Dr. Victoria Perk was hired as a graduate research assistant in May 1993. Earning her Ph.D. in Economics, Dr. Perk focused on models to estimate property value changes around bus rapid transit (BRT) stations for her dissertation. She became a faculty member in 1994, and she has spent 27 years with the University of South Florida (USF).
In addition to her career at CUTR, Dr. Perk acts as an adjunct instructor for the USF Department of Economics and primarily teaches Principles of Microeconomics and Principles of Macroeconomics. However, over the past 20 years she has also taught Managerial Economics, Intermediate Macroeconomics, and Labor Economics.
“One of the things I love about teaching is that I can bring transportation examples into all of my classes. There is a strong connection between economics and transportation (moving people and goods),” said Dr. Perk.
Dr. Perk credits her interests in transportation to her time as a student assistant at CUTR. “To be honest, I only applied for a student position at CUTR because they were paying well (compared to my situation at the time) and I thought I could gain some experience. But once I became a “CUTRite” I learned to love transportation, and public transportation, in particular. I learned so much from a group of great colleagues and had the opportunity to contribute to a wide variety of projects including not only research, but also assisting transit agencies throughout Florida with their operations and service planning needs,” said Dr. Perk.
Dr. Perk was appointed the new program director for transit research at CUTR on June 1, 2020.
“Over the years I continue to learn and contribute to a wide variety of research and technical assistance projects on topics such as bus rapid transit, transit safety, performance evaluation, and transit automation. I am looking forward to working with my team on many new and exciting projects,” said Dr. Perk.
We are thrilled that she has accepted this position, and look forward to her program’s research initiatives in transit!
