This proposal seeks to support one female social-work doctoral student to work on the NITC research project titled, Evaluating Improved Transit Connections for Ladders of Opportunity, which is a collaboration between NITC partner institutions, The University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Arizona. The project aims to improve transit systems’ performance measures to better reflect the transportation needs and experiences of environmental justice populations, such as individuals living in lower-income communities, the homeless, and older, lower-income adults, particularly as they relate to the issue of first and last mile accessibility. The project is highly innovative in that it represents a unique collaboration between the disciplines of social work and civil engineering; the research team will employ elements of community-based participatory research methods including creation of a community advisory board (CAB) to help refine the research questions, recruit study participants, and interpret results. The social-work student will be assist in organizing and operating the CAB meetings, as well as conducting focus groups in the field, analyzing data, and preparing reports for community partners and academic audiences. She will acquire community organizing and engagement skills, as well as methodological skills around transit issues such as qualitative data collection, analysis, and professional and academic writing.