About Us

The U.S. DOT Volpe Center's Transportation Planning Division develops and advances multimodal transportation-planning projects and programs at the international, national, state, and local levels, through analysis, research, evaluation and oversight work, and communications.

This Division specializes in support to federal land management agencies, providing expertise to resolve complex multimodal transportation challenges, balancing visitor use and public access with critical environmental and cultural objectives. Our work is multidisciplinary, drawing on expertise in a variety of fields, including transportation planning and engineering, environmental science and policy, acoustics, and modeling.

Our Capabilities

Impartial Investigations and Program Evaluations

• Planning Evaluation and Oversight: Evaluate transportation plans and planning processes to determine consistency with applicable requirements, assess results, and identify opportunities for improvement
• Systems Planning: Analyze and conceptualize transportation system operations (for example, transit), estimate demand, calculate lifecycle capital and operating costs, assess potential incorporation of advanced technologies, and develop financing, budgeting, and implementation strategies
• Performance Measurement: Conduct research on alternative ways to measure the performance and improve the operation of multimodal transportation systems
• Project, Program, and Policy Development and Support:
  • Provide “on-the-ground” technical assistance and enhanced capacity for transportation planning programs at the community and state levels
  • Advance economically sustainable multimodal transportation systems 
• Communications Expertise:
  • Collect, analyze, and visualize data to help partners make informed decisions 
  • Communicate and disseminate lessons learned and best practices to improve transportation planning and decision-making
  • Leverage best practices for facilitating successful internal and public meetings, execute stakeholder outreach and communications campaigns, and accelerate innovative partnerships

Environmental Analysis, Science, and Engineering

• Technology Evaluation and Deployment: Propose and evaluate technology applications, such as artificial intelligence, to enhance the use of transportation facilities and advanced mobility technologies
• Environmental Analysis and Modeling: Resolve environmental challenges through data collection, modeling, and compliance activities
• Transportation Safety Analysis: Develop safety programs and analyze site-specific safety concerns, including congestion assessments 

Meet Our Team

View selected staff biographies.

Anna Biton

Chief
Master of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Bachelor of Science, Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Anna Biton is the chief of the Transportation Planning Division at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center in Cambridge, MA. She has worked at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center since 2008, focusing on the areas of multimodal transportation, safety, policy and program analysis, asset and performance management, and professional capacity building. Biton works across U.S. DOT and with Federal Lands Management Agencies, developing the high-level strategic approaches, as well as providing the day-to-day technical expertise, to implement and evaluate both national and site-specific programs and initiatives.

Biton previously worked as a planner at both the regional and local levels and in environmental policy. Biton holds a BS in environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) and a master’s in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC).

View Anna Biton’s LinkedIn profile and Anna's reports.

Sophie Abo

Policy Analyst
Master of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University
Bachelor of Science in Anthropology: Global Health in the Environment, Washington University in St. Louis

Sophie Abo joined the U.S. DOT Volpe Center's Transportation Planning Division in 2022. As a transportation planner at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, she develops strategies for national policy, conducts research and disseminates information about best practices, and designs solutions for local and regional transportation challenges. Abo works with a range of federal agencies, the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, FHWA, and FTA. Prior to joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, Abo working at the Brookings Institution's Metro Program researching barriers to private investment in resilient infrastructure projects. Before Brookings, she managed the transportation demand management program at a private real-estate developer in Pittsburgh.

View Sophie Abo’s LinkedIn profile.

Jonah Chiarenza

Community Planner
Master of Urban and Environmental Planning, University of Virginia
Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Washington University in St. Louis

Jonah Chiarenza has more than 15 years of experience in public, private, and non-profit planning organizations. As a transportation planner at U.S. DOT Volpe Center, he develops strategies for national policy, conducts research and disseminates information about best practices, and designs solutions for local and regional transportation challenges. Chiarenza works with a range of federal agencies, including FHWA, FTA, U.S. Forest Service, and National Park Service, and works with state DOTs and MPOs, local municipalities, national organizations including TRB and NACTO, and academic and research institutions.

Prior to joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, he served as a senior transportation planner with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) leading the design and implementation of major complete streets projects and managing implementation of San Francisco’s WalkFirst pedestrian safety program in support of Vision Zero. Previous to SFMTA, Chiarenza was an associate with a consulting firm leading transit-oriented development, urban design, and planning policy and implementation projects.

View Jonah Chiarenza’s LinkedIn profile and Jonah's reports.

Moira DeFabrizio

Program Support Specialist
Bachelor of Science in General Studies, Indiana University Bloomington

Moira DeFabrizio joined the U.S. DOT Volpe Center's Environmental Science and Engineering Division in 2015. During her five years with the division, she provided general clerical support and assisted with scheduling meetings and travel, and facilitating contractual agreements between the U.S. DOT Volpe Center and federal sponsors. In 2020, DeFabrizio moved to the Transportation Planning Division to support project-based work for sponsors and project managers. She has extensive experience in private industry, including her previous employment as a receptionist at the Offices of the United States Attorneys and as an office manager at a local law firm.

