Bloustein School urban planning master’s candidate candidate Abigail Alvarez has been selected for the Port Authority Leadership Fellow Program. Abigail is the third Bloustein School planning student selected this year for the fellowship. Over 200 master’s candidates apply to the program each year, with only a few selected as finalists for the prestigious program.
The Leadership Fellow Program is a two-year rotational program for leadership and public service in the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan region. It offers on-the-job experience in business functions, including planning, finance, security, facility operations, human resources, and other areas. Leadership Fellows are involved in four rotational assignments designed to develop a strong foundation in business acumen, adaptability, and knowledge of Port Authority operations, to build future leaders within the organization. Upon completion, Leadership Fellows are often considered for key positions in the agency.
Abigail, an MCRP candidate, is a passionate advocate for sustainable and equitable urban development. She is a New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) research fellow at the New York City Department of Transportation on the Public Realm team. Her fellowship examines how plaza, open streets, and public realm programming partners define, implement, and evaluate inclusivity in one of the most diverse cities in the country.
She hopes to use this experience as a way to explore the intersections of transportation planning and build upon the knowledge of each rotation. “I am dedicated to learning from these synergies and developing a more nuanced approach to problem-solving in the field,” she said. “I want to bring an inclusive lens to transportation planning and create systems that are accessible, sustainable, and vibrant and be a strong advocate for prioritizing public transit and motivate more people to connect with their communities.”
In the spring of 2024 Abigail worked for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy on their global sustainable transport initiatives, learning about their Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Standard and the Cycling Cities Campaign. She was also selected as a 2024 Rutgers Scarlet Service summer intern, working as a Policy Analyst for the U.S. DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Washington, DC. where she worked on a series of projects, ranging from facilitating key grant evaluation consensus meetings to researching the intersection of behavioral economics and transportation.
Last fall, she worked as a grant outreach intern for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection in the Uniting Financial Resources Department, where she worked on the Grant Standard Language Guide. She also created a Justice40 Grant Tracking tool designed to help grant managers monitor progress on grants for underserved communities across the state. Following her graduation from the Bloustein School’s Planning and Public Policy major in May 2025, she was a transportation planning intern at New Jersey Transit. Abigail was also the recipient of the Robin and Robert J. Nardi Endowed Scholarship and was awarded the undergraduate program’s Governor James J. Florio Undergraduate Public Service Award at graduation, presented to a student who has demonstrated dedication to their studies while maintaining a high level of commitment to public service values and ethics.