Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission
Russell Singer is an experienced transit planner currently working at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission since November 2022 and serves as a PhD researcher at Carnegie Mellon University since August 2020. Previously, Russell held roles focused on transit-oriented communities planning at the Port Authority of Allegheny County, while also founding Singer Personal Audio from April 2019 to June 2022 and leading product design and development at MAKEiT Inc. from September 2013 to March 2019. Russell's experience includes research fellowship at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where involvement included the design of scientific data visualization applications, and notable contributions to design and strategy consultancy for Spectoccular Fund. Russell's educational background includes a Master of Science in Transportation Systems Design from ArtCenter College of Design and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design from Carnegie Mellon University.
Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) is the cooperative forum for regional collaboration, planning, and public decision-making. The Commission develops plans and programs for public investments; fulfills federal and state requirements for transportation, economic development, and local government assistance programs. As the Metropolitan Planning Organization for transportation planning, SPC works closely with its transportation planning partners and PennDOT to produce and implement the region's transportation vision, long range plan and ongoing transportation improvement programs. SPC is designated by Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) as the region's Local Development District and by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) as the region's Economic Development District. SPC also works with partner organizations throughout the counties of Southwestern Pennsylvania to deliver coordinated economic development services including loan programs, government procurement assistance and export assistance for companies looking to expand their business.