LTC Staff
Dr. Kimberly Collins
Executive Director of the Leonard Transportation Center, Professor of Public Administration, CSUSB
Kimberly Collins, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the William and Barbara Leonard Transportation Center (LTC) at California State University, San Bernardino. The LTC is a regional transportation center focused on improving innovation in transportation administration and policy through data driven decision making. In addition to her role at the LTC, Dr. Collins is a Professor of Public Administration at CSUSB. Kimberly's current research focuses on social equity, sustainability, networks, and democracy in communities, particularly borderlands. She was appointed to the Good Neighbor Environmental Board (a U.S. EPA Residential Advisory Commission) in 2018 and is the North American Regional Editor for the Journal of Borderlands Studies. From 1999 to 2009, Kimberly was the Founding Executive Director of the California Center for Border and Regional Economic Studies (CCBRES), located on the Imperial Valley Campus of San Diego State University. She also had an academic appointment from 2007 until 2009 at SDSU-Imperial Valley in the Public Administration Department.
Kimberly received her Ph.D. in 2006 from El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, Baja California. The title of her dissertation work (written in English and Spanish) was “Local Government Capacity and Quality of Life in the U.S.-Mexican Border: The Case of Calexico, California and Mexicali, Baja California / La capacidad del gobierno local y la calidad de vida en la frontera de los Estados Unidos y México: El caso de Calexico, California y Mexicali, Baja California”. She received her Masters of Arts in Political Science with a focus on International Relations from San Diego State University. Her Master’s thesis was titled “Direct Foreign Investment and Labor Conditions: Case Study of the Mexican Maquilas”. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in History from the University of California San Diego and a certificate in community economic development from Cornell University.
Dr. Yunfei Hou
Associate Director of the Leonard Transportation Center, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, CSUSB
Dr. Yunfei Hou received his Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo, SUNY in 2016. His current research interest include applications in transportation cyber-physical systems, and data and information analysis for transportation engineering. Recent projects span areas such as vehicular sensing in smart cities, traffic management with connected vehicle technologies, and transportation cybersecurity.
Dr. Yunfei Hou received his Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo, SUNY in 2016. His current research interest include applications in transportation cyber-physical systems, and data and information analysis for transportation engineering. Recent projects span areas such as vehicular sensing in smart cities, traffic management with connected vehicle technologies, and transportation cybersecurity.
Dr. Raffi Der Wartanian
Researcher, visiting faculty, Jack H. Brown College Department of Marketing, CSUSB
Dr. Raffi Der Wartanian is a postdoc. researcher at LTC. His current research interests include transportation planning, governance, equity, and sustainability. Recent projects were related to big data and transportation, measuring equity and sustainability using different data sets, transit equity, and sustainability in the IE region.
Estefania Esparza
Administrative Support Coordinator
Bachelors in Psychology with an emphasis on Cognitive Development, from California State University, San Bernardino. Estefania started working for the Leonard Transportation Center in 2021, and was recently hired on as the Administrative Support Coordinator. Her interest include social equality and charity work.
Cyrus Sepasi
Instructional Designer
Cyrus is currently enrolled in the Masters of Public Administration program and also has taken courses in the Instructional Technology department at CSUSB. He has a BA in Psychology from CSU Stanislaus. Cyrus has been working as an instructional designer for The Leonard Transportation Center since 2016. His interests include technology, travel, and fitness.