You’re doing a good service to the field by helping them get established. We need energetic blood!
— Office of the Secretary, United States Department of Transportation
Policy in Motion’s “Career Development” Mentorship Program is designed to mentor youth, college students and emerging professionals with an interest in public policy and sustainability planning into careers in transportation or urban planning. The program leverages Sacramento as a learning ground by engaging Mentees in the firm’s current local/state/federal policy research and transportation planning projects. It is designed as a work exchange where students provide project and research support for hands-on learning in business development and policy implementation, as well as personal mentorship into career networks around California’s Capitol. Aligning with Policy in Motion’s vision for fostering the growth of “PODs” — people-oriented development — this program seeks to mentor budding leaders in the field of sustainable transportation planning and policy.
YOUTH IN MOTION
Jeremy Gray is a senior at the Met Sacramento High School. With the Met, he has worked at several internship sites which have shaped his interest in film making. He collaborated with teens and made a documentary on state health insurance through the state organization California Voices. During the summer of 2011, Jeremy worked on an entry for the Sacramento Film and Music Festival’s 10 x 10 Film Festival. He co-created the film with Noah Damiani, winner of the festival’s Emerging Filmmaker award. For his Senior Thesis Project, Jeremy started a youth-run bicycle collective at the Met Sacramento High School. As Policy in Motion’s Media Intern, he applied his filmmaking skills and interest in sustainable communities towards creating a 40 minute Policy in Motion documentary released August 10, 2012 called Growing Beautiful Communities.
UNDERGRAD STUDENTS IN MOTION
Evelyn Garcia is currently a senior at UC Davis majoring in Community and Regional Development and minoring in Education. Evelyn served on advisory board as a liaison for Redwood City’s downtown revitalization efforts and worked closely with City government officials in hopes of bridging the gap between youth and adults in the community. She mentors independent studies high school students in Sacramento in pursuing higher education and preparing for college admissions through a UC Davis organization called Success Through Educational Mentoring (S.T.E.M.) She is actively involved in her Latina community in promoting professional and educational development while also promoting the advancement of Latinas in higher education to young middle school and high school girls all over the Davis, Woodland, and Sacramento area. Through Policy in Motion she hopes to gain proper guidance and skills in order to develop her interests within community development and urban planning. As a Local Planning Intern for Policy in Motion she will provide support for the Solano County Transportation for Livable Communities Plan Update which focuses on the relationship between transportation and land use through the promotion of smart growth development and sustainable transportation projects in Solano County.
GRADUATE STUDENTS IN MOTION
Amanda Bradshaw is currently completing a dual-degree in Latin American studies and urban planning at Columbia University in New York City. She received a B.A. in economics and a B.A. in international development studies from the University of California, Berkeley. During her undergraduate career, she served as a research assistant for a U.S. Economic Development Administration-sponsored study which assessed labor markets within California’s green economy, as well as a study conducted by the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. As a graduate student, Amanda’s research interests include environmental and transportation planning, especially as they pertain to North and South America. In January 2012 she will begin conducting research in Brazil for her thesis which focuses on Brazilian environmental governance and urban reform. As a Policy Research Intern at Policy in Motion during Summer 2011, Amanda provided research support for the a Caltrans statewide planning project – California Interregional Blueprint – focusing on the implementation of AB 32, SB 375, and SB 391. Additionally, she provided significant editing contributions to Lauren Michele’s new book, “Policy in Motion: Transportation Planning in California after AB 32.” Amanda completing her M.S. research in São Paulo, Brazil where she was comparing the state environmental policy approaches taken in California and São Paulo — Amanda expresses that her Policy in Motion internship has been the most impressive component to her resume reviewers and has recently been accepted as a Ph.D. Candidate at Columbia University.
Brigitte Driller completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from UC Davis in June 2011 and is now working toward her Master’s in Transportation Technology and Policy with the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis. Her educational focus is on bike-ped planning and street design, and she has been involved in numerous research projects — including a before/after evaluation of a planned road diet in Davis and a series of exploratory interviews with children as part of her transportation planning research. Last spring, Brigitte worked for Policy in Motion as a Research Intern, where she investigated challenges and successes in regulating greenhouse gases in the transportation sector as well as looking at the different regulatory frameworks in Oregon and Washington. Brigitte was awarded Policy in Motion’s first “Growing Leaders” college scholarship for graduate interns in February 2012 and will be working with Lauren Michele on research to inform the Department of Public Health’s “Safe Routes to School Technical Assistance Resource Center” and California Cities Counties Schools Partnership on how local policy makers can promote livable communities through transportation planning and funding changes.
EMERGING PROFESSIONALS IN MOTION
Louise Hogerheide completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography, GIS and Planning with a Minor in Environmental Studies from Sacramento State. While at Sacramento State, she did original research on an eventual route of a public hiking trail in the San Joaquin area, specifically between Walnut Grove and Lodi, along the Mokelumne River. While attending Sacramento State she worked as a Trails Planner for the California State Parks’ Planning Section for three years. Louise was an invaluable asset to Policy in Motion from March-July 2011 as the Legislative Communications Intern – providing weekly updates on current California legislation pertaining to sustainable community development and testifying on key legislation during the current session. She had been primarily focused this summer on newsletter communications and the publication of Lauren Michele’s first book, “Policy in Motion: Transportation Planning in California after AB 32.” She hopes to continue her work advocating for biking, hiking, and walking in the Sacramento area and is currently seeking career opportunities.
- MINDY :: Green Business Intern
Melinda (Mindy) Bacharach is a recent graduate from the University of California, Davis with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning. During her time at UC Davis, Mindy studied abroad in Cambridge England and participated in the University of California DC internship program where she interned at Governor Schwarzenegger’s Washington DC Office. She is now looking forward to a new chapter in life where she will utilize her college experiences and education to pursue a career in environmental policy. It is her goal to attend business school in the future with an environmental policy emphasis. As Policy in Motion’s Green Business Intern over Summer 2011, Mindy learned about the financial and structural operations of a small business through her involvement in the Solano County Transportation for Livable Communities Plan Update overseen by the firm’s principal/owner, Lauren Michele. Mindy is now working for the California Department of Transportation Headquarters as a Transportation Planner for the Division of Transportation System Information in the Office of Data Analysis and GIS — she was told that her Policy in Motion recommendation review during the interview process was a critical component in the decision to hire her.
FAMILY IN MOTION
Kai Faust is a 17-year-old junior (and Lauren Michele’s nephew!) at the Met Sacramento — a public charter high school in downtown Sacramento. He served as an intern for TransForm and helped with their “Invest in Transit” campaign, which was created in response to the State’s significant cuts in transit funding. He was selected as one of fifty high school students by the American Public Transit Association to attend a Youth Summit in Washington D.C. this summer to learn more about careers and issues in transit policy. He had a rare opportunity to meet with US Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and shared Policy in Motion’s vision for sustainable communities through transportation policy with the Secretary who told Kai he was “going places.” He was actively involved in school as the Treasurer of his Speech & Debate Team (2009 Regional Tournament Winner), Secretary of the Philosophy Club, Member of Amnesty International, and served on the Leadership Team for creating school policies and events while taking an Honors-level curriculum. Kai is interested in business development, and has made contributions to the family business with his skill set and creativity.