Maria Catalina Ochoa is an associate at the World Resources Institute. Maria Catalina works with EMBARQ, the WRI Center for Transport and the Environment in their Latin America program, where she conducts research on urban transport and supports the management of various initiatives in the region.

Prior to working at WRI, she completed a double master in Civil Engineering and in City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley with emphasis in Transportation Planning and International Comparative Planning. She has worked in the transportation sector both as a consultant in Colombia and the United States, and as a researcher at the University of California Transportation Center.

Maria Catalina is interested in public transportation planning and policy in developing countries, sustainability, non-motorized modes, advanced bus transit systems, urban passenger travel behavior and travel demand, poverty reduction and urban development. She considers herself an advocate of high quality planning and sustainable solutions for today’s transportation problems in the developing world. Particularly she is interested in the Latin America and Asia regions, not only because she has experience working there in the past, but because she truly believes these regions have the greater needs and the highest potential.