Megan S. Ryerson, PhD is Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the Weitzman School of Design. She holds the UPS Foundation Chaired Professorship in Transportation, with a primary appointment in City and Regional Planning and a secondary appointment in Electrical and Systems Engineering. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and a co-PI of the Center for Air Transportation Systems Resilience (CATRes).
Dr. Ryerson develops new and practical analytical approaches to center injury prevention, equity, accessibility, and resilience into transportation planning methods. Her research has been published in injury prevention journals and methodological transportation journals, and has been the subject of numerous media reports in outlets as diverse as Bloomberg CityLab, The Hill, Fast Company, and Vogue Japan.
Her research is supported by the National Science Foundation, Department of Transportation, NASA, and other transportation agencies and research organizations. Dr. Ryerson formerly served as Associate Dean for Research at the Weitzman School of Design, where she oversaw a 300% increase in awarded grants during her five-year tenure. She is a committed educator dedicated to the advancement of women in transportation. She was named “Woman of the Year” by the Women’s Transportation Seminar-Philadelphia Chapter for her commitment to education. She earned her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
