Civic Synergy, LLC is a small, woman-owned urban planning consulting firm based in the Washington DC area specializing in economic development and transportation planning.
Shana Johnson
Shana Johnson is the Principal and founder of Civic Synergy, LLC, an urban planning consulting firm specializing in economic development and transportation planning. She is passionate about creating economically sustainable communities supported by integrated, intermodal transportation systems.
Mrs. Johnson has been active in the planning profession for six years and has worked with every level of government, federal, state and local. Her transportation experience extends across all modes of transportation. As a transportation planner she has worked on transit, transportation demand management and the transportation-land use coordination plans. In her transportation research work Mrs. Johnson focuses on freight issues. In 2009 she analyzed key quantitative indicators of U.S. freight traffic for three federal publications, America's Freight Transportation Gateways, America's Container Ports, and Freight Transportation: Global Highlights 2010.
Mrs. Johnson's diverse economic development experience includes a detailed assessment of best practices in state technology-based economic development programs, an evaluation of green economic development opportunities in Arlington, VA, an analysis on the effective distribution of Federal facilities and employment in the Washington, DC area, and performance of general advisory services on local science and technology industry development in Arlington, VA. She currently serves as a volunteer consultant to the Ohio Green Prison Project, an innovative workforce development initiative to provide green jobs training to inmates in Ohio's prisons.
Prior to becoming a consultant, Mrs. Johnson worked as an on-site contractor at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Research and Innovative Transportation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. She is an active member of several professional associations, including the American Planning Association, International Economic Development Council, Women's Transportation Seminar, and Young Professionals in Transportation.
Mrs. Johnson holds a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Polytechnic and State University. As a graduate student she served as a graduate research assistant to Dr. Heike Mayer. Her work in this capacity included the development of an economic growth model of the technology industry in "second-tier" regions. Mrs. Johnson also provided the industry analysis component for the award-winning Farmshoring in Virginia studio, a project that explored domestic outsourcing opportunities for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. In recognition of her work as a graduate student she was given the American Planning Association Virginia Chapter's Outstanding Graduate Student Award and the Virginia Tech C. David Loeks Award for Outstanding Second Year Graduate Student. Mrs. Johnson received a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude with High Honors, in Geography from Clark University in 2004.