Catherine L. Ross is an American educator and author. She is the Harry West Professor of City and Regional Planning, the director of the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, and the deputy director of the Center for Transportation System Productivity and Management at

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

Early life and education

Ross was born and raised

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. In 1971, she completed a bachelor's degree at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in As ...

, and in 1973 completed a master's degree in regional planning at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. In 1979, she completed a doctorate in city and regional planning at Cornell University. She completed post-doctorate work at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Career

In 1976, Ross began teaching at Georgia Tech as an assistant professor, and became a full professor in 1990. In 1999, she became the first executive director of the

Georgia Regional Transportation Authority The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA, "Greta") is a government agency in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was set up under former governor of Georgia Roy Barnes, in order to address mobility, air quality and land use and how they rela ...

and served in this role for four years. She then became the director of the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development at the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech in 2003. Ross was a member of the Executive Committee of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

Transportation Research Board The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is a division of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, formerly the National Research Council of the United States, which serves as an independent adviser to the President of the Unite ...

, and on the board of the Eno Foundation and the

Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA, ) is the principal public transport operator in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit ...

. She was a senior policy advisor for the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences and was president of the National Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. In July 2009, she was an advisor to the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

on the creation of the White House Office of Urban Affairs. At Georgia Tech, she is the Harry West Professor of City and Regional Planning, the director of the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, and the deputy director of the Center for Transportation System Productivity and Management. She is also a member of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).

Works

Ross is the editor of ''Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness'' (2009) and co-editor of ''The Inner City: Urban Poverty and Economic Development in the Next Century'' (1997). She is a co-author of ''Health Impact Assessment in the United States'' (2014).

Personal life

Ross is married to Dr.

Thomas Boston Thomas Boston (17 March 167620 May 1732) was a Scottish Presbyterian church leader, theologian and philosopher. Boston was successively schoolmaster at Glencairn, and minister of Simprin in Berwickshire, and Ettrick in Selkirkshire. In additio ...

. They have two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Catherine L. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Georgia Tech faculty Kent State University alumni Cornell University alumni 21st-century African-American educators 21st-century American educators 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics 20th-century American educators 21st-century American women writers