March 2024

Grace Whitehouse, E.I. is a Graduate Civil Engineering Student at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. You can reach her via email at gw485@vols.utk.edu and LinkedIn for connections, collaborations, and opportunities.

What drew you to transportation research and what is your current area of study?

I was interested in diving deeper into areas of transportation engineering beyond the classroom setting. I was interested in multimodal transportation and the work of my transportation engineering professor, Dr. Candance Brakewood, so I started doing research under her. My current area of research is women's travel on public transit.

In what ways do you think your research has the potential to impact other people?

I hope this research can help broaden gender-specific knowledge of the variety of transportation needs, and for the conclusions drawn from this study to help develop accurate support and services catered toward women.

Where do you hope this career path can take you?

I hope to provide benefits to transportation engineering and to society by analyzing more accessible and equitable public transit options to meet the needs of women.

What do you find most rewarding about what you study, and how do you think your personal experiences or perspectives have influenced your research in this area?

Throughout involvement in my university's professional organizations, such as Society of Women Engineers and Institute of Transportation Engineers, I've been able to engage with other women in engineering and in the transportation engineering field. When the opportunity for research about women on public transit was presented to me, I felt like I could not pass it up. This area of research is unique since it addresses multiple factors such as safety, design, accessibility, and equity issues. Moreover, on a personal note, I understand and have experienced some of the issues presented as a female rider on public transportation in various locations around the world.

This profile was prepared by AME20 volunteer Dr. Chandra Ward, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.