Meet Yurida Ramos, METRANS Transportation Center’s newest student team member. Yurida is responsible for coordinating 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 is currently focusing on the upcoming Boots on the Ground, Flats in the Boardroom panel presentation to be held at the USC Doheny Memorial Library on Wednesday, March 23^rd, 2016, and the Council of University Transportation Centers annual meeting to be held at USC Town and Gown from June 6 – 8, 2016.

Yurida Ramos is a first year Master of Planning student at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at USC. After completing her degree, she hopes to pursue a career in the public sector to improve connectivity through sustainable practices. Yurida grew up in the City of Farmersville located in California’s Central Valley, which has influenced her interest in the urban/rural divide in California and her pursuit of improving connectivity and access to affordable and safe forms of transit and housing for the diverse communities of California. 

Yurida earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley where she was able to better understand the linkages between different stages of national planning.    After graduating, Yurida worked for the Greenlining Institute, a Bay Area nonprofit focused on anti-redlining initiatives to benefit marginalized communities affected by social policies. Her work experience, coupled with having lived in both a rural and urban setting, heavily influenced Yurida’s decision to pursue a Master of Planning, where she can understand the complex challenges of developing strategic sustainability goals.

Outside of school, Yurida enjoys exploring different Los Angeles neighborhoods through public transit adventures and volunteering in local community events that promote community engagement in planning for communities of color.

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].