Catherine Ross, a College of Design professor, has been chosen to join the transition team of the new Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms.

The mayor announced her team in early January. The 38-member team will be tasked with “providing advice and counsel to Mayor Bottoms as she recruits and appoints key positions within her Administration and formalizes her first term agenda,” according to a news release from her office.

Ross is the Harry West Professor in the School of City and Regional Planning and director of the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. On the team she joins a diverse group that ranges from CEOs of major Atlanta corporations and non-profits to members of the arts, education, legal, and business communities. She expects the term to be about 90 days.

The team met recently with Bottoms, and Ross said they are still working out details, but she expects committees will be formed to help the mayor determine needs and achieve her highest priorities.

Ross feels the new mayor brings a fresh perspective and is open to different opinions, ready to embrace all that Atlanta is and all that the region is. Home to more than 5 million people and more than 160,000 businesses, metro Atlanta is recognized as an international gateway and the economic engine of the southeast.

Ross said Bottoms is committed to transparency and a public/private way of doing things.

Ross described the makeup of Bottom’s team as “a good indication of the broad-based, inclusive, creative, and innovative approach to being mayor. This is what attracted me to want to be involved.”

Ross brings decades of experience in planning and transportation to the team. She said infrastructure is important to our city economy and continued growth and prosperity.

Ross is an internationally recognized expert on transportation systems planning, urban planning, and quality growth. She also currently is deputy director of the National Center for Transportation Systems Productivity and Management. She has extensive experience in both the public and private sector, and served as executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) from 1999 – 2003.

Ross called it a “privilege and honor to be asked to help. We all care about our city and want to make it better. When you are called to help it really is a chance to move Atlanta forward. That resonates with me. City planning is in my blood.”