Eric Englin

Operations Research Analyst
Master of Public Policy, Harvard University
Bachelor of Science in Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Eric Englin is an operations research analyst with expertise in data science and emerging technologies. He currently manages the National Park Service National Capital Region Portfolio, which is focused on improving safety and access, particularly for bicyclist and pedestrians. Englin works with a range of federal agencies, including the Office of the Secretary of Transportation, FHWA, FTA, and National Park Service, and he works with other non-federal sponsors including the Santos Foundation, the City of Boston, and other state and local municipalities, and NACTO. Englin’s focus includes integrating emerging technologies and data into transportation planning and operations.

He is also an AmeriCorps VISTA alum, having served as Data Coordinator in Honolulu, Hawaii to support responses to homelessness.

View Eric Englin's LinkedIn profile and Eric's reports.

Mary Geschwindt, AICP

Community Planner
Master of Urban Planning, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Bachelor of Science in Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Mary Geschwindt, community planner, joined the U.S. DOT Volpe Center through the Pathways Program in 2021. She supports transportation planning and design efforts with the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management, as well as research initiatives with the FHWA Office of Human Environment. Recent accomplishments include advancing innovative ways to pilot ridehailing and micromobility solutions in National Parks, research to realize the potential of trails as transportation, and conceptual designs reimagining the transportation assets at Forest Service and National Park Service sites. Prior to joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, Geschwindt worked in the private sector as an architectural designer, contributing to designs and master plans for public infrastructure projects in New York City. In addition to her design and planning experience, her research focuses on the intersection between labor and transportation in the gig economy.

View Mary Geschwindt’s LinkedIn profile.

Amalia Holub

Community Planner
Master of City Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Barnard College, Columbia University

Amalia Holub is a community planner with more than a dozen years of transportation planning and policy expertise. She leads U.S. DOT Volpe Center support to the National Park Service’s Park Planning, Facilities, and Lands Directorate, Park Facility Management Division, and Pacific West Region. These portfolios draw on a team of more than 80 multidisciplinary staff from across the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, working on dozens of active projects ranging from national transportation policy and funding strategies to site-specific emerging mobility pilots and electric vehicle transition. Holub has also overseen work with FHWA and the Office of the Secretary on topics including safety, bicycle/pedestrian connectivity, and micromobility. Prior to joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, her career included work in state government, an international sustainable transportation non-profit in Argentina, and the private sector.

View Amalia Holub’s LinkedIn profile.

Larissa Ireland

Policy Analyst
Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Analysis and Policy, Boston University

Larissa Ireland has worked as a policy analyst at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center since 2020. Her work supports the National Park Service, FHWA, U.S. Forest Service, DOT Office of the Secretary, and other federal agencies. Ireland’s work focuses on public lands transit and transportation planning, including accessibility to and within parks, fleet electrification, and safety, and she has supported research and program development on virtual public involvement, planning and data sharing partnerships, travel and tourism, and more. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Analysis and Policy from Boston University.

View Larissa Ireland’s LinkedIn profile.

Kaite Justice

Community Planner
Master of Sustainable Transportation, University of Washington
Bachelor of Arts in International Political Economy, The College of Idaho

Kaite Justice is a transportation planner with an expertise in transit service planning, access in planning, community engagement, and intelligent transportation systems. She oversees the U.S. DOT Volpe Center’s portfolios for National Park Service Alaska Region and FHWA Office of Federal Lands Highway Western Division. She also supports transit and alternative transportation planning for National Park Service regional offices and U.S. Forest Service. Before joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, Justice worked for seven years as a program director and transportation planner for a regional public transportation authority in the Boise, Idaho region.

Kristine Keeney

Community Planner
Master of Urban Planning, Tufts University
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science & International Affairs, American University

Kristine Keeney is a community planner in the Transportation Planning Division at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center in Cambridge, MA. She has over a decade of experience in transportation planning, specializing in active transportation and multimodal infrastructure, complete streets, project development and management, geospatial mapping (GIS), and transportation demand management (TDM). Keeney works closely with the Office of the Secretary, FHWA, and federal land management agencies including U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Park Service on developing high-level strategic capital planning and asset management approaches for active transportation and trail infrastructure, grant technical assistance, emerging and electric (EV) micromobility research, and comprehensive trails planning. Her current work focuses on supporting land management agencies and communities to expand active transportation and trail infrastructure to increase safety and accessibility for people of all ages and abilities.

