Credit: UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
One of UCLA’s newest transportation professors is a familiar face.
Regan Patterson, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, joined the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering this fall, where she previously earned her bachelor’s degree. Patterson, whose research focuses on sustainable transportation, air quality, and environmental justice, is part of the school’s Mentor Professor Program, an initiative designed to hire faculty who will also provide mentorship to students from underrepresented and underserved populations.
Patterson first conducted research on air quality as an undergraduate chemical engineering student. And, though she began to study the impacts of transportation policies on air quality and environmental justice as a graduate student at UC Berkeley, it was not until her recent two-year fellowship with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation that her work became centered around transportation equity.