Caroline Gao is a Research Assistant for the Center. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in International Commerce and Policy at George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. Her study interests are in normalizing the U.S. – China relations, global trade, and international development. Caroline received her B.S. in Public Policy with a concentration in Economic Development and Planning from Georgia State University. She focused her senior research project on identifying Atlanta’s highway congestion problem and suggesting solutions to help reduce traffic in the city.
Morghan Transue was the Center’s academic writer and editor. As a former doctoral student at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government, her research interests included technology diffusion, energy policy diffusion, and infrastructure resilience, with particular focus on the US electricity system. She received her B.S. in Biological and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and her Masters of Public Policy from the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
Samuel Heller is an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Center for the Spring 2021 semester. Samuel is a senior undergraduate student at George Mason University’s Honors College, with a major in Government and International Policy and a minor in Economics. He has research experience with George Mason University, working on a project in summer 2020 titled Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults. He also worked on three political campaigns on the national, state, and local levels. Samuel grew up on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and has lived in the commonwealth for most of his life.
Daniel Grimaldi was a Graduate Research Assistant at the Center and a first-year doctoral student at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. Before joining Schar School doctoral program, Daniel worked for the Brazilian Government for almost nine years, first as a researcher at the Brazilian Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), and then as an economist at the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). As the leading impact evaluator of BNDES, he was responsible for structuring the institution’s M&E system and for developing several impact evaluations for its projects and policies. His main research interests are in credit policies and impact evaluation methods. He holds B.A in Economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of São Paulo.
Lauren N. McCarthy was the Program Manager and Researcher for the Center, and a doctoral candidate at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. Lauren left the Center to take a position with the Shared-Use Mobility Center in Los Angeles while she completes her dissertation. Her research interests include micro-mobility and the policy process, innovation, Sustainable Smart Cities, emerging technologies, and technological diffusion. She has contributed her knowledge on Smart Cities and transportation to various organizations, including United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Niskanen Center, The American Conservative Magazine, NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association. She was a 2019 Google Public Policy Fellow. She received her B.S. in Business Administration and M.A. in Geography from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Dr. Lisardo Bolaños is a PhD graduate from George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. He was a Graduate Research Assistant at the Center from 2014-2019. His research interests include industrial policy, labor policies, and transaction cost economics. He was a Fulbright scholar from 2009-2011. He was a 2019 recipient of the Provost’s Dissertation Completion Grant. Dissertation Completion Grant. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala. He holds a Master in Public Policy degree from the University of Maryland.
Victor Aragones was a Graduate Research Affiliate in the Center. He is also a doctoral student at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. His research interests include public-private partnerships and transportation economics. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Economics and a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Texas at El Paso.
Motoki Murayama was a visiting scholar in the Center for Transportation Public-Private Partnership Policy from 2016-2019. He is from NEXCO-Central, a Japanese major expressway company, and as a representative of the company, conducts research at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. NEXCO-Central is seeking opportunities to enter and contribute to the P3 market in North America by using its technological capabilities and experience. Therefore, Moto is interested in US P3 policy, and the demands and needs of P3 players. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Australian National University.
Hyun Ju (Monica) Kim was a Graduate Research Associate at the Center. She is a doctoral candidate at George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. Her research interests include safety net programs, gender equality, and household decision-making models. Prior to joining the Schar School doctoral program, she worked at US-Korea Institute at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. She assisted research on Official Development Assistance policy and P3 policy in South Korea. She holds M.A. in Public Policy from George Mason University and B.A. in Korean History from Korea University.
Eric Childress was a Graduate Research Associate in the Center from 2018-2019. He is Public Policy Ph.D. student at the Schar School of Policy and Government. His research interests include international development, international trade, financialization, and public finance. Before coming to the Schar School, Eric served as a proposal manager for various international development firms. He earned his M.A. in International Commerce and Policy at the Schar School in 2016, and a B.A. in History from Ferrum College in 2012.
Vinh Mai was a Center Research Associate while studying Economics in the George Mason Honors College. He is now a graduate student at University College London. Before starting his college experience he was the 2014 CATS Academy Boston High School Valedictorian. He has strong ties to highway investment and construction in his native country, Vietnam to include serving as an intern for the Planning, Land Acquisition and Social Department for the Noi Bai-Lao Expressway Project. He is very interested in US highway policies, infrastructure financing, transportation policy, public finance, public-private partnerships, and various technologies and innovations used in operation, maintenance and construction.
Susan A. Woods served as the Administrative Support Manager for the Center until November 2016 when she became the Office Manager for the George Mason University Department of History and Art History. Sue received her MS in Project Management from George Washington University and earned a BS in biology from Clarkson University (with distinction). From 1993-1999 she served in the U.S. Air Force as an aerospace physiologist supporting aircrew life support and full-pressure suit training for U-2 pilots. As chief of Research Chamber Operations at Brooks Air Force Base she managed air-pressure chamber operations and worked with researchers on protocol design. From 1999 until 2010 Sue was a stay-at-home mom and Air Force spouse with stints in Ft. Meade, Ramstein, Germany, Augusta, Georgia, and Fayetteville, NC, and was an active volunteer in community schools and life on base.
