Bio

Sarah Smith is a research scientist II at Georgia Tech’s CQGRD. She received dual Master's degrees in city and regional planning and architecture from Georgia Tech and was the recipient of the Charles R. Brown Urban Design Fellowship Award in 2008. She has over nine years of professional experience which includes work in both the public and private sectors. Her prior project experience includes assisting with the Comprehensive Plans for the Cities of Roswell, Milton, Canton, and Dacula, Georgia. She has also conducted land use policy and zoning research to develop recommendations to best integrate land use choices with transportation policy for a Comprehensive Transportation Plan. Ms. Smith’s background also includes a variety of environmental planning projects at multiple scales. Her project work has included developing an inventory of opportunities and threats to assess the health of a watershed as well as managing the permitting process for individual water treatment facilities.  Ms. Smith has experience in facilitating public involvement in support of these projects including coordinating citizens’ advisory committees, facilitating public meetings and organizing and facilitating a three day design charrette.  

In her role at CQGRD, Ms. Smith has served as a principal investigator or co-investigator on projects across a number of topic areas. Her work on transportation related research projects has included: review of megaregions and freight movement; contributing the development of a SPLOST database and clearinghouse for transportation finance; and co-leading a project for the Georgia Department of Transportation to develop context sensitive project design strategies and policies. Ms. Smith’s on-going research at CQGRD also includes examining the relationship between the built environment and public health.  Ms. Smith has conducted or assisted with several Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) in the state of Georgia and has co-taught HIA trainings sponsored by the Georgia Department of Public Health. She has also conducted a pre-impact assessment of the BeltLine Eastside Trail to be used to measure changes in population behavior related to physical activity in response to this urban intervention.

Selected Publications

• Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. 2013. The Architecture of the Megaregion: Implications of a Megaregions Approach. Prepared for the USDOT, Federal Highway Administration.
• Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. 2013. Health Impact Assessment Training & Technical Assistance and Albany and Macon, Georgia - Health Process and Impact Evaluation Report. Prepared for the Georgia Department of Public Health.   
• Ross, Catherine L.; Smith, Sarah; West, Harry; Rao, Arthi. 2013. “Health Impact Assessment (HIA): An Innovative Tool for Transportation Planning - Case Study: Health Impact Assessment of the Atlanta Regional PLAN 2040,” 2013 Ahead of the Curve, State of Transportation Planning, 2013 American Planning Association, p. 42-44.
• Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. 2012. Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail: Population Comparison Measuring Changes in Behavior Related to Health. Prepared for Kaiser Permanente
• Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. 2012. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of Atlanta Regional Plan 2040. Prepared for The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
• Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. 2012. Choice Neighborhood Initiative, Albany, Georgia – Rapid to Intermediate Health Impact Assessment (HIA). Prepared for the Georgia Department of Public Health.

• Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. 2012. Second Street Redevelopment, Macon, Georgia – Rapid to Intermediate Health Impact Assessment (HIA). Prepared for the Georgia Department of Public Health.

• Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. 2012. Health Benefits of the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail: A Pre-Impact Assessment. Prepared for the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership Georgia.

• Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. 2011. Estimating the Safety Benefits of Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS). Prepared for the Georgia Department of Transportation.

• Smith, Sarah. 2009. Thesis: The Inaccessibility of Elementary Schools in Fulton County, Georgia; Causes, Consequences, and Alternatives (2009). Thesis for Masters of City and Regional Planning and Architecture. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.

Education
City and Regional Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology, M.C.R.P., 2009
Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, M.Arch., 2009
Landscape Architecture, University of Georgia, B.L.A., 2000