The Eno Center for Transportation has selected Francesca Sallinger for the Eno Summer 2016 Thomas J. O’Bryant Transportation Policy and Finance Fellowship. This fellowship is designed to provide a professional development opportunity for aspiring transportation specialists.

Francesca is from Chicago, where her passion for transportation began. Access to public transit allowed her to gain independence and explore the city at an early age. She further developed this passion while working at the Center for Neighborhood Technology on transit-oriented development research and then at Alta Planning + Design, an active transportation planning consulting firm. She lived in Barcelona, Spain for six months last spring to study Spanish and travel around Europe.

Currently, Francesca is pursuing a Master’s in Urban Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her focus of studies is in transportation, land use planning, and community development. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Urban Planning and a Minor in Spanish from the University of Illinois.

Francesca will start with the Eno Center on June 6, 2016.

Who was Thomas J. O’Bryant?

Tom O’Bryant was a driving force behind Eno’s Future Leaders Development Conference. He genuinely cared about Eno’s future and he devoted a significant amount of his time to serving the organization’s transportation leadership and policy research efforts.  He was a member of Eno’s Board of Directors for 12 years, spending nine of those years as treasurer–also having served on the Eno Board of Advisors and Regents. The Thomas J. O’Bryant Fellowship was presented to Tom upon his retirement from the Eno Board of Directors. He passed away in 2012. The Eno Center is currently in the process of endowing this fellowship. If you’re interested in learning more or contributing, read on here.