Mission
AMPO’s Socioeconomic Forecasting Interest Group is a community of practice for staff engaged in demographic, economic, and land use forecasting at regional planning agencies. The group fosters collaboration﹘sharing knowledge, resources, and innovations in our work. We seek to enhance communication and foster peer exchanges through interest group events (webinars, coffee chats, and conferences) and online resources (web forum and contacts list). The interest group aims to move conversations and practices forward, aiding the analytical capabilities and policy recommendations of regional agencies.
Goals
- Provide a forum for MPO staff to share practices, information, and resources;
- Build MPO technical capacity through peer-to-peer sharing, documentation, and dissemination of innovative tools, data, and practices;
- Identify challenges and emerging issues in socioeconomic and land use forecasting;
- Seek opportunities for resource sharing toward common advancement in tools and practices; and
- Communicate and share best practices, guidance, resources, and activities with other AMPO committees and at AMPO events, as appropriate.
Socioeconomic Discussion Forum
Join the Socioeconomic Interest Group leadership team and its members on the My AMPO discussion forum. Click My AMPO on the top right side of this page and log in to join the discussion. If you have any questions, click the how-to instructions below.
Leadership Team
Andy Taylor
Denver Regional Council of Governments
Andy Taylor, AICP is the Manager of Regional Planning and Analytics at the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), where he provides leadership for the regional planning and implementation team, as well as the data science and analytics team – connecting local and regional decision-makers to the information and resources they need to make life better in the Denver region.
Todd Graham
Metropolitan Council
Todd Graham is a principal forecaster at Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities, where he provides project leadership in demography, development monitoring, land use analysis, and economic analysis. Graham and colleagues are currently implementing new techniques for the Council’s 2050 socioeconomic and land use forecasts. From 1997 to 2004, Graham was a regional analyst and regional analysis manager for Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Pramod Sambidi
Houston-Galveston Area Council
Pramod is the Assistant Director for Data Analytics and Research at H-GAC. In this capacity, Pramod leads a dedicated team responsible for the creation of robust data models and forecasts in various critical areas such as population growth, land use, transportation planning, air quality, water quality, economic development, and flood mitigation. Additionally, he leads H-GAC’s efforts in the development and design of interactive web-based mapping applications and tools, aimed at facilitating effective decision-making processes for local governments, planners, researchers, and businesses. With over 16 years of work experience, Pramod possesses a wealth of expertise in modeling, regional and urban economics, as well as data management. Pramod holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Louisiana State University.
Carlos Lopez
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
Carlos is the project manager of the local forecast at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). His focus is data engineering, model diagnostics, scenario planning, and results interpretation. Carlos holds Masters degrees at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in Urban Planning and Policy and Business Analytics. In the Business Analytics program, he created machine learning models for many uses from detecting disease to predicting student enrollment at UIC. Before CMAP Carlos worked both as a contract data analyst and Urban Studies undergraduate advisor at UIC for eight years. As a data analyst Carlos applied spatial statistics techniques for understanding need in early childhood education and demographic shifts throughout Illinois.
Committee Liaisons
Sulabh Aryal
Plan RVA
Technical Committee
Sulabh Aryal serves as the Transportation Planning Manager in PlanRVA, the regional planning agency and MPO for Richmond region in Virginia. He has over thirteen years of experience in transportation planning and serves as the team lead for the development of the Richmond region’s Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP). He is also responsible for the maintenance and enhancement of the Regional Travel Demand Model. His professional interests include development and use of innovative analytical tools for various planning application, like performance-based project prioritization, scenario planning and transportation economic impact analysis. Sulabh has master’s degrees in urban and regional planning and GIS from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
Paul Calvaresi
Broward MPO
Policy Committee
Paul Calvaresi is the Intergovernmental Manager at the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization. Mr. Calvaresi has over 15 years of experience in public service. He holds an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Florida and a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida Atlantic University. During his time at the Broward MPO, Paul has worked on a variety of projects ranging from financing, public engagement, local community transit, and rail.
FHWA Liaison
Sarah Sun
AMPO Contact
Ellen Zavisca: ezavisca@ampo.org
