Paula Dowell to Expand Cambridge Systematics’ National Economics Group (June 11, 2009)
Cambridge Systematics, Inc. is pleased to announce that Paula E. Dowell, Ph.D. recently joined us as a Senior Associate and Director of our National Transportation Economics Group. Dr. Dowell has more than 15 years of experience in fiscal and economic policy and analysis, including seven years of experience focused on transportation economics and freight transportation planning. She will be based in our Atlanta, GA office.
Prior to joining Cambridge Systematics, Dr. Dowell served as Vice President and the National Practice Leader for Economics and Freight at Wilbur Smith Associates. Previously, she served as a Post Doctorate Research Associate for the Center of Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Dowell has worked with more than 30 states as well as numerous international locations, including Mexico, Canada, Europe, India, and Africa. She also is a National Highway Institute (NHI)-certified trainer and has six years of classroom instruction/curriculum development experience.
Dr. Dowell’s areas of expertise include transportation economics, freight transportation planning, and multi-jurisdictional planning. She is considered one of the nation’s leading transportation economists and has led the development of numerous tools to assist clients in assessing the economic impacts and benefits/costs associated with multimodal transportation investments. Among her recent achievements in transportation economics, Dr. Dowell managed a benefit/cost analysis and the economic and fiscal impact modeling for a six-region, multimodal transportation investment plan in Ohio. The study resulted in developing tools for assessing the local tax and expenditure impacts arising from transportation investments for use by local and regional governments. For the Michigan Department of Transportation (DOT), Dr. Dowell developed an economic impact estimation tool to evaluate both programmatic and project specific investments.
Dr. Dowell has extensive experience managing multimodal freight planning studies, including the Atlanta Regional Freight Mobility Study, which was awarded the National Award for Excellence in Planning by the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) in 2008. Other notable freight planning projects that Dr. Dowell has managed include the Mexico Multimodal Freight Corridor Master Plan, the Mississippi Statewide Freight Master Plan, and the El Paso Bi-National Border Improvement Plan.
Dr. Dowell also is a recognized leader in multimodal, multi-jurisdictional planning. Her combination of expertise brings an integrated transportation planning and economic development perspective to these unique planning projects. Her project experience in this area includes managing the Northeast CanAm Connections Study, which examined the adequacy of East-West transportation connections across a broad region; the multi-state Continental 1 Corridor Study, which examined the economic feasibility of investing in the corridor extending from Buffalo, New York to Miami, Florida; the National I-10 Freight Corridor Study, which spans from California to Florida; the Appalachian Region Intermodal Opportunities Study; and the second phase of the 15-state Latin American Trade and Transportation Study (LATTS).
Dr. Dowell received both a Doctorate degree and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from East Tennessee State University. She can be contacted via e-mail at pdowell@camsys.com or by telephone at (404) 443-3200.
For additional information, contact Kate Malionek.