Faculty
The Master of Sustainable Transportation program features expert UW faculty along with credentialed instructors who work in the field.
Don MacKenzie - Director
Don MacKenzie is the Allen & Inger Osberg endowed professor in the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the director of the Master of Sustainable Transportation program. He leads the Sustainable Transportation Lab, which develops and evaluates technical and policy solutions for making our transportation system more economically viable and environmentally benign, while providing access for all.
MacKenzie's research areas include electric vehicles and infrastructure, mobility services and transit, and the impacts of vehicle automation on traveler behaviors. He holds a Ph.D. in engineering systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Courses Taught: Research Methods, Capstone Project and CET 565: Climate Change & Energy
Ryan Avery
A technical director of data science at WSP, Ryan Avery has broad expertise in geospatial applications, data analytics and transportation planning. He specializes in large-scale data analysis, applying his database and programming knowledge to efficiently process and analyze massive transportation datasets, such as data from tolling systems and transit fare cards. He has broad multimodal experience working with local agencies in the Puget Sound region, including Sound Transit, WSDOT, King County Metro, Community Transit, Washington State Ferries and the City of Seattle.
Avery was previously the deputy director of the Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC) at the University of Washington, where he performed transportation research and facilitated connections between UW researchers and state and local agencies. He also has international experience working in the UAE on the Dubai Integrated Rail Transit Master Plan and the Abu Dhabi Regional Rail Study, and he was previously a researcher at the Centre for Traffic Research in Stockholm, Sweden. He holds a master's degree and Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Washington.
Courses Taught: CET 561: Transportation Planning & Design and Statistics Modules
Doug Eisinger
Douglas Eisinger has more than 30 years of public and private sector experience. Under the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, he chaired the U.S. Transportation Research Board’s Committees on Air Quality (2017-2020) and Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation (2020-2023). For more than 12 years, Eisinger was the program manager for the UC Davis-Caltrans Air Quality Project. He also served four years as mobile sources section chief for U.S. EPA Region 9, San Francisco. For 30 years, he was a senior member of the Sonoma Technology management team, where he focused on transportation-related air quality, near-road air pollution, and environmental justice.
He taught Air Quality Management: Policy and Practice for 20 years at the University of Hawaii, and he also taught transportation policy at UC Davis. Eisinger’s book, “Smog Check: Science, Federalism, and the Politics of Clean Air,” is an in-depth case study of one of the U.S. Clean Air Act’s most important emissions control programs. Eisinger earned a bachelor’s degree in government at Cornell University, a master's in public policy with an emphasis on energy and environmental policy at Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in environmental policy analysis at the University of Wales.
Courses Taught: CET 567: Health & Sustainable Transportation
Travis Fried
Travis Fried is a Ph.D. candidate in the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. He is a spatial data and urban freight enthusiast with a master’s degree in geography from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in sociology/anthropology from Carleton College.
His career spans eight years of transportation and environmental research in the public sector, nonprofits and academic institutions. Most recently, he worked as an urban mobility researcher for World Resources Institute (WRI), where he studied topics including the environmental, health and equity impacts of open public transit data, urban freight, shared mobility, transport-related stimulus spending and impact investing.
Courses Taught: CET 566: Environmental Analysis & Assessment
Celeste Gilman
Celeste Gilman is nationally recognized as a Complete Streets Changemaker by Smart Growth America. She is the strategic policy administrator in the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Active Transportation Division, where she leads implementation of the requirement to deliver Complete Streets for state transportation projects. She also leads strategic efforts to work with partners across the state to utilize land use as a tool to manage transportation demand and give more people the opportunity to walk, bicycle and take transit for their daily trips.
She has held different roles at WSDOT, including transportation and land use policy advisor and deputy director of the Regional Transit Coordination Division. As deputy director, she worked with transit agencies and local cities to bring planners and engineers together to expand high-capacity transit and multimodal station access. Prior to joining WSDOT, Gilman led the University of Washington’s award-winning transportation demand management programs, resulting in nondrive-alone modes for 80% of campus trips. Gilman is a graduate of Community, Environment and Planning at the University of Washington.
