We are pleased to introduce the Metropolitan Institute’s 2012 – 2013 Visiting Fellows. The Fellows bring a variety of research expertise and professional connectivity to the Metropolitan Institute’s portfolio.

Mariia Zimmerman is a national leader on transportation and development issues. With over 15 years of federal experience, most recently with HUD, Ms. Zimmerman held senior leadership positions with the federal government, the national Center for Transit-Oriented Development, and on Capitol Hill. Ms. Zimmerman was a featured participant in the Institute’s highly successful 2010 Sustainability Research Symposium, which brought together officials from HUD, EPA, and DOT to exchange ideas with academics across the planning disciplines.

Michelle Cullen is a PhD candidate from the London School of Economics focusing on the one of the planning field’s hottest topics—intelligent or smart cities. Michelle also works on different smart city projects as part of her employment with IBM. She will be engaging Virginia Tech scholars and students on her dissertation work on smart city initiatives in Portland, Oregon and Dubuque, Iowa.

Kimberley Hodgson is alum of our MURP program here in Alexandria who has distinguished herself as a leading expert in the emerging field of food systems planing. By also holding a Masters Degree in Food Policy from Tufts, Kim is ideally suited to understanding the planning, public health, and food systems connections. Kim is now in Vancouver, BC, working on a variety of national research studies on planning for resilient food systems and sustainability planning.

Please learn more about these amazing new collaborators here.