Dr. Sam Bowden Akbari joined RPA as our Director of Communications in 2024. In this role, Sam helps executes RPA’s strategic messaging, media relations, planning advocacy, and key research publications. She 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, Sam led two campaigns for transit investment, both regional HSR and a county transit-funding tax referendum. She 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 and at the Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement overseeing MURP capstone studies. As an urban and regional geographer, she has also published in prominent geography journals and most recently in the book Spatial Futures.

In addition to her Ph.D., Sam holds a master’s degree in political science and a bachelor’s degree 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, Sam and her wife Maryam can be found playing with their young daughter in Astoria, Queens.