Joanna is the Research Program Manager for the MIT Energy Initiative Mobility Systems Center and a researcher for the JTL: Urban Mobility Lab, where she leads a longitudinal panel study that explores short- and medium-term impacts of the novel coronavirus on individual travel behavior and attitudes in the U.S. and Singapore. More generally, her research uses econometrics and psychometrics, paired with structural equation modeling, to explore the interactions among policies, attitudes, and individual travel behavior. Joanna looks at how consumer decisions will shape the use of new transportation technologies and services that have the potential to challenge the existing paradigm of reliance on gasoline-powered, single-occupancy privately-owned vehicles, and how these impacts vary across international urban contexts. Her dissertation (completed in 2019) focused on how car pride -- the attribution of social status and personal image to owning and using a car -- impacts car consumption among individuals in U.S. cities and across countries around the world.

Joanna completed her Masters of Science in Transportation degree at MIT in 2016 as a member of the Regional Transportation and High Speed Rail Group. Her master’s thesis was awarded the Council for University Transportation Centers Charley V. Wootan Memorial Award for outstanding Master’s Thesis in Planning and Policy (2016). While at MIT, she has received a University Transportation Center Fellowship (2014) and Eisenhower Graduate Fellowships (2015, 2016) from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Joanna holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Physics, and Japanese from Bates College.

Research Projects: MIT Energy Initiative

Research Interests: Emotional Travel, Chinese Urbanization and Motorization, Transport Policy