Courses Taught: CET 564: Sustainable Transportation From a Systems Perspective
Mark Hallenbeck
Mark Hallenbeck recently retired as the director of the Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC) at the University of Washington. He had been with TRAC for about 35 years and frequently taught urban transportation planning and intelligent transportation systems in the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Much of Hallenbeck’s research involved data that described transportation system use and performance. He has worked with multiple agencies in the region to examine how big data and new technology can be used to improve regional mobility, while examining how changing mobility options are affecting land use decisions. Hallenbeck worked on projects that ranged from the analysis of how dynamic pricing on the I-405 express lanes impacts user behavior to the use of electronic transit fare cards and dockless bike data for better multimodal planning.
Courses Taught: CET 563: Transportation Choices & Technology
Jenny Liu
Jenny Liu is an associate professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University. She is an applied economist with a focus on public policy, urban issues and social equity. Her research takes on a multidisciplinary approach with a deep foundation in microeconomic theory, econometric methods and environmental sustainability, focusing on linkages between transportation, economic development and sustainability, economic issues and impacts of public policy, and human capital investments.
Much of Liu's recent research involves examining the economic, business and equity outcomes of active transportation infrastructure investments. In addition, she currently serves on the Oregon Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors. Liu holds a master's degree and Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from University of California, Berkeley.
Courses Taught: CET 568: Transportation Economics
Amber McNair
Amber McNair is the founder of AV McNair, LLC, a consulting firm with a mission to improve the social benefits of air mobility infrastructure through high-impact research, planning, training and engagement services. McNair has served as an ambassador for the Airport Cooperative Research Program and as a member of various aviation committees with the Transportation Research Board.
While her expert niche is in aviation, McNair is experienced across transportation modes. She worked as a civil engineer with the Federal Highway Administration, as an assistant professor in The Ohio State University’s Knowlton School, and as a senior transportation engineer with Burton Planning Services. She earned a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s in civil engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Ph.D. in city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania.
Courses Taught: CET 569: Policy Development, Finance & Sustainable Transportation
Rocky Piro
Rocky Piro is the executive director of the Colorado Center for Sustainable Urbanism. He serves on the board of directors for the International Urban Planning and the Environment Association and is past chair of the Regional and Intergovernmental Planning Division of the American Planning Association. He served as manager of the Community Planning and Development Department in the City and County of Denver, as program manager for the Growth Management Department at the Puget Sound Regional Council in Seattle, and as manager of the Intergovernmental Planning Team for King County, Washington.
He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners examination committee that prepares the qualifying exam for planners seeking professional certification. Piro is the recipient of the Myer Wolfe Award for Excellence in Planning and was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2010. He received his Ph.D. in urban design and planning from the University of Washington and his master’s degree from the University of Colorado Denver.
Courses Taught: CET 562: Livable Communities & Design
Karen Wolf
Karen Wolf, FAICP, is an affiliate instructor in the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. She recently retired as a senior policy analyst with King County, Washington, where she spent more than 30 years working on regional land use projects and helping implement the Washington State Growth Management Act, including serving as project manager for the comprehensive plan and for the countrywide planning policies. Her interests include efforts to curb sprawl and focus growth in urban areas, while preserving environmentally sensitive rural areas and resource lands, the application of social justice in regional planning, and advocacy for walkable communities.
She was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners and served 12 years as an elected member of the American Institute of Certified Planners Commission, including one term as president. Wolf holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in urban planning, both from the University of Washington.
Courses Taught: CET 562: Livable Communities & Design
Ed McCormack – Emeritus Director
Ed McCormack is an emeritus research associate professor in the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the emeritus director of the Master of Sustainable Transportation program. He has more than 35 years of experience conducting research regarding the use of technology to improve transportation sustainability, mobility and security.
McCormack focused on researching methods to improve goods delivery in urban areas and helped implement transportation technology projects while working as a chief engineer for the Norwegian national transportation authority. He has led efforts to use trucking industry GPS data to develop roadway network performance for freight and explored the relationship between land use and transportation. He has a master’s degree in civil engineering and a Ph.D. in geography, both from the University of Washington.