We are pleased to welcome Daisy Villafuerte, METRANS Transportation Center’s newest student team member. Daisy joins us as our Assistant Event Coordinator, and will work closely with Yurida Ramos to host METRANS events, including our research seminars, our practitioner speaker series, our conferences, and field trips, as well as our staff, board, and committee meetings. She will be helping coordinate the Council of University Transportation Centers annual meeting to be held at USC Town and Gown from June 6 – 8, 2016.

Daisy Villafuerte is a first year Master of Planning student at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at USC with a concentration in Sustainable Land Use. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and credits the program will helping her to develop a critical and interdisciplinary perspective of the global economy.  After completing her bachelor’s degree, Daisy worked as a study coordinator at the USC AIDS Clinical Trial Unit where she directed investigative HIV psychosocial studies, provided counseling, and coached patients. Her interest in planning was sparked when she was exposed to questions about healthcare accessibility in both her work and personal life. As she encountered the challenges faced by many community members around health care, she began to understand how a lack of reliable and efficient public transportation, especially in areas like South East Los Angeles, hinders clinical adherence to treatment directives for chronic conditions such as HIV and cancer. “I realized the deep health disparities for Latino and Black communities and the lack of competent healthcare centers in those neighborhoods,” she reflects. “Some patients would need to travel for hours just to get to a doctor's appointment, many times losing their jobs because of absences.”

After graduating, Daisy’s long-term career goal is to open a community wellness center or cafe in South East Los Angeles. She notes, “I would love to create space for community members to share their own knowledge and histories. To learn to build a stronger, healthier, resilient community on their own terms.”

Outside of school, Daisy loves to travel and cook. She also loves reading works by women of color and James Baldwin.

Arpita Sharma

Arpita Sharma is a dual Master of Public Policy and Master of Planning Candidate at the USC Price School. She is interested in issues of health inequities, sustainable land use development and active transportation.  She expects to complete her degrees in May 2017. She can be reached at arpitasharma.net or at [email protected].