As a vice president and co-service area manager of the economic analysis and strategy group within WSP’s advisory management consulting practice, I strive to bring all my experiences together, working with my team to help build livable and resilient communities.
To the extent possible, we advocate for inclusive and equitable infrastructure investment options through rigorous economic analyses. We also practice what we preach outside of work. We bike, walk and take transit; we mentor and volunteer with community organizations; and we actively engage in industry organizations for research and implementation, because we all want to leave this world better than it is now.
My background is in applied mathematics and economics, and the focus of my doctoral dissertation was on the interconnectedness of urban infrastructure and home prices, a topic that I continue to conduct research on to this day.
My interest in all of this is deeply rooted in my childhood in Hong Kong. Growing up, I was always fascinated by the network efficiency of the city’s public transportation system and how the communities around it thrived.
At WSP, one signature feature of our work is applying human-centered considerations in all of our analyses. We want to know how people and communities are affected by decisions made by others, and whether the outcomes of those decisions are optimal and equitable.
I also lead grant applications, infrastructure financial risk management, business case analyses, and urban/regional economic impact assessments and economic forecasts for a variety of clients. In addition to all of that, I mentor other economists and planners by leading professional development work and volunteering with industry organizations.
Developing Tools that Prioritize Investments
Right now, the biggest challenge for many clients is funding and equitable allocative efficiency. We help them prioritize their investments by developing tools that account for societal benefits and disbenefits, as well as how specific populations may be disproportionally impacted by decisions that are made.
Relying on data alone doesn’t lead to equitable solutions, however, so we also partner with subject matter experts and community groups in our outreach. This ensures that our insights and recommendations reflect the needs of the communities as well as the decision-makers.
For example, we are currently collaborating with a port in the Pacific Northwest region to develop a framework that would extract the equity component of an economic impact analysis for freight projects. We are proposing to use commodity data and then map out county employment data tied to those commodities using the Census Transportation Planning Package.
By tracing back to whether residents and workers of specific counties benefit from certain commodities being handled at the port, we can articulate which specific communities can benefit from port investment, in addition to why others may not. The framework has been presented at the 2023 Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) national meeting.
Advisory Work
Additional projects I’ve been involved with include:
- The Superconducting Maglev: As economic lead on this project in the U.S. northeast corridor, our team supported our client with assessments of economic benefits and related impacts of significance. The project uses technology developed and owned in Japan, which is interesting because of the challenges involved in project development and implementation.
- Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: I have led the team helping position WMATA for federal grant funding. We have secured a three-year engagement with the agency to develop and execute a multi-year grant funding strategy, with the goal of addressing key regional transit needs.
In our advisory work, we are mindful about our own due diligence with the analysis we are conducting, so that we don’t overestimate impacts or recommend actions that negatively impact certain communities. At the same time, we need to be extremely careful how we develop our analysis framework so that it does not alienate our clients or stakeholders.
While there are times when we must tell our clients something they may not want to hear in terms of benefits and costs, it’s crucial to articulate those consequences. What makes our work innovative is that we are progressive with our analysis framework to ensure that we answer the tough questions — even if it’s in a politically-charged environment.
The WSP Difference
What excites and motivates me about my role at WSP are the people, and the exciting collaborations we have together. I love it here because of the passion that each of us brings to our work every day.
My colleagues inspire me, both locally and internationally, because they really do walk the talk when it comes to building stronger, healthier, more diverse, inclusive and equitable communities. They also take pride and ownership to ensure that our own footprint, as well as that of our clients, contributes to a better built environment for future generations.
Our work has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars being awarded to fund our client projects. Additionally, many of our projects are being delivered ahead of schedule and under budget, and for me, that’s extremely rewarding.
Based in WSP’s Washington, D.C. office, Ko is a member of the Transportation Research Board, where she serves on the Revenue and Finance Committee. She is also a board member of COMTO D.C. She is a graduate of California State University with a bachelor’s degree in economics, applied mathematics, and a master’s degree in applied mathematics; and the University of Minnesota with a master’s degree in economics and a PhD in applied economics.
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