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Vanderbilt to co-host webinar on race, class and the pedestrian safety crisis Oct. 20

Vanderbilt University will co-host the next webinar in Walk Bike Nashville’s Vision Zero Speaker Series at 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

The webinar will focus on pedestrian deaths: what causes them, why they are on the rise, and how they are impacted by systemic inequities in our cities.

Register for the webinar here. >>

Vanderbilt seniors Veer Shah and Kamala Mullur will serve as the event moderators.

Angie Schmitt, author of Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America, and Dr. Destiny Thomas, the founder and chief executive officer of Thrivance Group, will serve as guest speakers.

Schmitt is one of the country’s best-known writers and experts on the topic of sustainable transportation. She was the longtime national editor at Streetsblog, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Bicycling, GOOD and Landscape Architecture Magazine. In her new book, Right of Way, Schmitt debunks the notion that pedestrian fatalities are unavoidable and unpacks the trends in pedestrian safety that disproportionately impact people of color and people experiencing economic hardship.

Thomas is the founder and chief executive officer of Thrivance Group. An anthropologist planner from Oakland, California, Thomas has combined six years of experience working in a project manager capacity within government agencies. These roles include more than three years as a Caltrans environmental planner in Fresno, California, and more than two years as a transportation planner in Los Angeles. Thomas also has seven years of experience leading key advancements in racial equity initiatives across the state of California by way of community organizing, policy writing and nonprofit management in communities that have been most impacted by racial inequities.