Faculty
The Master of Sustainable Transportation program features expert UW faculty along with credentialed instructors who work in the field.
Ed McCormack – Director
Ed McCormack is a research associate professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, an adjunct research associate professor in the Department of Urban Design & Planning, and the director of the Master of Sustainable Transportation program. He has more than 30 years of experience working on transportation issues and conducting research regarding the use of technology to improve transportation sustainability, mobility and security. He is currently focusing on researching methods to improve goods delivery in urban areas.
McCormack has also helped implement transportation technology projects in one of the most sustainable countries in the world, 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, explored the relationship between land use and transportation, and developed transportation applications for geographic information systems. He has a master's in civil engineering and a Ph.D. in geography, both from the University of Washington.
Courses Taught: CET 564: Sustainable Transportation From a Systems Perspective, Capstone Project
Ryan Avery
Ryan Avery is a geographic information systems (GIS) specialist at WSP USA where he works with large data sets to improve our understanding of multimodal transport systems. He’s an expert in GIS, data analysis and management with years of experience working with massive transportation data sets, such as tolling data and transit fare card data. He previously worked as a senior research engineer at the Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC) at the University of Washington, and prior to that as a consultant planner and data scientist where he gained 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. 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 also 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 is a senior vice president and chief scientist for transportation policy and planning at Sonoma Technology. He 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 Air Quality (2017-2020) and Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation (2020-2023) Committees. 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. 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 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
Mark Hallenbeck
Mark Hallenbeck is the director of the Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC) at the University of Washington. He has been with TRAC for about 35 years and frequently teaches urban transportation planning and intelligent transportation systems in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Much of Hallenbeck’s research involves data that describe transportation system use and performance. He works 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 works on projects ranging from the analysis of how dynamic pricing on the I-405 express lanes impacts user behavior to the use of electronic transit fare card 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
Don MacKenzie
Don MacKenzie is an associate professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. 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. His research areas include infrastructure and smart cities, vehicle electrification, new mobility services, and the impacts of vehicle automation. MacKenzie holds a Ph.D. in engineering systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Courses Taught: Research Methods and CET 565: Climate Change & Energy
Matt Palm
Matt Palm is the research coordinator for the Mobilizing Justice Partnership at the University of Toronto Scarborough. The geographic scope of his previous work includes Australia, Canada and the United States. He has worked for the state of California and the University of Melbourne, Australia, and was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Geography & Planning at the University of Toronto. Palm's past research experience and published works span the topics of transportation planning and housing policy. His current research focuses on automated vehicles and social equity. He has a master’s in public policy from Oregon State University and Ph.D. in geography from the University of California, Davis.
Courses Taught: CET 566: Environmental Analysis & Assessment
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 from the University of Colorado Denver.
Courses Taught: CET 562: Livable Communities & Design
Preston Schiller
Preston Schiller is an affiliate professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and a visiting lecturer in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Queen’s University. His research focuses on transportation planning with an emphasis on walking, cycling and transit. He has taught courses on environmental issues, transportation planning and the history and politics of planning at Western Washington University. Schiller’s background also includes working as a hands-on transit researcher and planner. Schiller is the co-author of "An Introduction to Sustainable Transportation: Policy, Planning and Implementation." He earned a Ph.D. in sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Courses Taught: CET 569: Policy Development, Finance & Sustainable Transportation
Karen Wolf
Karen Wolf, FAICP, is an affiliate instructor in the 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. In 2016, she was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners. She served 8 years as an elected member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Commission and is now the AICP President-elect. Wolf holds a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Washington.
Courses Taught: CET 562: Livable Communities & Design