‘Transportation nerd’ Veronica O. Davis
Veronica O. Davis is a self-proclaimed transportation nerd.
“If you ask any of my family and friends what is the one topic that will send me into a verbose vortex of conversation, they’ll tell you TRANSPORTATION. I love transportation. I love learning about different types of transportation and understanding the operations. I love using all forms of transportation. Transportation has the ability to connect communities to each other, jobs, education, and opportunities. It is an important aspect of our everyday lives that we rarely notice (well other than me, of course).”
In 2009, Veronica’s transportation nerdery spurred the creation of an award-winning, certified minority and women-owned business. At Nspiregreen, Veronica, her business partner Chanceé Lundry, and their team specialize in creating technical and community-driven solutions for businesses, governmental organizations, and non-profits to implement and achieve their sustainability goals.
Veronica will be the featured lunch speaker at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s 2019 Vision Zero Conference on March 16, 2019 at Temple University. In preparation for that event, we have been speaking to Veronica, and all of our upcoming speakers about what makes them passionate about transportation and safety.
For sliding-scale tickets to the conference, click here.
Veronica and Chanceé started Nspiregreen after meeting at the National Leadership Conference of the National Society of Black Engineers in 2002, when Chanceé was working on ensuring marginalized communities were not adversely affected during brownfield redevelopment, and Veronica was working on her graduate thesis about environmental inequity in DC. In their ten years of business partnership since, they have worked on multifaceted projects like DC’s Vision Zero Action Plan and MoveDC, DDOT’s initiative to develop a coordinated, multimodal long range transportation plan that includes all modes of transportation in the District.
More about Veronica
I became a planner/engineer because… I was influenced by my dad. He was a civil engineer and urban planner. Going to work with him meant sitting in the window watching the shipping operations at the Port Elizabeth in New Jersey or attending civil engineering conferences. Instead of dolls, my dad gave me a Lionel train set, Legos, and Tonka trucks. As much as I tried to believe I was going to Julliard to study dance, my life trajectory kept moving towards engineering and urban planning.
What would be your dream project? My dream project would be designing an urban area around prioritizing pedestrians. This would be everything from signal timing, width of the sidewalks, and width of the streets.
If I weren’t a planner/engineer.. I would own a coffee shop on a beach in country that has amazing sunsets because those are my favorite things to experience.
Claim to fame (one of many)… In July 2012, Veronica was recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House for her professional accomplishments and community advocacy, which includes co-founding Black Women Bike.