Willy Simon

Profile

Hello, my name is Willy Simon. I am a lover of walkable cities, beautiful spaces, samosas, soccer, and skateboarding. I studied Geography at the University of British Columbia and completed a Masters of Science in Sustainable Development at Technical University Dublin (TUD). After graduating from TUD, I worked for a short time as a journalist at a local newspaper called the Dublin Inquirer. I returned to the United States in 2016 and got a job as a Transportation Planner in my hometown of Albuquerque. Mid-Region Council of Governments was my home for nearly 8 years, until I quit in 2024 to pursue new creative and professional opportunities.

Projects

While working at Mid-Region Council of Governments as a transportation planner, I served as the project lead on several important projects for our agency. I led our efforts to overhaul the Project Selection Process and build a new associated web portal. I led our efforts to analyze roadway safety along Lead and Coal Avenues and create a Road Safety Audit. While working at the Dublin Inquirer, a local newspaper in Dublin Ireland, I was responsible for writing many articles which will be linked to below.

Project Selection Process

While working at Mid-Region Council of Governments as a transportation planner, I served as the project lead on the Project Selection Process (PSP) update. The PSP portal enabled our agency to collect project information from member governments seeking federal funding for transportation projects. The portal update greatly simplified the process, and included a map portal where users could input the location of their transportation project.

Link

2015-2019 MRCOG Safety Report

I served as the project lead to create a Safety Report for the Albuquerque Region to be published only as an interactive online map.

The interactive map includes a tab for the Albuquerque Region's High Fatal and Injury Network. MRCOG was the first local agency in the region to display crashes in this way. The tool also allows users to filter crashes by severity and top contributing factor.

Link

Dublin Inquirer Articles

After graduating from Technical University of Dublin, I worked as a journalist at The Dublin Inquirer, covering urban planning and transportation issues in the city.

Link

Work Experience

I worked many jobs as a young person, starting as a dishwasher at Annapurna, an Ayurvedic restaurant in Albuquerque. I worked as a valet car parker during my summer breaks in college. During my masters, I interned with Dublin City Council's Transportation Department.

Advocacy is important to me as well. From 2016 to 2018, I served as the Vice President of the Silver Platinum Downtown Neighborhood Association. During this period, I successfully lobbied the Huning Castle Neighborhood Association to pedestrianize Park Avenue on Christmas Eve to enhance the magic of luminaria viewing on foot.

Education

Skills

• Python (Pandas, GeoPandas)
• QGIS & ArcGIS
• JavaScript (beginner), Leaflet.js
• Data visualization & writing for the web