by Council on Environmental Quality Executive Office of the President and the New York State Bar Association, 1987.
• "Applying Strategic Planning in the Transportation Sector," with Bruce McDowell, in Transportation Research News, #119, 1985.