This Trail Led to Tech

student near Tech ski trails

Kristina Fields has certainly seen her share of trails. The civil engineering PhD student did her master's research on snowmobile trail design. This led to a job in (where else?) Phoenix, Arizona.

Since Phoenix lacks snowmobile trails, she turned her attention to pedestrian, bicycle and multi-use trails. As the City of Phoenix traffic engineer, she worked with engineers and developers, did traffic impact studies and developed on-street bike facilities.

"This experience opened up the opportunity for me to work with pedestrian, bicycle and multi-use trails," she said. "I realized this would be an excellent research area if I wanted to go back to school for my PhD."

Fields holds an Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship, funded by the National Highway Institute, to continue her studies.

"I am interested in the pedestrian, bicycle and multi-use trails research area because I love exercising and the outdoors. I wanted to find a way that I could apply my civil engineering degree to my interests."

Kristina is helping cities and municipalities create long-lasting resources that will change the quality of life for many, many people. Talk about creating the future!