Prior to coming to the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, Keeney worked as a transportation and community planner at both the regional and local levels with the non-profit East Coast Greenway Alliance (Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island), Mad River Valley Planning District (Waitsfield, Warren, and Fayston, VT), and City of Portland, Maine. She holds a BA in political science and international affairs from American University (Washington, D.C.) and master’s in urban planning from Tufts University’s (Medford, MA) Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Program (UEP).

View Kristine Keeney's LinkedIn profile.

David Koch, AICP

Community Planner
Master of City and Regional Planning, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Bachelor of Arts in English, Dickinson College

David Koch is a community planner with more than 11 years of experience in transportation planning, project management, transit administration and operations, and regional coordination. He joined the U.S. DOT Volpe Center in 2024, where he supports transit and alternative transportation planning projects for the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, FHWA, and other sponsors. Before joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, Koch was with WSP, supporting transit agencies. Prior to WSP, he served in several transit planning roles with public agencies in the Washington, D.C. region, including the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT).

View David Koch’s LinkedIn profile.

Michael Littman, PE

Transportation Engineer
Masters of Science, Transportation Engineering, Northeastern University
Bachelors of Science, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University

Michael Littman, PE is a transportation engineer and joined the U.S. DOT Volpe Center in 2021 with about ten years of experience in private consulting. He works on a variety of transportation planning, safety, and analysis projects primarily within the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and FHWA. Littman co-manages the NPS National Capital Region portfolio to conduce transportation studies while navigating complex, multi-jurisdictional, multi-disciplinary, transportation projects within the region. He also participates in many of the U.S. DOT Volpe Center grant review programs through FHWA serving as a subject matter expert reviewing technical grants under the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant and the Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grant.

View Michael Littman’s LinkedIn profile.

Kevin McCoy

Community Planner
Master of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan
Bachelor of Music Education, University of Michigan

Kevin McCoy has more than 13 years’ experience in transportation planning policy analysis, research, project management, and innovation. As a transportation planner at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, he leads transportation planning research and oversight projects for FHWA, FTA, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, the Department of Agriculture, and the National Park Service (NPS). McCoy has recently led multi-year research and capacity building efforts on advancing the transportation planning process, virtual public involvement, the importance of highways to U.S. agriculture, and incorporating shared mobility service into metropolitan and statewide transportation planning. He led the development of the NPS National Transportation Strategy and numerous NPS park-level transportation planning efforts focused on topics such as planning for emerging mobility pilots and comprehensive long-term transportation planning. McCoy is a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Standing Committee on Transportation Planning Policy and Processes and has worked at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center since 2011.

Benjamin Rasmussen

Public Lands Team Lead
Master of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Bachelor of Arts in International Relations/Political Science, Carleton College

Ben Rasmussen is a community planner with extensive expertise in transportation planning in public lands including congestion mitigation, access planning, alternative transportation feasibility and evaluation, comprehensive recreation planning, stakeholder engagement, and resiliency planning. In addition to managing portfolios for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service Midwest Region, and White River National Forest, he has also worked with numerous local, regional, and state transportation planning agencies. Before joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, Rasmussen worked as a senior program officer for an international environmental non-profit organization and as a transportation planner for a metropolitan planning organization. He is a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Transportation Needs in National Parks and Public Lands Committee and serves as the Committee’s Research Coordinator.

Laura Richards

Community Planner
Master of Community Planning, University of Maryland
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, The Ohio State University

Laura Richards is a community planner with more than eleven years of transportation planning, analysis, and policy expertise. She supports the U.S. DOT Volpe Center support to the National Park Service’s Park Planning, Facilities, and Lands Directorate, Park Facility Management Division, and the Bureau of Land Management portfolio. These portfolios involve working on several active projects ranging from grant technical assistance, safety initiatives, policy and regulation development and updates, congestion management, and transit electrification. Richards has also supported work with FHWA and the Office of the Secretary on freight projects and topics.

Prior to joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, she served as a senior associate with Cambridge Systematics, leading a variety of transportation projects across the country including curb management, freight planning, safety studies, and general transportation planning and performance measure development. Richards also supported the Transportation Improvement Process with Eastern Federal Lands and managed the freight program at District Department of Transportation.

Hoamy Tran

Community Planner
Bachelor of Arts in Communication Culture and Political Science, Clark University

Hoamy Tran is a transportation planner with expertise in policy analysis, local and regional planning, Tribal transportation planning, complete streets networks, community engagement, and grant preparation and administration. She manages the National Park Service Southeast Region Portfolio and works with a range of federal agencies, including the Office of the Secretary of Transportation, FHWA, FTA, and U.S. Forest Service. Prior to joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, Tran was a community development and transportation planner at the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission where she provided technical assistance to 40 communities in southern Worcester County.

View Hoamy Tran's LinkedIn profile.