On Wednesday, February 10th, The Los Angeles Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS-LA) held its first event of 2015, the WTSLA Metro Planning Update Luncheon, featuring Los Angeles Metro Executive Director of Countywide Planning, Martha Welbourne.  Among the audience of nearly 300 were fourteen USC students, their attendance made possible by the generous sponsorship of AECOM, the WTS LA Board, USC Viterbi Vice Dean James Moore, and former Los Angeles Unified School District Administrator Emilie Gino.  The students, who represented both the USC Price School of Public Policy and Viterbi School of Engineering, enjoyed both the presentation and the valuable networking opportunities. “I find the event in general to be an indispensable networking opportunity”, said Cassandra Gogreve, a Master of Planning student from Price School of Public Policy, currently interning at Metro in System Wide Planning. “I enjoyed seeing all the different stakeholders that are involved in the Metro projects all in the same room”, she added.

Welborne oversees the long-range future of transportation in Los Angeles County, which includes the design and delivery of the twelve Measure R transit corridors, the Union Station Master Plan, and the promotion of sustainability and active transportation, and shared the many projects Metro has in store for 2015 and the decades which follow. 

“I liked it very much”, said USC transportation engineering graduate student, Natalie Chunfan Man. “Martha Welborne is a very respective transportation planner; and the topic is based on the long-range future of transportation, which interests me since I’ve learned about Measure R, the Union Station Master Plan and other policies in class. For me, it is a combination of theorems and real life.” Tess Thorman, a USC graduate level public policy student found it “interesting to hear about what people's ideas are, so you have a sense of what is considered possible in the professional and academic world.”

For more information about this event or WTS-LA, please visit:  http://www.wtsinternational.org/losangeles//events/wtsla-metro-planning-...