Sam Bowden Akbari, Ph.D., joined RPA as our Director of Communications in 2024. In this role, Dr. Bowden Akbari guides and executes RPA’s strategic messaging, digital content creation, media relations, planning advocacy, and key research publications to educate the public and deliver enhanced policy solutions. She also hosts and co-produces RPA’s podcast, RPA Radio.

Dr. Bowden Akbari 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. An urban policy strategist and regional planning expert focused on infrastructure, governance, and the politics of metropolitan development, she specializes in translating complex planning and infrastructure issues into public-facing narratives and policy advocacy.

In Florida, Dr. Bowden Akbari helped lead two campaigns for transit investment, both regional high-speed rail and a county transit-funding tax referendum. She was named a ​“Top 30 under 30 Rising Stars of Florida Politics” before attending Rutgers University 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 and at the Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement overseeing MURP graduate students’ capstone studies. As an urban and regional geographer, Dr. Bowden Akbari has also published in prominent geography journals and most recently in the book Spatial Futures.

In addition to her Ph.D., Sam holds an M.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in both Geography and International Relations from the University of South Florida in Tampa where she’s from.

When she’s not advocating for smart planning solutions, Dr. Bowden Akbari and her wife, Dr. Maryam Akbari, can be found biking around Astoria with their young daughter.