In celebration of Women’s History Month, CBS Baltimore featured the contributions of a female director at a transportation research center at Morgan State University, one of two historically Black colleges and universities leading federally funded transportation centers nationwide.
Mansoureh Jeihani, Ph.D. is an Urban Mobility & Equity Center professor. She has been a principal investigator for about 50 research grants funded by federal or state agencies totaling over $30 million.
"Not many people know what transportation is about,” Dr. Jeihani told the news channel. “All they know is maybe trains and airplanes and trucks. But it's way more than that," she said.
According to the television interview, Jeihani’s students are researching autonomous vehicles and traffic modeling. She also said that a male-dominated field could sometimes be intimidating.
"In different seminars and conferences, I have been the only woman in the room or one of the very few women," she said. "But I learned I can do it. And usually have to work much harder to show that we can do that."
In another interview with the National Academies Transportation Research Board, she spoke of pride in the work that she and other women of color at Morgan's National Transportation Center have done to support students.
"Education and hands-on experience remain the best ways for women in the field to break barriers," she said.
Last spring, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited Morgan State to meet with students and faculty from the National Transportation Center. The Secretary and U.S. Department of Transportation representatives observed student-led presentations on transportation-related research and discussed transportation infrastructure, equitable change, and federal funding.
The transportation department has invested $1.4 million in Morgan’s Urban Mobility & Equity Center, which researches emergency evacuations, toll highway pricing, transit use, and routes.
"I'm incredibly proud of the meaningful work that I & the other women of color at @NTCMorgan have done to support our students. Education & hands-on experience remains the best ways for women in the field to break barriers." -- #TRBvolunteer Mansoureh Jeihani#WomensHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/XiZ1J0ryed
— TRB (@NASEMTRB) March 2, 2023
