By Arpita Sharma, MPP/MPL 2017

James Moore, METRANS Researcher and Vice Dean for Academic Programs at the Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, will receive the Secretary Ray LaHood Award from the WTS Los Angeles Area Chapter Board of Directors at their Annual Scholarship & Awards Dinner on Thursday, November 5th, 2015.  This award, newly launched this year, is named for former USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood, and is given to men who have been key to WTS International’s efforts to attract, retain, and advance women in transportation.

WTS Los Angeles is one of the largest chapters of WTS (Women’s Transportation Seminar), an international organization dedicated to the advancement of women in the field of transportation.  Local members and supporters cover a variety of transportation modes and disciplines including public transportation agency general managers and executive directors, Fortune 500 CEOs, university faculty and students, legislators and journalists.

METRANS Assistant Director, Victoria Deguzman, and former WTS Los Angeles President, Alexandra Spencer nominated Moore.  In their nomination, they note that Moore’s “commitment to facilitating professional and academic opportunities for women and minorities contribute significantly to promoting diversity along with multi-cultural awareness within the transportation industry and at the University level, and has advanced the reputation and credibility of women in transportation.  [This] as well as … his personal support of WTS, makes [him] a leader in the transportation sector.  James Moore is a staunch supporter of USC’s Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) Program,” a university initiative to increase the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty, post-doctoral, and doctoral positions for women.  He has been “personally central to the recruitment of the first female academic department chair in the Viterbi School of Engineering,” they add.

When asked about receiving the award, Professor Moore remarked, “We are all better off when women are positioned to compete for professional success because it means there are more minds at the table.  The more people we have vying for leadership positions, the better quality of the work that the leaders we identify are going to produce.  I’m fortunate to be in the USC Viterbi School, in addition to being the USC Price School, because Viterbi’s freshmen class is 38% female, which is twice the national average for engineering” he added.  “We’ll won’t begin to feel content until we are at parity.  By supporting the interests and agenda of the Viterbi School, I’m deliberately investing in an organization that is invested in the professional success of women.  USC is a place that is particularly strong with respect to master’s level education,” Moore shared.  “People who intend to become accomplished professionals attend this institution to gain valuable knowledge and a professional network.  There is an obligation for the university to serve as a conduit between the students and the professions.”

There is no question that Moore himself is investing in the students as well.  “For almost two decades, James Moore has shepherded students—as many as 20 at a time—to WTS Los Angeles programs,” said Deguzman and Spencer.  “His efforts reach graduate and undergraduate, male and female, domestic and international students across multiple schools at USC, but especially the USC Viterbi, Price, and Marshall Schools.  He has arranged for the students’ event and membership fees (both personally and through other sponsors), giving WTS-LA one of the highest historic rates of student memberships.”

Biography

Dr. Moore is Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Public Policy and Management; and Civil Engineering at USC.  He received his BS degrees in Industrial Engineering and in Urban Planning in 1981 from Northwestern University.  He received his MS degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University in 1982, his Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Northwestern in 1983, and his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford in 1986.  He specializes in transportation engineering, transportation systems, and other infrastructure systems.  He joined Northwestern University's Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty in 1986, and joined USC in 1988.  He is director of the Transportation Engineering program in the Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Vice Dean for Academic Programs in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.  He is national president of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the leading professional society for industrial and systems engineering professionals.  Professor Moore conducts fundamental and applied research on the engineering economic aspects of large-scale transportation and land use systems.  His research interests include risk management of infrastructure networks subject to natural hazards and terrorist threats; economic impact modeling; transportation network performance and control; large scale computational models of metropolitan land use/transport systems, especially in California; evaluation of new technologies; and infrastructure investment and pricing policies.  He has been published extensively in transportation planning and engineering literature.

Moore can be reached at:

James Elliott Moore II
Vice Dean for Academic Programs
Viterbi School of Engineering
University of Southern California
3650 McClintock Ave. 200M
Los Angeles, CA 90089-1450

Arpita Sharma

Arpita Sharma is a dual Master of Public Policy and Master of Planning Candidate at the USC Price School.  She is interested in issues of health inequities, sustainable land use development and active transportation.  She expects to complete her degrees in May 2017.  She can be reached at arpitasharma.net or at [email protected].