Idaho Native Finds Path to Transportation Planning

ATLANTA — Ali Nuckles (M.P.A. ’24) likes to be on the move. She also enjoys the combination of accessibility, energy and community she finds in walkable cities. It’s no surprise, then, that her career led her to pursue an advanced degree in transportation planning.

Like the many before her who’ve explored their way into a career, Nuckles took some twists and turns before becoming a project specialist for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Bridge Design and Maintenance Program at AECOM, a global infrastructure consulting firm. She joined the Georgia Commute Options program at AECOM in early 2021 as a commuter engagement specialist and shortly after was promoted to communications specialist. She then transitioned to the GDOT program.

“When I worked with Georgia Commute Options, I realized transportation planning was the space I wanted to go to, and what I wanted to do,” she said.

Nuckles grew up in Post Falls, Idaho, and attended the University of Idaho where she majored in business and international relations. While there, she participated in the university’s Alternative Service Breaks (ASB) program which, every semester, sends students on community-driven service trips designed to strengthen their empathy and purpose, and inspire them to be ethical and responsible global citizens. Her senior year, Nuckles took an ASB to Atlanta and visited the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. Upon graduation, she returned to intern at the Carter Center.

Zoo Atlanta was her next stop, but not for long. Within the year, Nuckles was on her way to Senegal, Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer, where her work focused on community economic development.

“I worked a lot with women and youth, specifically on how to start a business and make it more profitable,” she said. “We held an intensive eight-day business camp for young entrepreneurs, teaching them all the basics, like how to put together a business plan, profit and loss statements, and marketing. It was my biggest project.”

She returned to Idaho with the desire to work in economic development but wasn’t sure “how to jump into this space,” she said. She moved back to Atlanta and got a job at Zoo Atlanta, where she worked in the membership and sales departments for another three-and-a-half years.

Nuckles had many friends in the Peace Corps who went back to college through the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows program as soon as they returned to the states. She wasn’t sure what she would study. So, she waited. And then she, too, received a Coverdell fellowship.

While at Georgia Commute Options, Nuckles began to research her M.P.A. options.

“We worked with city officials at all levels of local government,” she said. “I met people in government and at Georgia Commute Options, the Atlanta Regional Commission and through the returned Peace Corps network who’d attended the Andrew Young School for their M.P.A. The program is highly ranked. I knew Georgia State was the place I wanted to be.”

Once in class, she quickly learned about the added experience Georgia State’s downtown Atlanta location offers its M.P.A. candidates.

“In many of my classes, we’d talk about something and then see the real-world experience play out,” she said. “Atlanta is unique. It’s growing, which offers a lot of opportunity for local governments to put in long-term plans and policies that will make their cities more successful and sustainable. At the Andrew Young School, you’re getting this experience while you’re learning.”

Nuckles feels it is important to remind others how important universities are in providing experiences and educational opportunities that will propel them forward.

“While an undergrad, I took a study abroad to Togo, West Africa, that sparked the trajectory of my career,” she said. “In graduate school, it was as simple as realizing ‘I can do this’ after taking a statistics class for two semesters. Professors care and share their knowledge. They encourage you to excel.”