Jordan Howard

42, Associate and Northeast Region Roadway Group Leader, A. Morton Thomas and Associates

Jordan Howard has worked on everything from highways to busy intersections during her 18 years in transportation engineering, but pedestrian improvements like sidewalks and bicycle lanes speak to her the most.

Those projects allow Howard, an associate with AMT Engineering, to use her problem-solving skills to “fulfill community needs and bring communities together,” she said.

Howard is working on a study for Baltimore County’s first “complete streets” project, which aims to make the Old Court Road corridor safer for users of all transportation modes. She is also leading a pedestrian improvement project for South Marlyn Avenue as part of the county’s “Essex Reimagined” initiative.

The premise — filling gaps in an existing transportation network — is easier said than done.

“If it was easy, somebody would have already done it,” said Howard said.

Howard gets fulfillment from putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

Even more fulfilling — getting to see a project finished. That can take years, but even quick turnaround projects, like a roughly yearlong striping operation near the Vienna Metro station to install a bike facility, are “fun to see,” she said.

“I think that sometimes the projects that seem ‘small’ actually have the most impact on our local communities in terms of increasing connectivity and quality of life,” she said

— Dan Belson