portrait of a woman standing in a workspace

Camille Boggan, a second-year Master of City Planning student at the Weitzman School, has received an Outstanding Student of the Year Award from the U.S. Department of Transportation for her work on public transit.

Boggan is on the Penn team for Mobility21, a National University Transit Center formed to improve the movability of people and goods, and led by Carnegie Mellon University. She has also been a research assistant at the Penn’s Center for Safe Mobility, which is directed by Megan Ryerson, the UPS Chair of Transportation and associate professor of city and regional planning and electrical and systems engineering, and associate dean for research at the Weitzman School.

Outside of her studies and research at Weitzman, Boggan interned with Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability in 2020, and has been actively involved in public transportation advocacy with 5th Square, Philadelphia’s urbanist PAC, since 2019. In 2020, Boggan was recognized in ITS America’s Emerging Leaders Program Global Challenge and by the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) Philadelphia chapter.

Each year, the U.S. DOT honors students from participating University Transportation Centers for their achievements and promise for future contributions to the transportation field. Students of the Year are selected based on “technical merit and research, academic performance, professionalism, and leadership,” according to the announcement.

Boggan is completing a thesis to study the public transit network in Philadelphia from the perspective of female caregivers who rely on transit in order to improve access. After graduation, she says, she is planning to pursue work in the public sector.

Established in 1987, the University Transportation Centers program advances technology and expertise in transportation through education, research, and technology transfer at universities across the country. The Outstanding Student Awards were presented at a January 6 virtual ceremony.