Archives: People

Lura Johnson is an undergraduate lab technician in the Cold Climate Operations and Systems program. She is currently pursuing a B.S. in Environmental Engineering at Montana State University, and is also involved with the honors college. Lura is assisting with various road deicing tests and materials, including roadway friction evaluation and ice melting capacity testing.

Melissa Schaak serves as the Program Coordinator for the Montana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) . She manages the LTAP main office, provides training coordination for statewide workshops and meetings, provides program management in conference planning, and develops communications and outreach for Montana LTAP.

Melissa  graduated from Montana State University in 2007 with Bachelor of Science Degrees in Business Marketing and Agricultural Business. She has worked at MSU for almost 10 years, previously in the Counseling & Psychological Services Office as the Medical Records Administrator, in Professional Development and Training as the Training Program Manager, and most recently in the Office of the President and Office of Legal Counsel.

Andrea Hamre, PhD, is a Research Associate in the Mobility and Public Transportation Program with over a decade of experience in transportation research, scholarship, and professional service. Over the course of her career, she has published peer-reviewed research on transport justice, regional planning, multimodal travel, commuter benefits, and cycling. She leverages interdisciplinary training and broad methodological competencies, as well as subject matter expertise in sustainable transportation policy and planning and the analysis of household travel surveys. Her dissertation applied the theory of transport justice developed by Dr. Karel Martens to evaluate low-income access to employer-based transit benefits. Since 2020, she has worked as a Research Associate in the Mobility and Public Transportation Program at WTI. She has led and contributed to technical assistance and research projects related to a variety of transportation issues in rural and small urban communities. Much of her work has focused on the feasibility and improvement of rural transit service, and she has become a team resource for understanding developments in microtransit. She also regularly guest lectures on sustainable transportation, and taught two courses (a short lifelong learning course in 2021, and an intensive undergraduate winter term course in 2022). Dr. Hamre is professionally engaged as a Member of the TRB Standing Committee on Public Transportation Marketing and Fare Policy (AP030).

Dr. Hamre earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Middlebury College, as well as a M.S. in Applied Economics and Ph.D. in Planning from Virginia Tech.

 

 

Matt Madsen joined WTI in 2019 as a Technical Research Associate.  He joined the Mobility and Public Transportation program area and has taken on bike/pedestrian technical assistance as well as the pop-up neighborhood traffic calming program.

After receiving his undergraduate degree in social work at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and his masters from the Colorado School of Public Health, Matt managed a healthy families program in Colorado.  His community engagement activities ranged from adult and early childhood education to leadership programs. His active transportation experience includes implementation of Safe Routes to School and local Bike to Work programs, both of which will serve him well in his new role with WTI’s Mobility program.  In 2018, Matt moved to Montana and became Bozeman’s first affordable housing manager.  His job helped define what affordable housing means in this growing city and what role Bozeman officials should play in that.  In addition to his work at WTI, Matt serves as a consultant providing community health education and leadership trainings throughout the region.