Lora Byala, AICP founded Foursquare ITP in 2006 and has led the company’s growth from just herself, to a few employees in her living room, to more than 50 staff across several offices. As President & CEO, she is responsible for overseeing Foursquare ITP’s strategic direction, company culture, operations, staff development, and more. She is a collaborative leader, seeking input and thoughts from others and considering many aspects of every decision. Lora is also a recognized expert in transit planning and transportation strategic planning and has more than 25 years of experience in the transportation field, including as the regional planning manager for a large transit agency prior to starting Foursquare ITP.

She emphasizes the value of data, innovation, and meaningful input from a variety of stakeholders, working to develop inclusive and equitable transit plans through collaboration and a team-based approach. Lora has played a lead role on several of Foursquare ITP’s high visibility studies, including BaltimoreLink, a complete system redesign for Baltimore’s bus system; the Bus Transformation Project, a strategic vision for the future of bus in the Washington, D.C. region; and the Transit Transformation Project in the Hampton Roads, VA region. Lora has also led several transit research studies for the Transit Cooperative Research Program and is an active member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) committee on Bus Transit Systems.

Education

MST, Transportation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BSE, Systems Engineering (Transportation)
BA, Urban Studies
University of Pennsylvania