Dr. Sam Bowden Akbari joined RPA as our Director of Communications in 2024. In this role, Sam executes RPA’s planning vision, strategic messaging, and key research publications. Sam brings considerable experience working both in the public’s trust across the federal government, non-profits, and higher education, as well as in the private sector via management consulting.
In Florida, she led two campaigns for transit investment, both regional HSR and a county transit-funding tax referendum. Sam was named a “Top 30 under 30 Rising Stars of Florida Politics” before attending Rutgers for her Ph.D. in urban geography and planning. While completing her dissertation, she worked with Deloitte as a national consulting writer crafting RFX responses and orals pitches for high-value (>$20m) opportunities within the Pursuit Center of Excellence. As an urban and regional geographer, she has also published in prominent geography journals and most recently in the book Spatial Futures.
Like ‘JLo, you can find Sam “on the 6” train in East Harlem just praying the 2nd Ave subway is completed in her lifetime.