Dr. Jeong Yun (“JK”) Kweun served as a Graduate Research Associate in the Center while she was a PhD candidate at George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. JK received her PhD in 2017. She is currently a Program Manager at VDOT’s Office of Public-Private Partnerships. Her research interests include travel demand analysis of toll roads, infrastructure financing, public-private partnerships, evidence based policy and governance and institutional impacts. She was an International Road Federation (IRF) Fellow. She received her B.A. in International Studies and Master of International Studies from Ewha Womans University, South Korea.
Dr. Yang (Chloe) Yang was a Graduate Research Affiliate in the Center. She was a doctoral student at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. Her research interests include public-private partnerships, program evaluation, and performance management. She received her B.S. in Financial Management from Renmin University of China and her Master of Public Administration from George Mason University.
Jenny Henderson served as the Administrative Support Manager from its founding until March 2014 when her family moved from the Washington region.
Lawrence Heller is a former Research Associate in the Center. He studied in George Mason University’s Transportation Policy, Operations, and Logistics (TPOL) Master’s program. His background is in non-profit fundraising, but had long-held interest in transportation infrastructure brought him to the program. Lawrence holds a B.S. in Political Science from SUNY Oneonta and an M.P.P from George Mason University.
Nathan Dorfman collaborated with the Center through George Mason University’s Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, under the mentorship of Professor Jonathan Gifford. He contributed to a case study on Norfolk Southern’s Heartland Corridor and researched Northern Virginia’s transit-oriented development. Dorfman was a Master’s of Public Administration candidate at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) where he majored in urban & regional affairs with a minor in public management, and worked as a graduate assistant with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Metropolitan Studies.
Meredith Jackson Morgan was a Graduate Research Associate in the Center and a Ph.D. student at the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil Environment and Infrastructure Engineering in the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University. She worked as a graduate teaching assistant and research assistant working under Dr. Shanjiang Zhu. Her research interests include modeling public-private partnerships and using connected vehicles data for transportation system optimization and near time travel-time forecasting. She received her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Cornell University and her Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
John Gudgel was a Graduate Research Associate in the Center while a third year Ph.D. student with interests in cybersecurity, Internet policy, eCommerce, transportation, and global commons issues (including Antarctica, space and global spectrum allocation). He has nearly 20 years of experience with technology companies and has frequently presented technical papers at national conferences. He is a member of the Internet Society and the Internet Governance Forum USA. He holds a B.S. in Geological Engineering, an M.S. in Telecommunications, and an M.S. in eCommerce.
Dr. Kyung Min Lee is a Ph.D. graduate from the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. His research interests include Labor Policy, Health Policy, Applied Micro-Econometrics, and Program Evaluation. Before joining the Ph.D. program, he worked in the Korea Institute of Finance, Seoul, Republic of Korea. He conducted research for the International & Macroeconomic Finance Division on Korea’s experience of curbing inflation during industrialization and on the Tri-party Repurchase Agreement Infrastructure Reform. He received a B.A. in Business Administration from Kwangwoon University in 2009 and a Master of Public Policy degree from George Mason University.
Dr. Elle Yiying Wang obtained her Ph.D. from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University in 2018 and was a visiting student at Columbia University. She was awarded a Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship by the Social Science Research Council in 2013. Her research areas include African politics, China-Africa relations, and social identities and networks. She worked as a consultant at the UN and presented papers at major conferences including APPAM, the SSRC/Yale Conference on China-Africa relations, the 2013 Innovative Financing Conference, and she co-authored a journal article on public-private partnership practices in the US rail transit system (forthcoming). She holds a MPP degree from Pepperdine University and BA in Journalism from Tongji University (Shanghai). She speaks Mandarin, English, and basic French.
Dr. Venkataramana Yanamandra graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (honors) in Economics from Delhi University, Delhi, India in 2000. She received her Master of Arts in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2002. She was employed for 3.5 years as a researcher at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi after which she worked for Deloitte Touche and Tohmatsu in their Research Division. She briefly worked as a manager at the Fixed Income Group of of Infosys BPO in 2008. She graduated in 2014 with her Ph.D. from the Schar School of Policy and Government. She worked as a Graduate Research Assistant while pursuing her Ph.D.
Dr. Tameka Porter earned her Ph.D. in 2015 from the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. Her area of study is the efficacy of affirmative action programs in the most selective American post-secondary institutions. Tameka received her Bachelor of Science at the University of South Carolina and Master of Arts at American University.
Chang Kwon was a graduate research assistant at the GMU Center for Transportation Policy from August 2011 to May 2013. He worked on P3 case study projects and wrote the Virginia Mid-Town Tunnel and Florida I-595 Projects reports. Prior to working at GMU, he worked for the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS. He is primarily interested in research about the impact of government activities on social and individual well-being. Chang Kwon holds a B.A. in Economics and Sociology from the University of Virginia and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from Georgetown University.
The following Center alumni contributed to research and other projects:
- Eun-Jung Park